Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1917-02-17
Of what is just aud right. y


Today our nation is again facing a
crisis. Our hearts have been shocked
by the wOrld-war, our sympathies have
been aroused for those who suffer. We
are preyed on by enemies of justice and
righ', who try to arouse passion and
the fires of hate. These we must guard
against and keep clear mind.
Yet we must sternly guard the
liberties which are ours; we must unal-
terably stand for the principles which
are the foundations of our national ex-
istenee, We have placed our trust in
our president, hoping that we may be
guided even as Lincoln was guided,
when in his first inaugural with the
clouds of war looming dark about him,
he said:
My countrymen, one and all, think
calmly aud well upon this whole subject.
Nothing valuable can be lost by taking
| time, If there be an object to hurry
any OF you in hot haste to take step
which you would never take deliberately
that object viii be frustrated by taking
time; but no good object can be frus-
trated by it.-Intelligence, patriotism,
Christianity, and q firm reliance on Him
who has never yet forsaken this favored
land are still competent to adjust in the
best way all our present difficulty"
We have need today in this broad land
ours clearer sense of brotherhood, a
keener sympathy with the weak; we
need TO realize that America is destined
to be the torch-bearcr for humanity for
many years to come, and that it is for
us to breathe in the spirit of Lincoln, to
steep his unalterable love for right and
truth, his courage to uphold liberty, in
to the marrow of our bones, or else we
shall not bear well our burden, do well
our duty as soldiers of America.
Was not Lincoln prophetic in the
closing words of his inaugural when he
said: "The mystic cords of memory,
stretching from every battlefield aud
patriot grave to every living heart aho
hearth.stone all over this broad land
will yet swell the chorus of the Union
when again touched as surely they will
be, by the better angels Of our nature'
Inscribed ON every American heart
should be the speech made at Gettys
| burgh at the dedication Of the cemetery
on November 10, 1863
" -Four score and seven years ago oul
Fathers brought forth upon this cvnts
nent new nation conceived in liberty
and dedicated to the proposition that
all men are created equal
"Now we are engaged in great ei
! vii war, testing whether that nation, OF
any nation SO conceived aud SO dedieat
ted, can long endure. We are met ON 1
great battlefield of that war We haV,
come to dedicate portion Of that fHl,
rs final resting place for those VIII,
here gave their lives that this nation
might live. 1t is altogether fitting an,
proper that we should do this.
! But in a larger sense, we eanno
dedieatc--we can not couseerate--we
can not hallow this ground The bray,
men living and dead who struggled her,
} have consecrated ii far above our poo
lpower to add or detract The worl,
will little note, nor long remember wha
we say here, but it can never forge
) what they did here. 1t is for us, tn
I living, rather 70 be dedicated here I
! the unfinished work which they VIII
, fought here thus far nohlv advanced
I 1t is rather for us to be here dedieate'