Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-05-30
Memorial Day Significance
Is Increasing Each Year
FEW EVENTS OF SUCH TREMENDOUS MAGNITUDE AS
WAR OF REBELLION, HOLDS A. F. DAWSON.

stretch our imaginations in vain e
comprehend the awful magnitude OF
the battle of Gettysburg, with its loss
/ of $1,000 men, of the two weeks IL
the Wilderness, with its loss Of 10000,
of Chicakamauga with its loss of So,
! 900 men. or of Shiloh with total loss
of about $4,000 men. Surely these
mute and appalling figures must scar
! into our minds the fact that some
transcendant principle was at stake,
and cause us to ponder well the re
suits achieved at such a frightful cost
of human blood"
Mr. Dawson paid a high tribute to
the volunteer soldier and to the loyai
women of the civil war period, and
continued: What was the objeci
of it all? 1t was not because of any
hatred of the north against the
south. 1t was not to subjugate or OPP
press a great section of the nation. Ii
was not TO abolish human slavery, al
though slavery was abolished as a
part of the war. We can best read the
object of the war in the results which
followed. What were those results
While the greatest result was the pre-
servation of the union of states, that
war dealt a death blow to three pril-
ciples which were ssntagonistic TO a
free and enlightened republic AMI
were stumbling blocks in the path OF
our countrys development, progress.
and glory. That was put an eVerlast-
ing quietuS on those triple relics OF de-
struction; slavery. states rights and
GnnaCcinn ahnIitinn ut
made the fame of Lincoln secure So
long as time shall last, and the eman
cipation proclamation marks an epoch
in the progress of mankind. The dan
gerous dogma of states rights, which
set the authority of each individual
state as equal if not superior to the
authority OF the national government
was shot to death on a thousand
southern battlefelds.
But the right settlement OF the queS-
tons of slavery and states rights Wee
but incidents of the war. over and
above them, the real object of the war
and the supreme result of it was to
preserve the union of states. 10 make
the nation one and indivisible, now and
forever The serpent of secession was
crushed in the dust. never again to rear
its ugly head In letters OF blood the
union soldiers wrote upon the pages
of history that there should not be TWO
nations instead of one. living side by
side in continual strife, but that there
should be one flag, one government,
and a united nation for their children
and their Childrens children forever
This was the priceless result of that
awful conflict. This was the legacy
which the soldiers of the republic be
queath to us and to generations yet I'M
born"
Mr.. Dawson pointed out how the
questions arising from the war had
been met and solved and the nation car
ried forward to its present position.
He closed with the following words:
There is a lesson for the living in
this homage which is this day being
paid from one end of the country TO
the other. and even in the Philippines.
TO those who offered up their lives in
their country's defense. and this day is
spent in vain If we do not learn this
lesson anew and take il home with US
in our hearts. / speak now more par
ticularly TO the younger generation.