Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1906-06-14

the lines because the war was of
| God"
Again at the close of the Is century,
in our nations seven years revolution
airy war when it struggled with the
mother country, at great odds: when
IL fought with the greatest nation on
land and sea, and yet succeeded, men
will again be obliged to read because
| the war was of God.
Again when our nation contended
with the same power in the first part
OF the 18th century, with the same
result victory by sea and by land for
our nation, the historian of ten cen
turtles will need to explain because
| the war was of God"
This is clearly true with reference
to the war that began the 18th of
April, 1861 and practically closed the
9th OF April 1865. But [ will return
to this later. Just now call to your
/ mind another illustration of our re-
markable success. You all remember
| during the close of the last century
that under the cruel heel of Spain,
poor Cuba suffered lntolerable evils.
| You will remember that the heart Of
our nation looked on with sympathy
for Cuba, and bore the sight of her
oppression as long as the sight could
be borne. You will remember that
we began to talk about requesting
Spain to take "hands off, and it was
then that the Maine was blown up.
| You Will remember that that was
tine last straw that broke the
camel'S back" and by authority, a
cablegram was delivered on the other
side of che globe to one called Admiral
Dewey. 1t said Find the Spanish
feet and destroy it," Dewey straight
way went looking for fleets. One
morning in May, bright and early, he
himself with a fleet of six vessels,
sailed into the harbor of Manila.
Now in the harDOr, in the whole
twenty miles of it's length, was
planted subterranean mines, and
almost entirely lined with shore
there, 1t consisted of thirteen men
Of-War; detachment of presumably
one of the strongest fleets atloat.
With his six vessels Dewey engaged
this fleet. For something like an
hour he blazed away with ferceSt
yigor, Then he Withdrew his fleet to
one side and took breakfast, right in
the same bay, in the presence of
what survived of the Spanish fleet; in
the presence OF the shore batteries
and SubterraIean mines, he break
tasted his fleet. Then like son of
Mars he returned to battle and by
half past seven O'Clock that same
morning he had burned, sunk or
captured every one of the enemies
thirteen vessels had captured or
killed one thousand men. He had
battered into silence every fort on the
shore line, and destroyed ten million
dollars worth of property, while not
une of his own ships had been
seriously damaged or one of his own
men seriously hurt. Dewey seemed
like some demigod that was born in
the mountains and had taken to the
sea for a playground. Ten centuries
from now this story will be hard to be
believed. Historians may say what
| yarnerS Americans were"
And then about the same time,
almost on the same page, they will
find an account of another story
monotOnouSly like the last one.
Another American fleet, thirteen
thousand miles from the place where
the last one performed its work,
beached and burned in few minutes
another Spanish fleet on the coast OF
Cuba, and here again the Americans
are said to have lost no vessels and
only one man was slain. This mans
head was blown away for some un-
known reason, unless it be that he
did not have on that enchanted
helmet that the American sailors
seem TO have worn. What is still
more, the account goes on to tell, that
a rich civilian who happened in the
Cuban waters with his pleasure yacht
at this time, took a hand in the fray.
His vessel was frail unarmOred and
almost unarmed bark, yet he dashed
around and flew about as an offended
hornet, and engaged TWO of the
Spanish men-of-War, followed up one
SO closely, and banged away so tiercely
that with its little guns. in few
minutes, it sent the man-of-War
gurgling to the bottom of the sea,
and the little yacht itself was not
even damaged. The teacher of ten
centuries hence will doubtless say to
his class, as seriously as he can,
There is doubtless some truth in this
fiction" And then when he turns
another page and reads in the same
connection how at Santiago force of
thirteen Thousand American recruits
advanced up hill against wire fences
and Qualifications and every hindrance
that modern ingenuity could arrange:
marched up the hill in the face OF
shot and shell and captured force of
twentySeven thousand Spanish re-
gulars, fortified in block houses and
strong forts. Such history sounds
more fictitious than fiction, more
romantic than romance. We know it
| To no nnlft TO IF n ictN m
centuries from now there will be no
explanation for it and no way of
believing it unless men read because
the war was of GOd.'
But to return to our civil fray, from
the time that Kissing bullet raised a
puff of dust on the side of Fort Sumter
the morning of the 18th of April 1861,
to the time that Lee surrendered the
9th of April, 1865, there was war in
this land. 1t was war not holiday
occasion, not past time, not a time
Of recreation. 1t was war. There
have been longer wars; wars in which
more lives were lost, but Tor inn
measurable severity during the time
in which it was waged, it SurpasSeS
every war in history. 1t cost $3.50,
10000 in money and the lives of a
million men, besides the unrecorded
anguish, tears, and inexpressible
sorrows. For eighty years our nation
had enjoyed signal success, Every
decade the enemies of our nation had
prophecied its failure, yet every de-
cade the figures showed how nightly
it grew in agriculture, mining, manu-
featuring, in the arts and the sciences.
The example of this republic was
shaking every hereditary throne of
Europe. People across the sea were
becoming dissatisfied with their forms
of government, but there came a time
of testing, time OF testing wheather
a republican government, could per-
petuate itself or not, and the ascend
ing sun of liberty was suddenly
darkened oy clouds of war. Strange
emotions swayed our people such as
they had never felt before, and men
knew not what to believe, nor what
to think. They left their shops, their
offices, their factories, their farms,
| their plllnjfC and with cod haart hnt