The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-05-31


Rev. Peter A. Simpkin,
freedom and progress on The American
continent might be realized
The widespread empire of happiness
and peace. the historic documents which
are the charters of our liberties, and the
splendid tomorrow Of world ministry are
the gifts Of the erandest army Of 9u
history-the Grand Army OF the Republic.
And so, revercntly. into this ceremony,
which is holy for what Il speaks, we come
10 thank Him beneath whose hand the
marvel Of our life has been fashioned.
10 remember anew the debt We owe, 10
you, and 10 call forth some OF the beau
tifuI things from the day yesterday that
is not dead and can never die whose
power has made the new America.
The events We remember, the achieve
ments we celebrate, can never become old
heart-love. as old as the race. is ever
new so the passionate devotion Of that
al the heart Of the Civil War, that Is so
eloquently spoken In It's sacrihctal SER
vice. must be ever new and wonderful
TO the patriot whose heart answers To
Civil War Is one of the mlestones on the
main highroad of human freedom. 1t
was an event monumental
Turn TO Conflict
And as we turn 10 those years of CON
1lct again. we may measure something OF
the beautiful and Inspiring sacrifice. 10
make the men who were central In the
struggles Of those years the center of
our Thought and love II is without
apology for the fact that IL is an old, old
story. but rather with the assertion that
II is vital with the life Of abiding youth,
an epic whose swinging measures shall
still echo in the hearts Of men. when
even the beautiful numbers of Homer
shall have died In the far fantness Of
remoter morrow. and all the heroism
OF mere ambition shall be outthrust hy
the memory Of that love service which Is
alone immortal.
The great heart OF Free Mason, keeps
memorial not 10 feed on the baleful. fire
OF wars terrible passions, or 10 glory
IN conquest. II beats tumultuousy be
cause Of the great fects that swept
through and were sealed In the Issues Of
For seven centuries from Runnymede
and its great charter, the main stem OF
human freedom had been developing in
Great Britain. Step by step through
bloody fields and fires and or suffering.
men had fought and walked TO ever
clearer conceptions OF human rights and
liberty, rill al last i'm the providence OF
God, the fathers planted in the declara-
tlon and the constitution with their guar
antees a white eXpanse Of liberty under
the folds or the stars and Stripes. The
inherent right OF the individual was no
more than his obligations to service. over
against Individual liberty there was The
federation of all for the one. The guar
antee of abidingness lay only in union.
When the Union was established thus IL
was the answer to the struggle and sac
ri6ce Of thousand years. The toilers
OF the earth whose brains and souls had
been touched BY the awakening of the
time, by the new spirit which changed
ony into a free republic, straiehtened
their shoulders and swept into the new
march OF hope, with a great gladness.
The planning of the union was a seeming
pledge OF full realization Of the dim
dreams of human brotherhood. VI was
the prophecy OF world wide freedom. The
pageantry Of aristocracy died in the
hour that the divine right OF the lowliest
man in the world was born. and the
march OF the humble began into the
have been simply a document OF wonder
ful dreams. apart from the articles OF
federation and the constitution, which
ordered life into united strength. AS all
were for one and one was for all there
was alone abiding guaranty OF liberty
for any,
The consciousness OF aIl that truth en-
bodied In the constitution grew for half
a century most wonderfully. But the In
consistency between the declarations OF
the fathers and the conditions OF liIes
the growing slavery of an oppressed race
on a soil dedicated TO freedom. the per-
sistence Of narrow views and antiquated
convictions as TO the sovereignty of the
State were all elements that gave birth
to growing discord Discussion in Con
gress and out OF II, earnest study of the
conditions of life. persistent efforts to
widen The slave belt and finally. the calm,
statesmanlike utterances of the Illinois
giant In his debates. with the brilliant
Douglass, and on the wider platform OF
a national appeal evidenced the strain of
irrepressible conflict. The great-souled
seer the sente-hearted saint, Abraham
the true and ideal American, who was
statesman savior and father. in ability.
genius and tenderness, spoke the heart OF
It. in the simple but immortal beauty
OF his Gettysburg address. Perhaps the
number was small of those who saw more
in the issue than this-the Union. the
where. and they were willing TO give the
! hearts hest In battle and wound and
death that the Union, one and lnsepara-
BILE, one indissoluble. might abide among
| the nations of the earth.
| Secession was the lips and in the
| brain Of half the South. The men who
were together under the stars and Bars
were as earnest In their devotion to their
! ideals. sincere in their conception OF
essential, things as the man OF the North.
! but they were mistaken.
AXman Of Sangamon.
| When the axman Of Sangamon went
! to the White House 70 he Gods master
| newer In those terrific years. with his
| clear-cut views OF all that the historic
documents implied and guaranteed, with
his unerrlng instinct OF the essential
necessities OF the situation, expressed
! in his great utterances Of tho preceding
! campaigns. the die was cast the spark
| was put to the train, the thunder of the
first mine at Sumpter roared out TO
| Of Americans
Dark was the sky The hopes OF a
thousand years grew dim. Was Gods
plan to fail? Were the Stars and Stripes
that had chanted so brave a song. on all
the winds Of heaven to be one with the
standanIds OF Yesterday only memory?
AS, the black storm broke God thun-
of sst that aes%s snd reyeang tsa Of nation defense
sweeps down on the North, and as the