The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1909-06-04


observed in Friday Harbor as usual.
under the auspices of Silas Casey
Post, q. A. r.. whose members. now
few in number and nearly all past
three score years and ten attended
both the morning and the afternoon
services in a body. marching as proud
~ behind "Old Glory" as thsy
marched nearly half a century ago
when they fought for freedom and ma
tional unity in the greatest war of
modern times.
At the Presbyterian church in the
morning an exceptionally able Mem
orial Day sermon was delivered by
Rev. W. J. Mitchell. whose striking
~ appropriate text was taken from the
second book of Daniel, 11th. chapter
and 9Th verse: "And the king of the
south shall be moved with choler and
shall come forth and fight with the
king of tbs north. So the king of
the north shall come and cast up a
mount and take the most fenced cit
les. and the arms of the south shall
not withstand
Mr.. Mitchell said in part:
'From to s A. NJ. Friday, April
12th., 1861 was a pivotal hour in the
history of onr country. For long
time previous to this dark and angry
clouds had been massing threatening
ly in the sky of the nations life. A
tempest was brewing, terrible IN it's
powers of destructiveness. And no
prophetic eye could discern the man.
moth proportions it was destined to
assume. On April 18th the storm
burst forth. The lightenings flashed
with lurid glare the thunders roll J.
ed with An ominous roar; night set
tied down; and for four long years
there was scene of desolation and
death presented which can never be
described.
''Who can paint the horrors of
those four years of internecine strife
Can any pen describe them? Can
any tongue express them? Can any
Imagination conceive of them? New
er. The soil of the South was made
rich with the blood of our noblest and
strongest sons; towns and cities were
reduced to ashes; villages we're blott-
al or OF fri Ho11
were converted into dreary wilderness
es homes were desolated !; law was ar
rested public morals we're corrupted ;
whole states we're devastated: the
wheels of commerce we're chained; in
dustry was paralyzed. and hundreds
of thousands fell on the battlefield to
rise no more until the last trump shall
sound Four years of darkness! Four
years of treason! Four years of DESC
lation, tears. blood and death! And
the world lifted up its hands in hor-
ror at the greatest. bloodiest, most
awful civil strife ever waged.
"The Civil war was one conflict in
a campaign of centuries. The battle
of Semlac had to be fought out in
1865 and won by the Normans; Mag
ma Charta. the great charter of Eng
lish liberty. had to be presented to
King John by the barons at Runny-
mede in 1915 and by that infamous
king signed /: Cromwell and his Iron
sides had to fight out their grim bat
ties at Marston Moor and Naseby the
Renaissance had to burst upon the
world in all it's beauty and power !;
King George III had TO acknowledge
the independence of the lands beyond
Atlantic's swelling seas before the
Civil war could be fought out and be-
come fact i'm history.
''And the originator and inspirer of
that campaign of centuries was the
Christ of Calvary for it was cam
paign of righteousness against iniqui-
ty. of law against lawlessness. of truth
against falseness of life, of liberty
against slavery. And if the Christ
of Nazareth had mt died upon the