The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1917-05-18
EARNEST PEA IS
MADE FOR SUPREME
DEVOTION TO NATION
ADDRESS OF J. |. FlNNEY ON OC.
CASiON OF RAISING OF
= FLAG.
SHOULD give ALL To COUNTRY
No Sacrifice Too Great, Even Life
Itself, If Necessary Should be vii.
linely offered in the Glorious Cause
Of Liberty.

At the flag raising exercises at the
Court House on Monday afternoon, J.
.Finney, editor of The Herald, deliv.
cred the following address:
My Fellow Citizens:
"That man is little to be envied
whose patriotism would not gain force
upon the plain of Marathon, or whose
piety would not grow warmer among
the ruins Of Iona"
The citizen of this enlightened ma,
ton, grateful for all Of its blessings
of liberty and of life who would not
feel a quickening of the pulse and an
exhilration of the spirit when he con-
templates the colors of our national
emblem surely has soul so dead as
to be beyond the hope of resurrection.
God pity the man who can, in this
solemn hour, gaze upon that starry
emblem of a nations faith and hope,
baptized as it has been with the blood
of countless patriots, made holy by
| the deathless valor and heroic sacri.
| fees of those who brought it into be-
| ing, with feeling other than that OF
| generation and of gratitude.
| This flag is the emblem of our
| faith, the token of our loyalty, the
outward evidence of our conservation
to the task that our nation has
set before US. May Almighty God
give US the strength and the grace
the fortitude and the devotion, thai
we may fail not in this hour to do al
hat is required of us. In the Ian
guage OF the great Webster on a sim
liar occasion, let this flag rise; let il
rise; let it rise till it meet the sun il
q mis- coming; let it rise till the earliest
light of the morning gid it and the
,arting day linger and play on its sum
, nit
: But in a higher sense these stars
and stripes that we unfurl today are
merely the outward evidence, the ma
I .erial token of our loyalty to country
md Of our devotion to those principles
which have been its pillow of cloud
oy day and it's pillow OF fire by night
n No words that | could speak today
l. would add luster to that flag, nor is
l. it within the power Of mortal man tC
l. detract from it's solemn glory. If we
L do not catch a deeper meaning from
$ this service, if we are not in truth
ready here and now to dedicate our
l. selves, our lives, our fortunes and oul
}, sacred honor to all for which this flag
5 stands, then how hollow and how emp
II ty will these exercises be. Unless We
x make this the occasion for dedica
l. ton of our very beings to the service
5 of that flag and the country of which
h it is the insignia, then indeed this oc
casion were little more than mock
s. cry
e In this solemn moment, in this time
II IF bitter travail, when the principle:
e hat gave this nation birth and happi
ness are challenged, when the graves
and most momentous national prob
lens that have ever confronted III
must be solved, let us take fresh cour
age, let us be baptised anew in thu
spirit of patriotism, and of love o
liberty, that spirit that blazed the wa.
at Runnymeade, that inspired Crom
= well at Preston Moor, that comfortet
and directed Washington at Vale!
Forge. that has blazed a glorious path
way for civil liberty from the birth o
the English speaking people to THU
good hour.
-" "A song for our banner The watch
word recall
Which gave the Republic her sta
ton;
:. United We stand, divided We fall
1t made and preserves us a nation
The union of lakes-the union o
lands
The union of states none can seve
The union of hearts-the union o
II hands
And the flag of our Union forever.
| Let us here and now highly resolve
that for purposes of conquest, for oh
j jects of subjugation, for the mere sat
I, isfaction Of unholy lust for power, on
'e nation shall never unsheath its sword
IN but that in defense OF the rights which
d have been ruthlessly denied, of the lib
critics purchased with the blood
v martyrs and of our sacred honor, WI
r shall count every sacrifice. even Il
u life itself, a sacred privilege freely t