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Show 288 France. Napoleon and his empire of steel; 289 v-i America, We see \\‘:ishin2ton and his Yorktown. Grant and his .'\[i})ilitlftlltix. 1 would not stand here to question the mighty movements of the past. \Ve all l(11()\\' the position defensive nartare has held in human progress. The armies of the ages have only been the vigils of necessity guarding human liberty until it has spread and encompassed the nations of the world. \\ 0 still erect editires in memorv of the great heroes of war. \\e visit those old liattlc~ fields of the Southland where lives have consecrated their last measure of devotion. and there. with our hearts full of reverence. receive a quiclrcned realization of the reality of the awful struggle. I believe if ever a man was tempted to turn his face towarvl the blue canopy of heaven and decry the existence of a just and all- wisc God, it was that worn. haggard. torn Confederate soldier. \Var had ruined his home. his friends, his family and himself; no glad hearts to greet hitn on his return. no helping hand< to dress his wounds. no generous government to ripen its pocket- book for his support-nothing hut ruin and desolation every- where. Yet we love our Stars and Stripes the more because our fathers have dedicated their lives that those stars might remain in the same blue field forever. Today were you and l Russian peasA ants struggling under the despotic heel of a brutal and parasitic aristocracv. we would have one breath of freedom even if that breath must be gained standing in a ti'urrent of human blood. hit there is somethingr deeper. purer and nobler. \Var has had its just allotment and we would not remove one luster of its glory. Todav, as the result of the growth of Christianity, nations are attainingr that state of unselfish benevolence for which they long sought; not for the pageantry, devastation or spoil of war, but for the utilization of all human energy for the benefit of inanl<ind. Thus by an observation of facts, in the study of American ideals and their development, we must admit that a world organ- ization based upon the principles of democratic brotherhood as they are exemplified in this our own peaceful and prosperous republic. is the one absolutely sure method of obtaining universal conciliatn Every attempt to trace the current of American expansion must begin at Plymouth. Renouncing the oppressions of a gOVernmcnt in which they had no voice and which was hostile to their religious principles, our Puritan forefathers braved the wilds of America where they could dwell in peace, serving God according to the dictates of their own conscience. In the perpetuation of the other colonies special inducements were offered to immigrants. Consequently the Puritan was followed by the downtrodden outcasts of every nationality in Europe, who, aside from the desire to gain a new start in life, came chiefly to escape the terrible scourge of war. After a time the mother country began to realize the possibilities of her children across the sea. When she began to show the same disregard for the rights of the colonists that she manifested when they renounced citizens hip in the home land, it was only natural that she should meet with serious opposition. The colonists hated war, but liberty was dearer to them than life. Accordingly they rose up, and after eight long years of what General Sherman afterwards appropriately called "hell" established the most momentous doctrine the world has ever known-the right of men to themselves and to their G0d~given liberties. The termination of that struggle produced a gigantic gov- ernmental problem. The colonies were free. They were sovereign in their relations to one another and to the entire world. The confederation was formed under which the states retained their sovereignty and under which they then experienced approximately the same difficulties in the regulation of their affairs that nations experience now. These experiences taught them that local prejudice is hostile to the formation of any successful union; that as long as it existed they would sut'fer from constant reverses in prosperity and disturbance of peace. After eight years of miserable existence, they recognized the folly of their ways and abandoned forever their local animosities by establishingr the Constitution. Today this nation is composed of forty-six states, each a government in itself, but all subjected alike to a government of the whole. Our states cannot wage war with one another; they cannot even encroach upon the rights of another. It is true that the great civil strife occurred, but it was caused by a recurrence of that old spirit of local prejudice animated by a violation of that law of human right that man cannot hold property in man. But civil war between individual states is impossible although they WIN! mel ml . |