USA > Indiana > Wayne County > Directory and soldiers' register of Wayne County, Indiana, 1865 > Part 73
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77
---
463
REVIEW OF EVENTS.
should name a few of those who were assign- lift to the breeze our fathers' flag, now, again, ed to special duties on the occasion. There the banner of the United States, with the fer- was Gen. Robert Anderson, the hero of the vent prayer that God would crown it with expedition, and Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, honor, proteet it from treason, and send it who had been selected to deliver the oration. down to our children, with all the blessings Then there was William Lloyd Garrison of of civilization, liberty, and religion. Terri- Massachusetts, and George Thompson of ble in battle, may it be beneficent in peace. England, " life-long co-workers for the aboli- Happily, no bird or beast of prey has been tion of slavery, each the champion of a great inscribed upon it. The stars that redeem the nation." There was also Gen. Dix of New night from darkness, and the beams of red York, Hon. Joseph Holt of Kentucky, Sena- light that beautify the morning, have been tor Wilson of Massachusetts, Justice Swayne united upon its folds. As long as the sun of the Supreme Court of the United States, endures, or the stars, may it wave over a na- Lieutenant Governor Charles Anderson-tion neither enslaved nor enslaving. Once, now Governor of Ohio-and a host of others. and but once, has treason dishonored it. In Besides the Arago, there were other vessels that insane hour when the guiltiest and chartered for the occasion, each bearing some bloodiest rebellion of time hurled their fires of the distinguished personages of the land, so upon this fort, you, sir, [turning to General that the entire party numbered about five Anderson] and a small heroic band, stood thousand. A correspondent of the New within these now crumbled walls, and did gal- York Independent, in describing the approach lant and just battle for the honor and defense to the battered walls of Fort Sumter, says: of the nation's banner.
"There was but one strain worthy of the mo- ment, it was neither the ' Star Spangled Ban-
In that cope of fire this glorious flag still peacefully waved to the breeze above your ner;' nor our own grand 'America.' We all broke forth into 'Praise God from whom all blessings flow.'" The movements of the vessels had been so well timed that the party landed about noon on the 14th of April. A prayer head, unconscious of harm as the stars and skies above it. Once it was shot down. A gallant hand, in whose care this day it has been, plucked it from the ground, and reared it again-"cast down, but not destroyed." was offered by the Rev. Matthias Harris, After a vain resistance, with trembling hand Chaplain of the U. S. Army-the same who and sad heart, you withdrew it from its hight, was at the Fort four years before-and a por- tion of the Scripture read, followed by the to sleep amid the tumults of rebellion and reading of the dispatch sent by Major Ander-
closed its wings, and bore it far away, sternly the thunder of battle. The first act of war son to the Government, announcing the evac- had begun. The long night of four years had uation of Fort Sumter on the 14th of April, set in. While the giddy traitors whirled in a maze of exhilaration, dim horrors were al- ready advancing, that were ere long to fill 1861. "Gen. Anderson and Sergeant Hart * then stepped forward and hoisted the well- preserved flag, amid unbounded enthusiasm, the land with blood. and salutes from the batteries and fleet."
To-day you are returned again. We de- * When the staff of this same flag had been voutly join with you in thanksgiving to Al- shot away four years before, Sergeant Hart res- mighty God, that he has spared your honored cued and restored it to its place on the fortifica- tions.
My Friends and Fellow- citizens, and Brother- Soldiers .- By the considerate appointment of the honorable Secretary of War, I am here to fulfill the cherished wish of my heart through four long, long years of bloody war, to restore to its proper place this dear flag, - which floated here during peace, before the first act of this cruel rebellion.
I thank God that I have lived to see this day, and to be here to perform this duty to my country. My heart is filled with grati- tude to that God who has so signally blessed us; who has given us blessings beyond meas- ure.
