Trench and camp. [volume] (Augusta, Ga.) 1917-1919, 1918-04-24
My Debt To My Country
BY PRIVATE E. H. MELTON,
Third Provisional r egiment, Ordnance.

Time has recorded in a great book all
the events of the past ages. On one
page of that marvellous and tremen-
dous booklet US call it a ledger-wiu
be found an account that might be APP
propriately headed &c. H. Melton. to
the United States Of America" debtor.
Let us glance over this page and
note the items charged against me-
and you-for this is also your debt,
and let us as American citizens-hum-
BILE American citizens-who by virtue
Of citizenship possess certain rights
and enjoy certain privileges, let us ask
ourselves If we have paid off any Of
this just account.
The first item charged against us
goes for its date to the Landing of the
Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth Rock,
back to the time when that little band
Of brave hearted men and women, who
held duty higher than self, first set
foot in a wilderness known to them
only for it's terrors, in order that they
might worship their God according to
the dictates of their individual con-
sciences. And for all their terrible
battles against a thousand powerful
foes, against Indian and wild beasts
and the untamcd elements of Nature
herself, you and l are in debt to our
country.
The items on the page bring me
down through the passing years
through weeks and months of trial and
tribulation and struggle, through lives
of weary toll and conflict, through days
Hf savage battle for our pioneer faith
-rs, through nights of fear haunted
sleepless anA ty for pioneer mothers;
and for every day of body racking la
Dor in that wilderness for every brave
f ght with painted savage, for every
dreary midnight hour passed by terror
stricken women in rude huts on Tho
edge of the forests. | am in debt to my
country.
I look for other items on the page
and about the year 1776 l find a heavy
charge-for on the page see a weak
and poverty ridden people crushed anf
mangled under the heavy hand of ty-
ranny their members few their mate
rial power a thing to be scoffed at
opposed by one of the greatest nations
the world ever saw; and yet with in
domtable courage of unwavering con-
Wet on, the undying loyalty of men
who would lay down their lives for
principle, | see them enduring hard
ships that you and [ will never know
that our liberty might be made Sc
cure. | hear the clarion tones of Pat
rick Henry as he sends forth the im-
mortal words which have been the
bedrock of our nat,onal existence ever
since they We're uttered-and 1 realize
as he said them he could almost feel
the hangmans moose about his neck as
swift and frightful punishment for his
daring. I see that little group of pat
S.
document since the Magma Charta
watch them US they Ittach their sig
nature to it, eac, fully aware that UNI
less that Declaration of independence
be sustained by the arms of his coun-
trymen. he had 'gned his death war
rant. | see the minute men at LeXing-
ton and Bunker Hill. their ammunition
so limited that they must wait to see
the whites of the enemies eyes be-
fore they could begin firing. l see
brave women melting household orna-
ments to make bullets. tearing up fom
lily Bibles for gun wadding and endur-
ing every privation known to mankind
that their husbands and sons might be
supplied with their needs on the bat
tlefields. I see men wounded and dy-
ing. A Nathan Hale who regrettel
that he had but one fe to give for his
country, as Israel Putnam who left his
pillow in the field to seize the sword;
a George Washington. who went on his
knees in the wilderness to carry his
country's troubles to the throne OF his
God, a hundred thousand unnamed he
roes who suffered and bled and dice
for your liberties and mine-they are
all on that page.
And for every one of them-for the
bravery of Patrick Henry the calm
courage of the sgners of the Declara
ton, for every heroic deed at Lexing-
ton and Bunker Hill, for every priva-
ticn endured by revolutionary mothers
for the martyrdom of Nathan Hale, the
briliancy of Putnam, the ateadfast
wisdom of Washington, for every I'M
bloody footprint, in the snow at Valley
Forge, for every unmarked grave on
the hillsdes of Rev England l am in
debt to my Iouutry.
cast my eye furtheI down the page
and as l pass line by line, the items
mount higher and higher against me.
81.