Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-06-01

what words can adequately, ever
approximately depict those four years
Agony too keen for bodily sense to re.
port suffering that scared mems souls
Midst the awful din of battle mar
loses his identity and in the contag ior
of conflict rises to the heights of bray.
cry But think of the weary watches
preceding the battle. Think of the long
HOURS OF Waltlng-often underfed-
never over-clothed-wet and worn and
weary-the trenches for a couch-the
skies for a canopy-and say indeed
that God was sitting out the hearts
of men before his Judgment Seat" Ma
| matter now whether you were routed
at Bull Run or with the beseiCers at
Observation-Disclosures your share of
strife was on the Peninsula, with Nc
Clellan in the Shenandoah, with Sheri-
Dan or with Sherman from Atlantic to
sea, If YOU We're defeated at Chancel-
iorSVllle you were not Vanquishcd for
When the meteOric Lee broke for q sec
ond time into the North YOU OH Gene
terry Ridge faced him or Seminary
lildgc and the story of Gettysburg lives
forever Chickamauga today--but Look
out Mountain tomorrow
And that crucible in which the souls
of men were tried-that two-weeks
battle Of the Wilderness-culm tory
at the bloody angle of Spottsylvania
Court houSe-Showed the world what TO
expect when peace again should reign
When every man of the North and
every son of the South-when every
Republican and every Democrat should
be an American and every American a
patriot
Gettysburg today has that calm
winch belongs to peacc-its silence en-
phasized b. the notes of song birds.
but at sunset in the golden haze, how
readily fancy peoples that plain with
the contending hosts of 45 years ago
and what significance would July 4
now have for us, if a mighty hand had
not controlled events July 8, 1869. Vic
tor Hugo SAYS: Our joys are a shadow
and the supreme smile belongs to
God. Again speaking of Waterloo he
says: Was it possible for Napoleon
to win the battle? We answer in the
negative. Why? On account of Well
1ngton, on account of Butcher? No! On
account of God. BonaDartc, victor at
Waterloo did not harmonize with the
laws of the 10Th century" Was it pos
%ible for the South to prevail? We an
swer, no. Because of Sherman, Sheri-
dan or Grant? No. Because of God.
Slavery and Christianity did not. do
not. never will, harmorizo Slavery
had been denounced by the infinite-the
kcoelllon was not a war. 1t was
transformation OF man.
Every great struggle produces some
dominant figure, to history becoming
an index to the character of the move
ment. Hitherto it had invariably been
q goo of war-a Cyrus, Caesar Ma
polcon, Wellington or Washington. AZ
ter 80 years there stands forth one man
indisputably the dominant factor of his
tlinc-indisputably the direct agent of
fate--"nOt unlike the pyramids of
Cheops. which, whether you go up or
down the Nile, whether you penetrate
Its rich valley from the East over the
sand nils OF Arabia, or from the West
over the trackless desert of Sahara
from Whatever quarter of the horizon
you approach, is the first object to
strike, the last to fade from the vision"
So with hinl-Whether viewed from the
vantage point of the present, a half
century agone, or measured by the long
past which preceded him, the one per-
sonalty which thrills our every fibre,
the one man who typifies the best there
is in self-government, the one name
which instantly rises to every tongue.
is not that of a god of war, but an
apostle Of peace-that man of sorrows,
Abraham Lincoln.
T.,
these men? What in the life about us
can be benefited by the application of
this lesson? One is not pessimst be-
cause he looks at conditions as they
actually are. And I have vet to hear
it suggested that love of country pre-
cludes one from Indicating public
abuses where they exist or suggesting
for same if apparent.
That certain tendencies in our nation
al life give cause for grave concern
few will care to dispute.
That those tendencies if unchecked
may subvcrt our theory of govern
mcnt has been boldly asserted If
there be any, even the slightest, dan
every citizen calls for immediate per-
have been living in the greatest era of
and industrial expansion |
the world has known. The profits in
the form Of Notwithstanding from
this expansion have been fabulous
Far be it from me to dccry prosperity |
or even by inference to submit to |
those teachings which forbid success
as the equal of sin. But that we as |
a nation, with that same insistence, |
and determination ever dis |
played in war; in peace are subordinate |
ing all things to the acquisition of |
money is sclf-cvident truth. Sue
cess in any legitimate striving merits |
and receive appreciation. But as a |
people we are giving an entirely dis
value to the mere Incl |
dent Of commercial succcSS-wcalth. In |
the equation of life man is being bal |
anced by mere money No room to vavil |
about that statemcnt-you know that |
Every sphere of human activity-evcry |
walk of lifc-bears testimony that it |
is true! You see on evry hand evil |
lencc of vast Capitalization of wealth |
wealth being powcr-thc result is a
very few central the very many.
My Friends-'Ill faces the land to