May all the world proclaim, "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace; good-will to- ward men."
life, and vouchsafed to you the glory of this day. The heavens over you are the same ; SPEECH OF GEN. ANDERSON. the same shores are here; morning comes, and evening as they did. All else, how changed ! What grim batteries crowd the burdened shores! What scenes have filled this air and disturbed these waters! These shattered heaps of shapeless stones are all that is left of Fort Sumter. Desolation broods in yonder sad city-solemn retribu- tion hath avenged our dishonored banner ! You have come back with honor, who de- parted hence four years ago, leaving the air sultry with fanaticism. The surging crowds that rolled up their frenzied shouts, as the flag came down, are dead, or scattered or silent ; and their habitations are desolate. Ruin sits in the cradle of treason. Rebellion has perished. But there flies the same flag that was insulted. With starry eyes it looks ORATION OF REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER. all over this bay for that banner that sup- planted it, and sees it not. You that then On this solemn and joyful day, we again for the day, were humbled, are here again to
464
REVIEW OF EVENTS.
triumph once and forever. In the storm of turning day we have come from afar, to re- that assault this glorious ensign was often joice and give thanks. No more war. No struck; but, memorable fact, not one of its more accursed secession! No more slavery, stars was torn out by shot or shell. It was a that spawned them both! prophecy.
Let no man misread the meaning of this It said, "Not one state shall be struck from unfolding flag! It says, "Government hath this nation by treason!" The fulfillment is at returned hither." It proclaims, in the name hand. Lifted to the air, to-day, it proclaims of vindicated government, peace and pro- that after four years of war, " Not a state is tection to loyalty; humiliation and pains to blotted out !" traitors. This is the flag of sovereignty.
Hail to the flag of our fathers, and our The nation, not the states, is sovereign. Re- flag ! Glory to the banner that has gone stored to authority, this flag commands, not through four years black with tempests of supplicates.
There may be pardon but no concession. There may be amnesty and oblivion, but no who above all hosts and banners, hath or- honied compromises. The nation to-day has dained victory, and shall ordain peace !
peace for the peaceful, and war for the tur-
Wherefore have we come hither, pilgrims bulent. The only condition of submission, is, from distant places? Are we come to exult to submit! There is the Constitution, there that northern hands are stronger than south- are the laws, there is the Government. They ern ? No; but to rejoice that the hands of rise up like mountains of strength that shall those who defend a just and beneficent gov- not be moved. They are the conditions of erment are mightier than the hands that as- peace.
saulted it. Do we exult over fallen cities ?
We exult that a nation has not fallen.
Onc nation, under one government, without We slavery, has been ordained, and shall stand. sorrow with the sorrowful. We sympathize There can be peace on no other basis. On with the desolate. We look upon this shat- this basis reconstruction is easy, and needs tered fort, and yonder dilapidated city, with neither architect nor engineer. Without sad eyes, grieved that men should have com- this basis no engineer or architect shall ever mitted such treason, and glad that God hath reconstruct these rebellious states. set such a mark upon treason that all ages shall dread and abhor it.
We do not want your cities or your fields. We do not envy you your prolific soil, nor
We exult not for a passion gratified, but heavens full of perpetual summer. Let ag- for a sentiment victorious; not for temper, riculture revel here; let manufactures make but for conscience; not as we devoutly be- every stream twice musical; bnild fleets in lieve that our will is done, but that God's will every port; inspire the arts of peace with hath been done! We should be unworthy of genius second only to that of Athens; and that liberty intrusted to our care, if, on such we shall be glad in your gladness, and rich a day as this, we sullied our hearts by feel- in your wealth.
ings of aimless vengeance, and equally un-
All that we ask is unswerving loyalty, and worthy, if we did not devoutly thank him universal liberty. And that, in the name of who hath said, "Vengeance is mine, I will re- this high sovereignty of the United States of pay, saith the Lord," that he hath set a mark America, we demand, and that, with the bless- upon arrogant Rebellion, ineffacable while ing of Almighty God, we will have! time lasts !
We raise our father's banner that it may Since this flag went down on that dark bring back better blessings than those of old; day, who shall tell the mighty woes that that it may cast out the devil of discord; that have made this land a spectacle to angels and it may restore lawful government, and a pros- men? The soil has drunk blood, and is glut- perity purer and more enduring than that ted. Millions mourn for millions slain, or, which it protected before; that it may win envying the dead, pray for oblivion. Towns parted friends from their alienation; that it and villages have been razed. Fruitful fields may inspire hope, and inaugurate universal have turned back to wilderness. It came liberty; that it may say to the sword, "Re- to pass, as the prophet said: "The sun was turn to thy sheath," and to the plow and sick- turned to darkness and the moon to blood." le, "Go forth;" that it may heal all jealousies, The course of law was ended. The sword sat unite all policies, inspire a new national life, chief magistrate in half the nation; industry compact our strength, purify our principles, was paralyzed; morals corrupted; the public ennoble our national ambitions, and make this weal invaded by rapine and anarchy; whole people great and strong, not for aggression states ravaged by avenging armies. The and quarrelsomeness, but for the peace of the world was amazed. The earth reeled. When world, giving to us the glorious prerogative the flag sunk here, it was as if political night of leading all nations to juster laws, to more had come, and all beasts of prey had come humane policies, to sincerer friendship, to forth to devour. rational, instituted civil liberty, and to uni- The long night is ended! And for this re- versal Christian brotherhood.
