Smyrna times., 1934-05-31
ROTARY HEARS
MEMORIAL TALK

Continued From Page one)
Columbia's land The Civil War
stands as one of the great achieve
ments of history. During that
awful holocaust of interneciue
strife God raised up a man destin-
ed to become the tallest white
angel of any country. Under his
guidance General Grant carried to
glorious achievement the plans of
his duty in turn our unnumbered
forebears fought with a faith and
courage undreamed of, that Am
erica might forever remain with
all her states an unseparable union
and become in actual reality the
home of the brave and the land of
the free. Today we rejoice IN the
subservience of state rights to fed
eral supremacy and the absolute
freedom of one hundred and TWEEN
ty millions Of people whose citizen
ship is inscribed upon the banner
Of the greatest democracy known
in human annals. Old glory still
waves over the hearts Of a united
people and her silken folds and
stars shine resplendent upon all
the states of the union. All this
is the fruitage Of the heroes of the
Grand Army of the Republic and
it will be gratefully remembered
until the hills be crumbled and the
streams to the sea run dust. The
spirit of the Grand Army is i'm
mortal and no one names its heroes
but to praise. We do not forget |
the patriots Of every decade since
the country first proclaimed its
autonomy, the valor at Bunker Hill
and Gettysburg down to the in
trepid courage displayed at Verdun
and Chateau Thierry. Our con
temporaries who fought in the
Spanish American War and the H
men Of the Legion who marched
the fire swept fields of France and
who with their hammers of demo-
cratic fervor beat against the bat
tlement Of autocracy, for all Of
them we give God thanks. The
most Of them struggled undaunt-
edly. They shouted, Save us God
Of mercy, but the God Of Heaven
did not save them but He saved
the cause. In the light of this
what then are the
perils facing this nation today,
perils against which we should
fearlessly speak? I have time to
to name but two, the first is an
to law and order and
second a marked disinterest rela-
tive to the fundamental principles
Of America. No people can be
great nor free without regard for
law and constitutional authority,
Rome gave law to the world and
thru that gift came progress and
democratic functioning in all the
manifold activity. There is in this
day a tendency to regard restric-
ton with disfavor and time tested
documents as antiquated There
is belief abroad that this Repub-
lie can survive in spite of the flout-
ing of it's law courts and the trif-
ling attitude of citizens toward the
Such attitude is i'm
besile and silly, the supreme test of
of any citizenry for the
great tests of self government is
the degree of patience and wisdom
with which it is willing to submit
to essential restraint in matters of
personal liberty in the exercise of
political and social power. If this
Republic is to survive there must
be respect shown for its judicial
systems, its laws must be held in
the highest esteem; its institutions
respected; it's past achievements ,
priced and venerated. 1t is no {
sign of good citizenship to break
down respect for governmental
One may as well tramp !.
the flag or damn the Father of our {
country as to lightly regard the :
Of law. The principles for :
which our fathers fought are worth
preserving and may be preserved
only thru the practice of restraint,
respect and veneration. Those
were great days, great and glori- I
BUS because men venerated their
country by dedicating life to un-