The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1906-05-31

were brought down by the
sheriff shortly after the affair,
and has been under a physician
care in Baudette since.
dead. >.....
In 1919 a small sailing vessel,
carrying a few colored men
landed on the Atlantic coast, sold
the negroes to the Virginian
planters, and American slavery
was born. That event, and the
events growing out of that, are
the reasons we are here today.
Those pages which. tell the
story of slavery in the United
States are the darkest pages in
our nations history. The laws
Eenacted for the protection of that
infamous institution are the
blacklist laws on our statute
books. Our great ship of state,
freighted with the hopes and
fortunes of the world, was al.
most wrecked in the awful storm
that ragged from 1861 to 1865.
When the friends of freedom
chose Lincoln, child Of poverty,
for the nations chief executive,
the friends of slavery realized
that the traffic in human flesh
must cease. The slave states,
accepting Lincoln's election as an
Indication that slavery would be
exterminated, decided to. sever
their relations with the federal
government. South Carolina,
followed by other interested
states, raised the standard oil
revolt, the Southern Confederacy
was organized, and the young
republic trembled on the brink
of dissolution. !.
Lincoln took his oath of Office
and the friends of the govern
ment waited breathlessly for him
to act. There were but two doors
out of the difficulty, one was
compromise, the other battle.
The arrogance Of the South
closed the first, the patriotism
of the North accepted the de.
cision and marshalled her hosts
for the coming conflict. -.
Lincoln shuddered at the
thought of civil war, file believed
in peace. He endeavored to
reconcile the beeligerant states.
He offered to meet the secession
lists in convention to see if a
compromise could not be effected.
His policy was to save the Union
at any cost. He offered to take
everything from Sumpter except
the flag. He hesitated so long
that even his friends accused him
of cowardice.
After the South had rejected
eYery..offer of compromise, after
the .'Queen of the West' had
been fired upon; after the Stars
and Strips had been lowered
from the staff at Sumpter,
Lincoln ceased to look toward the
South for peace, and turned his
kindly face toward the North and
West looking for men to defend
the nations capitol and save the
Union from destruction. The
banner of the stars and stripes,
ordained by Washington, and
patterned by the Continental
Congress, futtered in the breeze
asking to be carried to victory
again. The Southern Confeder-
acy organized armies and
directed their march toward the
banks of the Potomac. ''Wash.
ington became the Thermopola
of liberty and justice, and
thousands of Union volunteers
FASTENED to defend the threat
ened capitol. This young re-
pu bic of ours, heralded through
out the world as the land of
liberty, left the fOWer-streWn
paths Of peace to enter the bloody
fields Of war.
The questions of slavery and
the right of a state to sever at
will the bonds of federation had
been discussed from every plat
form, by every political speaker,
in every home and at every fire.
side for over fifty years. The
war, then, was not one of con-
quest, but one of opinions, and
every soldier, whether be wore
the blue or the gray, was fight
ng for what he thought was
right Under such conditions
the struggle was bound to be a
bloody one.
History fails to record a fercer
conflict than the War Of the Re-
bellion. From the opening of
hostilities until Grant and Lee
agreed on terms OF peace, the
southern states were mighty
slaughter pens, where Americans
performed acts of heroism that
surprised the world. The Grim
son stains on Lookout Mountain s
slopes, the ten thousand dis
e