war, to pilot the nation back to peace with- out dismemberment ! And glory be to God,
465
REVIEW OF EVENTS.
Reverently, piously, in hopeful patriotism, people cry out, "Behold our flag!" Hark! we spread this banner on the sky, as of old they murmur. It is the gospel that they the bow was planted on the cloud, and, with recite in sacred words: "It is a gospel to the solemn fervor, beseech God to look upon it, poor, it heals our broken hearts, it preaches and make it the memorial of an everlasting deliverance to captives, it gives sight to the covenant, and decree that never again on this blind, it sets at liberty them that are bruised." fair land shall a deluge of blood prevail.
Rise up, then, glorious Gospel Banner, and Why need any eye turn from this spec- roll out these messages of God. Tell the air tacle? Are there not associations which, that not a spot now sullies thy whiteness. overleaping the recent past, carry us back to Thy red is not the blush of shame, but the times when. over North and South, this flag flush of joy. Tell the dews that wash thec was honored alike by all? In all our colonial that thou art pure as they. Say to the night. days we were one; in the long Revolutionary that thy stars lead toward the morning; and struggle, and in the scores of prosperous to the morning, that a brighter day arises years succeeding we were united. When with healing in its wings. And then, oh the passage of the Stamp Act in 1765 aroused glowing flag, bid the sun pour light on all thy the colonies, it was Gadsden, of South Caro- folds with double brightness while thou art lina, that cried with prescient enthusiasm: bearing round and round the world the solemn " We stand on the broad common ground of joy-a race set free! a nation redeemed!
those natural rights that we all feel and know
The mighty hand of Government, made as men. There ought to be no New England strong in war, by the favor of the God of man, no New Yorker, known on this conti- nent, but all of us," said he, "AMERICANS."
Battles, spreads wide to-day the banner of liberty that went down in darkness, that That That was the voice of South Carolina. arose in light; and there it streams, like the That shall be the voice of South Carolina. Faint is the echo; but it is coming. We now
sun above it, neither parceled out nor mo- nopolized, but flooding the air with light for hear it sighing sadly through the pines; but it all mankind. Ye scattered and broken, ye shall yet break in thunder upon the shore No wounded and dying, bitten by the fiery ser- North, no South, but the United States of pents of oppression, every-where, in all the America.
world, look upon this sign, lifted up, and There is scarcely a man born in the South live! And ye homeless and houseless slaves, who has lifted his hand against this banner, but had a father who would have died for it. Is memory dead? Is there no historic look, and ye are free! At length you, too, have part and lot in this glorious ensign, that broods with impartial love over small and pride? Has a fatal fury struck blindness or great, the poor and the strong, the bond and hate into eyes that used to look kindly to- the free.
In this solemn hour, let us pray for the
ward each other; that read the same Bible; that hung over the historic pages of our na- quick coming of reconciliation and happi- tional glory; that studied the same Constitu- ness, under this common flag! tion?
But we must build again, from the founda-
Let this uplifting bring back all of the tions, in all these now free southern states. past that was good, but leave in darkness all No cheap exhortations "to forgetfulness of that was bad. the past, to restore all things as they were,"
It was never before so wholly unspotted; will do. God does not stretch out his hand, as he has for four dreadful years, that men so clear of all wrong; so purely and simply the sign of Justice and Liberty. Did I say may easily forget the might of his terrible that we brought back the same banner that acts. Restore things as they were? What, you bore away, noble and heroic sir? It is the alienations and jealousies ? the discords not the same. It is more and better than it and contentions, and the causes of them? No. was. The land is free from slavery, since In that solemn sacrifice on which a nation has that banner fell.
