The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-06-29
4 VISION OF WAR
BY Colonel Robert G.
IngersOll

L
delivered in indianapolis. September
20, 1876. by Colonel lngcrsoll in his
campaign for the election Of Hayes
over Tidcn for the presidency. In a
driving rain the agnostic and fiery Re
publican, after bitterly assailins tn,
Democratic party. culogizcd civil war
heroes and then switched into this
wonderful descriptions
| The vision" part of the Indianap-
oils speech was repeated II years later
in a Democratic speech in the Metro
politan opera house, New York. Most
| of it Is peculiarly applicable now.
| This is "A Vision Of War:
|
The past rises before me like u
Idrcan. Again we are in dhc great
struggle for national life. We hear the
sounds of prcparation-thc music of
hoistcrous drums, the silver voices or
heroic bugles, We Asec thousands of
| assemblagcs and hear the appeals of
orators. We see the pale cheens of
women. and the flushed faces Of mcn
and in these assemblages we see all
the dead whose dust We have covered
with flowers. We lose sight OF them
| no more. We are with them when they
enlist in the great army of freedom.
We see them part with those they love
! Some are walking for the last time in
| quiet. woody places, with the maidcns
they adore.
we hear the whisperinrs and the
sweet vows of eternal love as they
Lingering ely part forever Others are
bending over cradles, kissing babes
| that arc asleep. Some are receiving
the blessings Of old men, Some are
lparting with mothers who hold Their
land press them to their hearts again
and again and say nothing. Kisses and
tears, tears and kisses-divine minglinc
of agony and love.
And some are talking with wives,
and cndeavoring with brave words.
spoken in the old tones, to drive from
| their hearts the awful fear. We sec
them part. We see the wife, standing
in the door. with the babe in her arm
standing in the sunlight. sobbing. AT
the turn of the road Il hand waves .
she answers by holding high in her
loving arms the child He is gone.
and forever
we see them all as they march
proudly away under the Haunting
flags, keeping time to tho grand. viii,
music of war: marching down the
streets of great cities. through the
towns and across the prairies--down to
the fields of glory, to do and to die
for the eternal right
"Wc pp will, thpp, tDo aud all VA,
are by their sides on all the CORY
fields; in all the hospitals of pain; on
all the weary marches. We stand
guard with them in the wild storm and
under the quiet stars, We are with
them between contcnding hosts. UNI
liable to move, wild with thirst the lite
chbing slowly away among the with
cred leaves We see them pierced b>
balls and torn with shells, in the
trenches. by forts and in the whirl-
wind of the charge, where men become
iron, with nerves of steel
|
1--WE are with them in the prisons OF
hatred and famine; but human speech
can never tell what they endured.
I'VE are at home when the news
| comes that they are dead. We sec the
maiden in the shadow of her first sor-
row. We sec the silvcrcd head of the
old man, bowed with the last grief
| The past rises before us, and we
see four millions of human beings
governed by the lash we see thea
bound hand and foot: we hear the
! strokes of cruel whips. we see the
hounds tracking women through tan
sled swamps, We soc babes sold from
the breasts of mothers. Cruelty I'm =
spcakablc, Outrage infinite.
| -Four million bodies in chains: fo,,
million souls in letters. All the sacred
relations of wife, mother, father and
child tiampled beneath the brutal feet
OF might. And all this was done under
our own beautiful banner of the free.
| 'Fhe past rises before us. We hear
Tho roar aud shrek OF the bursting
shell. The broken letters fail. These
heroes died. We look. Instead Of
slaves we see men and women and
children. The wand of progress
| touches the auction block. the slave
pen, tho whipping post, and we see
homes and fircsides and schoolhouses
and books; and where all was want
and crime and cruelty and fear. we
SEQ the faces of the free
Those heroes arc dead. They died
Tor liberty; they died for MS. They are
at rest They sleep in the land thcy
made free. under the flag they rem
dcrcd stainless, under the solemn
pines, the sad hcmlocks. the fearful
willows and the embracing vines.
InPN Slprn hrnn1th tho h1 =
flowers, careless alike of sunshine or
of storm, each in the windowless Pal
ac" of Rest. Earth may run red with
other wars, they are at peace. In the
midst of battle. they found the serenity
OF DEATH
y have ono sentiment for soldiers
living and dead: Cheers for the living:
tears for the dead"
UTTERLY INNOCENT.