Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1912-05-28

= ss@~zzM NJ the tragic tluln OF
N=s the epigram of
1.S4@ ~ General Tecumsen
S h er m that
'War is He'll"
This must not be accepted as mean
ing that war is always inspired by the
devil, though the wars of history,
most of them, have plailly had their
origin in impulses OF nate, rivalry, UNI
laudable ambition, lust for mere con
quest
The Civil war in which these veter-
ans fought, and in which hundreds of
thousands who are not living to march
and meet today played their part Of
sacrifice, must be said to have had
Divine inspiration if war ever had
such spiritual impulse.
Even to those VINO were mere chill
dren in those terrible years the spec
tacle of these griZzled ones marching
recalls the period of intense anti-slav-
cry agitation; sacrifice and bravery of
pioneers in that grand writing and ora
tory which even in the north LED to
mobbing of platform speakers, sack
ing OF newspaper Offices and assassina-
ton of editors, such as Elijah Love-
Joy, at Alton, ILL.,; the Fugitive Slave
Law and the infamous bred Scott de-
cision of the Supreme Court of the
United States, two justices dissenting,
which declared the negro, virtually, to
be an animal and that he had no rights
which a white man was bound to re-
spect; the Kansas-Missouri warfare;
the exploit of John Brown and his as
sociates at Harper's Ferry to arouse
the negroes to fight for their freedom,
and the hanging of Brown and others;
these incidents and affairs, and far
more, with the final election of Lin
coin to the presidency, are vividly re-
called by the presence of the veterans
Of the war, most of whom volunteered
IL answer to the first and second call
for volunteers when declaration OF
war followed the secession of one
southern state after another and when
the south began hostilities by the cap
ture of Fort Sumter.
Then came the terror of battle; the
alienation of victory and rout; the
dark days following Bull Run when
the capture of Washington by the
rebels was imminent; the horrible
slaughter of succeeding battles in the
region of Washington, in west and
southwest; the marine and semi-ma-
rine battles on the Mississippi, Gulf
and Atlantic coast; the succession of
commanding generals as one after an
other failed; the coming of Grant;
the great march of the troops of Sher-
man from the interior to the Atlantic;
at Savannah and Charleston; Weeks!
burg, Fort Donelson, New Orleans,
Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg
Winchester, Richmond, Appomattox
Grant, Sherman, Farragut, Mcclellan
Halleck, Hooker and the rest of them
the brave, grand body of lesser Off
GERS. privates, who did the actual fight
ing. hundreds of thousands of them
piled dead and wounded on hundreds
of battle fields; their deadly suffering
in mud and rain and snow; their hun
ger and thirst and fever; hospitals al
ways crowded; the agony of relatives
at home; last act of all, amid the &C
claim OF victory with the surrender OF
Lee. the assassination Of the captain
| of all the captains, Captain! my Cap
tain!" Great God! What a CHASTITY
and glorious succession of moving
| pictures passes before the eye with ev
cry football of the gray and wrinlIled
| ones who march through the streets.
1t has just been said by some one
| that with the passing of the remain
| ing comparatively small group of vet
Grams the grand army will become a
| ghostly memory. Not so. After the
| last man has been dead for an age
| and for ages, the army its privates
/ and it's captains; their forbears who
famed the embers of human freedom
| to a living flame; the dead OF
| the battle fields and the dead who
were fortunate enough to live for
| years after the last battle was won
| will remain, yes, remain forever, as
vividly in the memory Of fut \ : 90
| pies as though the patriotic Wor 1ot
freedom and unity were a thing @
| yesterday.
Compared to this Civil war the war
| of the Great Revolution was sordid,
for it had its inception in rebellion
against the payment of money trib-
| ute to a foreign potentate. This one
was for a grander purpose, the restor-
alton and pefpetuation of the govern
ment built upon the small foundation
resulting Immediately from the Revo-
| luton, and a declaration of independ-
ence for the individual, that hence
forth and forever no man, woman or
| child, no matter
| what the color of ~ =
| the skin, should be a6NSTzrzs{SS
held as property ,S$MMx,AWAgH
and sold from the IX MAE
auction block to be * NV GINal