offered up for its sins so many precious vie-
When God would prepare Moses for eman- tims, loved and lamented, let our sins and cipation, he overthrew his first steps, and mistakes be consumed utterly and forever. drove him for forty years to brood in the No, never again shall things be restored wilderness. When our flag came down, four as before the war. It is written in God's de- years it lay brooding in darkness. It cried to cree of events fulfilled, "Old things are passed the Lord, "Wherefore am I deposed?" Then away." That new earth, in which dwelleth arose before it a vision of its sin. It had righteousness, draws near.
strengthened the strong, and forgotten the
Things as they were? Who has an om- weak. It proclaimed liberty, but trod upon nipotent hand to restore a million dead, slain slaves.
in battle, or wasted by sickness, or dying of
In that seclusion it dedicated itself to lib- grief, broken-hearted ? Who has omnis- erty. Behold, to-day, it fulfills its vows! cience to search for the scattered ones ? Who When it went down four million people had shall restore the lost to broken families ? no flag. To-day it rises, and four million| Who shall bring back the squandered treas-
466
REVIEW OF EVENTS.
ure, the years of industry wasted, and con- the facts as the decrees of God. We are ex- vince you that four years of guilty rebellion, horted to forget all that has happened. Yes, and cruel war, are no more than dirt upon the wrath, the conflict, the cruelty, but not the hand, which a moment's washing re- those overruling decrees of God which this moves, and leaves the hand clean as before ? war has pronounced. As solemnly as on Such a war reaches down to the very vitals of Mount Sinai, God says. "Remember! remem- society.
ber!"' Hear it to-day. Under this sun, under
Emerging from such a prolonged rebellion, that bright child of the sun, our banner, he is blind who tells you that the state, by a with the eyes of this nation and of the world mere amnesty and benevolence of Govern- upon us we repeat the syllables of God's ment, can be put again, by a mere decree, in providence, and recite the solemn decrees : its old place. It would not be honest, it NO MORE DISUNION ! would not be kind or fraternal, for me to pre- NO MORE SECESSION ! tend that southern revolution against the NO MORE SLAVERY! Union has not reacted, and wrought revolu- Why did this civil war begin ? tion in the southern states themselves, and We do not wonder that European states- men failed to comprehend this conflict, and inaugurated a new dispensation.
Society here is like a broken loom, and the that foreign philanthropists were shocked at piece which rebellion put in, and was weav- a murderous war that seemed to have no ing, has been cut, and every thread broken. moral origin, but, like the brutal fights of You must put in new warp and new woof, beasts of prey, to have sprung from ferocious and, weaving anew, as the fabric slowly un- animalism. This great nation, filling all winds, we shall see in it no Gorgon figures, profitable latitudes, cradled between two no hideous grotesques of the old barbarism, oceans, with inexhaustible resources, with but the figures of liberty, vines and golden riches increasing in an unparalleled ratio, by with schools and churches, with books and grains, framing in the heads of Justice, Love, agriculture, by manufactures, by commerce, and Liberty!
The august convention of 1787 framed the newspapers thick as leaves in our own forests, Constitution with this memorable preamble: with institutions sprung from the people, and " We, the people of the United States, in or- peculiarly adapted to their genius; a nation der to form a more perfect union, establish not sluggish, but active, used to excitement, justice, insure domestic traquility, provide practiced in political wisdom, and accustomed for the common defense, promote the general to self-government, and all its vast outlaying welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to parts held together by a federal government ourselves and our posterity, do ordain this mild in temper, gentle in administration, and Constitution for the United States of Amer- beneficent in results, scemed to have been iea."
formed for peace.
