The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-07-04

What have they meant? They have
meant peace and union and vigour.
and the maturity and might of a great
nation. How wholesome and healing
the peace has beeni We have found one
another again as brothers and COM
rades in arms, enemies no longer, gen.
erous friends rather then arrayed
against one another, now grasping
hand and smiling into each other's
eyes. How complete the union has be-
come and how dear to all of US, how
unquestioned. how benign and majestic,
as state after state has been added to
this our great family of free men,
How handsome the vigour, the ma
turity, the might of the great nation
we love with undivided hearts; how full
of large and confident promise that
life will be wrought out that will crown
its strength with gracious justice and
with a happy welfare that will touch
all alike with deep contentment! We
are debtors to those 90 crowded years;
they have made us heirs to a mighty
heritage.
Their Task Is Done.
But do We deem the nation complete
and finished? These venerable men
crowding here to this famous field have
set us a great example of devotion and
utter sacrifice. They were willing to
die that the people might live. But
their task is done. Their day is turn
ed into evening They look to US to per-
feet what they have established. Their
work is handed on to US, to be done
in another way but not in another
spirit. Our day is not over; 1t is upon
us in full tide.
Have affairs paused? Does the ma
ton stand still? Is what the so years
have wrought since those days of battle
finished, rounded out, and completed
Here is a great people, great with eV-
cry force that has ever beaten in tine
Of nd x
There is no one within it's borders
there is no power among the nations
of the earth, to make it afraid But
has it yet squared itself with it's own
great standards set up at its birth,
when it made that first noble, naive
appeal to the moral judgment of man
kind to take notice that a government
had now at last been established which
was to serve men, not masters? 1t Is
secure in everything except the salts
faction that its life is right, adjusted
to the uttermost to the standards of
righteousness and humanity. The days
of sacrifice and cleansing are not closed.
We have harder things to do than were
done in the heroic days of war, be-
cause harder to see clearly, requiring
more vision, more calm balance OF
judgment, a more candid searching OF
the very springs of right.
Look around you upon the field OF
Gettysburg! Picture the array, the
IerC6 meats ana agony OF DdIIle, cOIuIllu
hurled against column battery below
ing to battery Valour? Yes! Greater
no man shall see in war; and self
sacrifice, and loss to the uttermost; the
high recklessness of exalted devotion
which does not count the cost. We ars
made by these tragic, epic things ID
know what it costs to make a nation
the blood and sacrifice of multitudes
of unknown men lifted to a great stat
ure in the view of all generations by
knowing no limit to their manly will
ingness to serve. In armies thus mar
shaled from the ranks of free men you
will see, as it were, a nation embattled,
the leaders and the led, and may know.
If you will, how little except in form
its action differs in days of peace from
its action in days of war.
Action Never Ceases.
May We break camp now and be at
ease? Are the forces that fight for the
nation dispersed, disbanded, gone to
their homes forgetful of the common
cause? Are OLE forces diSOrga niZed. |