Putnam patriot., 1909-06-25

And then the Revolutionary war brought on another stage Of the battle. This was distinctiyely the contest for civil liberty. They were not deprived y England of personal liberty, nor vet of liberty of eSy1*~. :, .e, they '.' " ''" s2x V Wor 9ilip, anN' yet they = ire, nor could they h. whtIe the civil conceptions of { IIr tIfnes stood unehallenged. And When they attacked and overthfew those pernicious and menaeing theories of government, another and yet ampler stage was reached.
 But liberty was not yet satisfied, for liberty beholds injustice and sees viss sions where man could not. And when your time came and you boys felt the desire for great achievement swelling big within you, what message did she give you? What service in behalf of liberty was demanded Of you and the comrades who fellp
 You did not fight for personal iiber- ty; you did not fight for civil or reii- eious liberty, you did not light for your own liberties al all. You fought for the nSlggeriH Go around il If you can. 1 suspect some of you did try to go fighting. Many we know did, for 1t was sa black pin this country had to take for its sins, and many were the grimaces, both North and south. Poor old Abraham Lincoln tried to sugar eoatiit. He said .sit Is military neces- sity.n But God was marching on, and He said to lhis country: Take It, bit ter as IL Is, Take 1t, bitter like the cup which Jesus drank beneath the weep ing boughs of Gethsemane, for this Is your sacrifice for an enslaved race, even as that was His sacrifice for a world In bondaget'
 You talked of fighting for the Union, for liberty, for home. And all this was true in remote sease, but this nation no longer tries to disguise the fact that the American Civil War was fought, under God, for the extermination of slavery.
 And well II Is for ouf reputation that We do admit this conclusion, for such a war as that could never be justified on any other issue that has existed.
 The division of our territory under two distinct governments would, l os, iieNe, have been great mistake, just as sometimes think the present division into fifty parts is mistake. hut no aca- eemie question of policy, nor anything within the bounds oE probability would have been sufficient excuse for such pefVerslan ot the hemanities as re- qaired the motherhood of the most ad vaneed Christian civilization in the world to stand by and see the veins of iis offspring cut, and watch its blood pulse ont until it's face turned Ia ashes and the mothers heart went forever with Il into the sepnleher.
 What l claim today for the pattici- pants in tue civil war Is, that they fought on isher plane than their pre- ,ieeessors. Not that you were better or more heroic than your fathers in the Revolution, or their fathers in their efforts 10 free their bodies from serf- dom, bat that the particular phase of the great subject which claimed your allegiance demanded a form of sacri- ice lofticr than theirs. Some fought for their own bodies, some fought for self and home--which Is mans larger self 1; some fought for civil rights which meant for all a world oftranauil gtowth.--hat you fought fer people who were not your own, and whose strongest appeal 10 son WAS their pitt ful cry for justice. This certainly comes nearer the Christian standard.
 Ne freely admit that nos aH the men
 who supported she NoFtherneaass were moved thereto hy this higher seati- nent. Nor k il so la any grea. heneEl- eeas enterprise, however 6a1l-llke u
 may ne. You could aot knaw then lnsl N hat phase ol she sasaeet soa
 were eoa,snaiug fer, oE haw neatls son
 we're following the example e. | Divine tine. The masses did nei hear tiIs half
 N MhisfeteSs words as Abraham Lincoln
 when he said, h eahlnss meeting; Il have promised God thas l would free the slavessH but 'ssheFe k adlNini- Il that shapes oaF ends and seioiev ~ssh you. my RrossAEs, ths, yours ~as Inc ssae and yoafs shS geos. fortune te he in line with Gods Purposes snd to stand a~ Fepfesensati rs os ttse highest fsle that warfare hJ 2 reached in de-