Again, in the awful convention of war, the All at once, in this hemisphere of happiness people of the United States. for the very ends and hope, there came trooping clouds with just recited, have debated, settled, and ordain- fiery bolts, full of death and desolation. At ed certain fundamental truths, which must a cannon shot upon this fort, all the nation, henceforth be accepted and obeyed. Nor isas if it had been a trained army lying on its any state, or any individual, wise who shall arms, awaiting a signal, rose up and began a disregard them. They are to civil affairs war which for awfulness, rises into the first what the natural laws are to health-indis- rank of bad eminence The front of battle, pensable conditions to peace and happiness. going with the sun, was twelve hundred miles What are the ordinances given by the peo- ple, speaking out of fire and darkness of war, long; and the depth, measured along a me- ridian, was a thousand miles. In this vast with authority inspired by that same God area more than two million men, first and who gave the law from Sinai amid thunders last, for four y ars, have, in skirmish, fight, and trumpet voices ?
and battle, met in more than a thousand con- 1. That these United States shall be one fliets; while a coast and river line, not less and indivisible.
than four thousand miles in length. has 2. That states have not absolute sover- swarmed with fleets, freighted with artillery. eignty, and have no right to dismember the The very industry of the country seemed to republic. have been touched by some infernal wand, 3. That universal liberty is indispensible to and, with sudden wheel, changed its front republican government, and that slavery from peace to war. The anvils of the land shall be utterly and forever abolished ! beat like drums. As out of the ooze emerge
Such are the results of war! These are monsters, so from our mines and foundaries the best fruits of the war. They are worth all uprose new and strange machines of war, they have cost. They are foundations of iron-clad.
peace. They will secure benefits to all na- tions as well as to ours.
And so, in a nation of peaceful habits, without external provocation, there arose
Our highest wisdom and duty is to acceptisuch a storm of war as blackened the whole
467
REVIEW OF EVENTS.
horizon and hemisphere. What wonder| To inflame and unite the great middle class that foreign observers stood amazed at this of the South, who had no interest in separation fanatical fury, that seemed without divine and no business with war, they alleged griev- guidance, but inspired wholly with infernal ances that never existed, and employed argu- frenzy.
ments which they, better than all other men,
The explosion was sudden, but the train knew to be specious and false. Slavery itself had long been laid. We must consider the was cared for only as an instrument of power condition of southern society, if we would or of excitement. They had unalterably fix- undersand the mystery of this iniquity. So- ed their eye upon empire, and all was good ciety in the South resolves itself into three which would secure that, and bad which hin- divisions, more sharply distinguished than in dered it.
any other part of the nation. At the base is Thus, the ruling class of the South,-an the laboring class, made up of slaves. Next aristocracy as intense, proud. and inflexible is the middle class, made up of traders, small as ever existed-not limited either by cus- farmers, and poor men. The lower edge of toms or institutions, not recognized and ad- this class touches the slave, and the upper justed in the regular order of society, playing edge reached up to the third and ruling elass. a reciprocal part in its machinery, but secret, This class was a small minority in numbers, disowning its own existence, baptized with but in practiced ability they had centered in ostentatious names of democracy, obsequious their hands the whole government of the to the people for the sake of governing them; South, and had mainly governed the coun- this nameless, lurking aristocracy, that ran in try.
the blood of society like a rash, not yet come
Upon this polished, cultured, exceedingly to the skin; this politieal tapeworm, that capable, and wholly unprincipled class, rests produced nothing, but lay coiled in the the whole burden of this war. Forced up by body. feeding on its nutriment, and hold- the bottom-heat of slavery, the ruling class, ing the whole structure to be but a serv- in all the disloyal states, arrogated to them- ant set up to nourish it-this aristocracy selves a superiority not compatible with re- of the plantation, with firm and deliberate publican equality, nor with just morals. resolve, brought on the war, that they might They claimed a right of pre-eminence. An cut the land in two, and clearing themselves evil prophet arose who trained these wild from incorrigible free society, set up a stern- and luxuriant shoots of ambition to the er, statelier empire, where slaves worked shapely form of a political philosophy.
that gentlemen might live at case. Nor ean
By its re-agents they precipated drudgery there be any doubt that though, at first, they to the bottom of society, and left at the top meant to ereet the form of republican gov- what they thought to be a clarified fluid. In ernment. this was but a device; a step neces- their political economy, labor was to be own- sary to the securing of that power by which ed by capital. In their theory of government, they should be able to change the whole a few were to rule the many. They boldly economy of society.
avowed, not the fact alone, that, under all, That they never dreamed of such a war, forms of government, the few rule the many, we may well believe. That they would have but their right and duty to do so. Set free accepted it, though twice as bloody, if only from the necessity of labor, they conceived a thus they could rule, none can doubt that contempt for those who felt its wholesome knows the temper of these worst men of regimen. Believing themselves foreordained modern society.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.