The Press., 1909-06-02

discover how great our need for it. The enemies of our country are just as real as any that ever threatened it., in some respects far more dangerous than foreign foes, for, coming from within. they find us less ready to recognize them. and less prepared to oppose.
 Is there one among us who does not know that every mean, low, dis honest motive and act is unamerican -not only unamerican but anti american? Gan one of us disobey the law; advance self at the expense of our fellow citizens; seek at the public cost gifts and favors which we do not deserve; become partners in greed and graft; conspire to defeat the ends of justice, or to ruin fellow man can one of us be guilty of any of these, or see others guilty, and not feel that we and they are not true sons of the men who laid down their lives for us
 Gan we look upon our recognize evils: intemperance and all the insti tntiOns that foster it. gambling and it's kindred evils; social impurity un- dermining the very corner stone of our nations life, the family, the home, ,-can we look upon these and feel that we are in any true sense worthy successors of the men who risked all so freely in a righteous cause?
 1 But even more dangerous, because still more insidious, than the positive evils of which we are guilty, is the lack of positive righteousness. A darker day never dawns for any country or any community than that in which its citizens, while keeping from evil deeds. dare not oppose evil openly, and dare not espouse the cause of righteousness; dare not venture the sacrifice that may be involved by taking an unmistakable stand for those principles upon which alone can a nation strong and great be builded.
 We have been wont to dwell so much, and so eloquently, upon the importance and the glory of dying for our country, that we have lost sight of the greater truth, the import ance and glory of living for our coun- try.
 What a nation we might be, what a power for human welfare, what an ancestry for future generations to profit by and to revere, were only our men of to-day as ready to face the responsibilities of life as were those of '61 to face the probability of death Were only the parents of this gener- ation giving their sons as unselfishly to the nations welfare, as the fathers and mothers gave theirs in '61, what could we not accomplish!
 Oh, brothers, for we all are broth- CTS to-day, you young men, you boys who hear these words, our country is not safe yet; slavery in some of its worst forms has not ceased. But if here, in the spirit of this hour, under the folds of our flag, you will dedicate your lives to the service of your fell low men, at whatever cost, our ooun- try will be saved, and you shall be its saviours.
 could not speak thus if believed the spirit of '61 dead or even dying. Thank God I know it is not. It is a living force, spirit that cannot die. It is one of the imperishable attributes of mankind. This know because all history, not merely Ameri- can history, but all, teaches us that patriotism, love of country, is as native to mankind as is the love of home and kindred; that it has called forth some of the greatest lives and noblest deaths that the world has known. And so, in this country of ours, where true patriotism has it's fairest fruits; in this country which has produced Patrick Henry, and Nathan Hale, and an Abraham Lincoln, unless a time has come upon us in which history is to be not re- peated but reversed, and one of the noblest sentiments in the human breast stamped out-unless such an age and such conditions are here (we know they are not), the spirit of '61, which, like all our higher qualities may sleep but never die, is still in our midst.
 Had we come here a few weeks ago we should have seen intsead of these luxuriant trees only dry and naked limbs, so unpromising of the life that is now in them and upon them, that it would have been impossible to con- vince a native of the tropics that they would ever bud and leaf and blossom. But we who have seen then year after year send forth their new, rich life in the spring, we who know that so to do is native to every tree, we should have known that, however little the outward signs might show it, there were within resident forces, awaiting only the mellowing of the soil and the call of the sun to spring forth into their present life and beauty. And know, and you know, that, slumbering though it may be in the breasts of our people, the spirit of '61 is there, awaiting only the call of duty and honor, awaiting only the summons of some modern Lincoln, a new Lberator, to bring it forth as a glorious and invincible power to save \ nc from 0rr auoxnfoa
 And know that the spirit of '61 is not dead because of the evidences in everyday life that 1t is still an Continued on page 2l
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