Weekly Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1908-1909, 1908-11-27

necessarily modern art of handling masse
of modern cavalry so as TO give them nh,
fullest possible effect. not only in the ord;
nary operations of cavalry which DreCedt
and follow Il battle, but in the battle It
self. But in addition he showed in tn,
Civil war that he was Il firSt-clasS army
commander. both as Il subordinate of Gran
and when i'll independent command lit
record in the Valley campaign, and again
from Five Forks to AppomattON, is one dim
cult To parallel in military history. Afte
the close of the great war, in Il field wher,
there was Scant glory TO he won by TIL,
general in chief, he rendered signal serv
Ice which has gone almost unnoticed. 70
IN the tedious weary Indian wars on tn,
great plains IT was he who developed il
thorough going fashion the system of cam
palShlhS IN winter, which, ut the cost
bitter hardship and peril, finally brok
down the banded strength of those formtd
aole warriors, the horse Indians.
Was Typical American.
His career was typically American, 70
from plain beginnings he rose to the high
est military position in our land. We hon
or his memory itself; and moreover as il
the case OF the other great commanders o
ms DAY, MS career Symholi2es the career
OF all those men who in the years of tn
nations direst need Sprang to the front Z
risk everything, including life itself and &
spend the days of their Strouges. youni
manhood in ValorouS conflict for "A ideal
OFTEN we Americans are tainted with hav
of the taunt is sufficiently shown by th}
presence here today of you men of thI
Grand Army, you the comrades of the dead
general, the men who served with and uu
der him. In all history we have no create,
instance of subordination of self. of tn,
eXalting of n lofty ideal over merely ma
terial well-being among the people of
great nation, than was shown by our owt
people in the Civil war.
War Stands Alone
And you, the men who wore the blue
would be the first to say that this sam,
lofty indifference to the things of the body
when compared to the things of the soul
was shown by your brothers who wore th|
gray. Dreadful was the suffering dread
full the loss, of the Civil war Yet 1t stand,
alone among wars in this. that, now tha
the wounds are healed, the memory of thi
mighty deeds of valor performed on out
side no less than on the other has becomt
the common heritage of all our people il
every quarter of this country The com
pleteness with which this is true is show,
by what is occurring here today. We NEE
together to raise a monument to Il grea
Union general, in the presence of many OF
the survivors of the Union army; and the
secretary of war, the man at the head o.
the army, who, by virtue of his Office oC
cup1eS special relation to the celebration
IS himself a man who fought in the Con
federate service. Few indeed have beer
the countries where such n conjunction
would have been possible, and blessed in.
deed are we that in our own beloved lane
1t is not only possible, but seems so entire.
ly natural as to excite no comment what
ever.
Differs from Others.
There is another point in Gen. Sheridau.s
career which it is good for all of MS IN rc
member. Whereas Grant, Sherman. and
Thomas were of the old native American
stock, the parents of Sheridan, like the
parents of Farragut, were born on the 9th,
er side of the water Any one of the tve
was just as much Il type of the real Amer.
other four. We should keep steadily before
our minds the fact that Americanism Is
question OF principle, of purpose, of ideaL
ism, of character; that it is not a matter
OF birthplace or creed, or line of descent
Here In this country the representatives Of
many old.world races are being fused to,
gether into 1cw type, type the main
features of which are already determined
and were determined at the time Of the
Revolutionary war; for the crucibie in
which all the new types are melted intr
nationality was definitely fixed in ali its
essentials by the men of Washington's day
The strains Will not continue to exist sann
rately in this country as in the old world
They will be combined in one; and of This
new type those men will best repr,sent
what Is loftiest in the nations past what
Is finest in her hope for the future who
stand each solely on his worth ms
man; who ScOrn to do evil to others ana
who refuse to submit to wrongdoing them.
selves; who have in them no taint Of weak
ness; who never fear to fight when tiphtinp
Is demanded by a sound and high morality
but who hope by their lives to bring ever
nearer the day when justice and peacq
shall prevail within our own borders and
In our relations with all foreign powers
Usefulness of a Career.
Much of the usefulness of any career
must lie in the Impress that 1t makes upon
and the lessons that it teaches to, the gen
eratlons that come after. We of this gen
Grafton have our own problems to solve
and the condition Of our solving them is
that we shall all work together as AmcrI-
can citizens without regard to differences
OF section or creed or birthplace copying
not the divisions which so lamentabIy sun.
dered our fathers one from another. bur
the spirit Of burning devotion to duty
which drove them forward, each to do the
right as 1t was given him to see the right
In the great years when Grant, Farragut
sherman, Thomas, and Sheridan when / zee
and Jackson. and the JohnstonS, the val.
liant men of the north and the valiant men
OF the south, fought to Il finish the great
Civil war They did not themselves realize
in the bitterness of the struggle that the
blood and the grim suffering marked the
death thrOes of what was worn out ana
the birth pangs of Il new and more glOr-
tous national life Mighty is the heritage
which we have received from the men OF
the mighty days. We, in our turn. must
grid up our loins to meet the new issues
with the same stern courage and rcsolutp
adherence to an ideal, which marked our
fathers who belonged to the generation OF
the man in whose honor we commemorate