Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1910-06-10

Appoma attoX, came heartfelt response
from millions of Americans and a
thank God from soldiers and civilians
the country over. The terrible con-
test of four long years had brought
mourning into million homes and
as the white dove hovered DER the
blood stained armies on that Virginia
field, the immortal words Of Gen.
G Grant were hailed as message from
on high, coming out OF the war clouds
like Washington's message from
Yorktown.
AS we look back over the long years
to 1860, we can see the gathering
clouds that told of a conflict over
slavery and state rights, and with the
expectation that the abolition OF
slavery would follow the Inauguration
of President Lincoln tt e southern
states determined to maintain the
doctrine of state rights by a contest
at arms. The great mass of south
erners believed as firmly in the right
of a state to leave the union of states
as the people of the north believed in
the opposite doctrine of zone and
Inse separable.' Thousands in the north
believed in state rights and the issue
was clouded until the booming cannon
at Charleston decided the isSue-the
north against the south and the
border states divided.
We saw the heroes ofSumpter march
up Broadway in New York in April
1861, and we saw the legions Of Lee
melt away around Petersburg and
Law down their arms at Appomattox
in April 1865, then came that message
from the modest, heroic Grant-''Let
US have peace That message from
the great Commander Is still living
message from the dead Commander,
and has grown in strength and favor
until the blue and the gray met under
the old flag in Cuba to avenge the
Maine, soon to be raised from the
mud at Havana.
In a decoration day address at
Minneapolis last month the question
of blue and gray jubilee was very
favorably received by an immence
audience with thousands of veterans
present and we believe the time has
come for such demonstration while
thousands of the blue and the gray
would be able to participate and close
the last chapter In blaze OF Union
glory.
1t would be fitting tribute to the
memory of nearly million Americans
who perished, one in defense of the
Union the other in defense Of a false
doctrine tho firmly believed to be
right.
The brave men of the south Sacri-
ticed life as freely as the brave men
of the north in the sublime courage
of honest conviction, and tens of
thousands of men in the northern
armies would undou btedly have stood
for state rights had they been living
in the south when the echoes from
Sumpter came.
OF the four million men under arms
during that four years OF fierce
strife, there is perhaps a million or
more living today, but time is calling
the heroes home faster and faster and
soon the muster roll will be closed
forever
When war with Spain was upon US
the Northerner and the Southerner
rallied under the same old flag, and a
few noted southern civil war soldiers
became generals In the blue army,
and the first great union of the blue
and the gray took place under Presi-
dent Mckinley, when they marched
against the Spaniard at Ell Cano, and
that strife developed another great
American, man the world loves, a
man fit by nature to lead great
peace jubilee parade at Washington
In April 1911, and his name is Roose-
velt.
The heroes of the blue and the gray
fought side by side to avenge the
treachery of Spain, and they are to-
day ready to march shoulder to
shoulder in defense of the flag. Not
many are able, but the spirit is will
ing.
In the message Of the Lord through
his Angels to the Shepherds In Judea,
proclaiming GLORY to God in the
highest, and on earth peace, good will
towards men," do we find fitting in
spiration for a world peace and a
national jubilee. for the warriors of
the blue and the gray.
No living man is so we'll equipped
to lead in a world peace movement as
Theodore Roosevelt. 1t was through
his efforts that two million soldiers in
Manchuria ceased to butcher each
other for cause that could have
been settled without call to arms,
and the thousands who died died in
vain.
The inventions of man have already
made it possible to destroy great
fleets from the air and soon great
armies will be at the mercy of the
man thirds, and war will be useless
murder. Universal peace must take e
the place of war and disputes can be,
and sooner or later must be settled by