The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1910-08-31

address IN thls city today:
There have been two great crise.
in our country's history. first when
it was formed, and then again when
il was perpetuated The formative
period included not merely the Reyo-
lutionary war. but the creation and
adoption OF the constitution and the
first dozen years Of work under il
Then came sixty years during which
We spread across the continent-years
; OF vital growth, but Of growth with.
out rather than growth within. Then
came the time Of stress and strain
which eliminated in the Civil War,
the period OF terrible struggle upon
the issue Of which depended the justi-
iication of all that We had done earlier,
and which marked the second great
period of growth and development
within. The name of John Brown will
be forever associated with this second
/ period of the nations history; and
{
/ the first act of the second of our great
national life dramas was played. 1t
I was the result of the struggle in Kan
! sas which determined that our country
should be in deed as well as in name
/ devoted to both union and freedom.
{ that the great experiment of demo
cratic government on a national scale
should succeed and not fail. II was a
heroic struggle, and, as is inevitable
with all such struggles, it had also a
dark and terrible side. Very much
was done Of good. and much also of
evil; and, as was inevitable in such a
period of revolution, often the same
man did both good and evil For our
great good fortune as nation, we.
the people of the United States as a
/ whole can now afford to forget the
evil, or at least to remember il with.
out bitterness, and to fix our eyes
with pride on the good that was ac-
complished. Even in ordinary times
there are very few of us who do not
see the problems of life as through
/ a glass, darkly; and when the glass
is clouded by the murk of furious
popular passion the vision of the best
and the bravest is dimmed. Looking
/ back. We are all of us now able to do
| justice to the yalor and the disinter-
estedness and the love of the right, as
/ to each it was given to see the right.
shown both by the men OF the north
and the men of the south in that CON
/ test which was finally decided in con-
/ test by attitude of the west. We can
admire the heroic valor, the sincerity.
/ the self-deyotion shown alike by the
[ men who wore the blue and the men
who wore the gray; and our sadness
that such men should have had TO
fight one another is tempered by the
glad knowledge that ever hereafter
| their descendants shall be found fight
ing side by side. struggling in peace
as well as in war for the uplift of
their common country. all alike reso-
Lutte to raise to the highest pitch of
honor and usefulness the nation TO
which they all belong. As for the
veterans of the Grand Army of the
Republic, they deserve honor and rec.
ogntion such as is paid to no other
citizen Of the Republic for to them
the Republic owes its an, for to them !
II owes its very existence.
| do not speak of this struggle of !
the past merely from the historic /
standpoint Our interest is primarily |
in the application today of the les
sons taught by the contest of half a +
century ago. 1t is of little use for us /
to pay lip loyalty to the mighty men
of the past unless we sincerely en-
deavor to apply to the problems Of the
present precisely the qualities which
in other crises enabled the men Of
that day TO meet to those crises. Ii is
half melancholy and half amusing 10
see the way in which well-meaning
people gather TO do honor to the men
who, in company with John Brown.
and under the lead of Abraham Lin
,oln faced and solved the great prob
ems of the nineteenth century. while {
1t the same time these same good [
people nervouSly shrink from of fran. .
ically denounce those who are trying t
O meet the problems of the twentieth Z
century in the spirit which was ac- ]
for the successful solution a
f the problems of Lincolns time. Il
or that generation of men, to whom i
'e owe so much. the man to whom Il
'e owe the most is. of course. Lin
oln. Part of our debt TO him is be- c
ause he forecast our present struggle p
nd saw the way out He said:
Hold that while man exists it is
is duty to improve not only his own