The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1908-11-25
STATUE Of GENERAL SHERIDAN UNVEILED
IN PRESENCE OF DISTINGUISHED THRONG

so as to give them the fullest possible
effect, not only in the ordinary opera
c,nns of cavalry which precede and
SOc: battle, but in the battle it.
etplt In addition he showed in
the war that he was first-class
army commander, both as subordin-
ate of Grant and when in independent
command. His record in the valley
campaign, and again from Five Forks
to Appomattox, is one difficult to par
allel In military history. After the
close Of the great war, in a field
where there was scant glory to be won
by the general in chief, he rendered
signal service which has gone al
most unnoticed; for in the tedious
weary Indian wars on the great plains
1t was he who developed In thorough
going fashion the system of campaign
ing in winter, which, at the cost of
bitter hardship and peril, finally broke
down the banded strength of those
formidable warriors, the horse Indi-
ans.
A Typical Career.
His career was typically American,
for from plain beginnings he rose to
the highest military position in our
land. We honor his memory itself;
and moreover, as in the case Of the
other great commanders of his day,
his career symbolizes the careers of
all those men who in the years of the
nations direst need sprane to the
front to risk everything, including
life itself, and to spend the days of
their strongest young mannood in val
nrous conflict for an ideal. Often we
Americans are taunted with having
cniy material ideal. The empty fol-
iy of the taunt is sufficiently shown
by the presence here today of you.
men of the Grand Army, you the COM
rades Of the dead general. the men
Who served with and under him. In
I'LL history we have no greater in
stance of subordination of self, of the
exalting of a lofty ideal over merely
material well-being among the peo-
pie of great nation, than was shown
by our people in the civil war.
And you, the men who wore the
blue, would be the first to say that
this same lofty indifference to the
things of the body, when compared
to the things Of the soul, was shown
by your brothers who wore the gray.
Dreadful was the suffering, dreadful
the loss, of the civil wal. Yet it
stands alone among wars in this, that,
now that the wounds are healed, the
memory of the, mighty deeds of valor
performed on one side no less than on
the other has become the common
heritage of all our people in every
quarter Of this country. The COM.
Eleteness with which this is true, is
shown by what is occurring here to-
day We meet together t., raise
monument to a great union general,
in the presence of many of the sur
vivcrs of the union army; and the
secretary Of war, the man at the head
CT the army, who, by virtue of his
Office, occupies special relation to
the celebration, is himself man who
fought in the confederate service.
Few indeed have been the countries
where such conjunction would have
Eeen possible, and blessed indeed are
We that in our own beloved land It Is
not only possible, but seems SO entire
~ natural as to excite no comment
whatever.
A Common People.
There is another point in General
Sheridan's career which it is good
for all of us to remember. Whereas
Grant, Sherman. and Thomas were
OF the old native American stock, the
parents of Sheridan, like the parents
ct Farragut, were born on the other
side Of the water. Any one Of the five
WIS just as much type of the real
American, of what Is best in America,
as the other four. We should keep
steadily before our minds the fact
that Americanism is question Of
principle, of purpose, cf idealism, of
character; that it is not matter of
birthplace, or creed, or line of descent.
Here in this country the representa-
tivcs Of many old-world races are be-
ing fused together into a new type,
a type the main features of which
are already determined, and were de-
te1mined at the time of TIE revolu-
tionary war; for the crucible in which
all the new types are melted into one
was shaped from 1776 to 17e9, and our
nationality was definitely fixed in all
its essentials by the men of Wash
ington's day. The strains will not con-
tinue to exist separately In this coun-
try as in the old world. They will
be combined in one; and Of this new
type those men will best represent
what is loftiest in the nations past,
what is finest In her hope for the fu-
ture, who stand each solely on his
worth as man; who scorn to do evil
to others, and who refuse to submit
to wrcngdoing themselves; who have
in ,hem no taint of weakness; who
never fear to fight when. fighting is /,
demanded by sound and high NOR
atty. but who hope by their lives
TO bring ever nearer the day when
Justice and peace shall prevail within
our own borders and In our relations
with all foreign powers.
Much of the usefulness Of any ca
reer must lie in the impress that it.
makes upon, and the lessons that 1t
teaches to, the generations that come
after. We of this generation have our
Il ~ A. - 80