USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > History of Cuyahoga County soldiers' and sailors' monument. Scenes and incidents from its inception to its completion.--Description of the memorial structure, and roll of honor > Part 31
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We meet on the Fourth of July to dedicate a Monit- inent to the memory of the heroes of our last War. The day and the occasion unite to recall both the Revo- lution and the Rebellion. These struggles had a distinct relation to each other, and were strikingly similar in some respects.
The last was but the complement of the first. It wrought for the black man what the first accomplished for the white.
Both began ,as rebellions. Both had relation to natural, governmental and human rights. There was no question of territory, balance of power or inter- national statecraft or diplomacy in either.
Both broadened as they proceeded, until the issues finally joined and determined were different, higher and better than those involved at the beginning.
It was not until after Concord, Lexington and Bunker Hill that the Colonists resolved to convert a struggle that was inaugurated only as an armned resistance to a tyrannical Ministry into a war against the Crown for national independence.
As late as the 6th day of July, 1775, the Continental Congress formally declared that they had not raised armies with the ambitious design of separating from Great Britain, and establishing independent States.
It was not until after Bull Run, Donelson and Shiloh that the overruling purpose of a directing Providence was recognized, and a war for the suppression of rebell- ion was broadened into a war for the liberation of the slave.
The Colonists were not only subjects of Great Britain, but they were loyal subjects. They desired to remain such, but He who directs the destiny of all
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decreed otherwise. The time had come not only for the birth of a new Nation, but for a new kind of govern- ment. The feudal age had passed away, and the un- written constitution of England had been established, but the despotic powers of the old Barons had been assumed by the monarchy that followed, and the boasted rights of Englishmen, although defined by Magna Charta and protected by a representative Parliament, were, nevertheless, not such as to allow that independ- ence of thought and action essential to the higliest in- tellectual and moral development.
It was necessary to give a broader recognition than had ever been accorded of the rights of inan with respect to government, not only in England and her colonies, but throughout the world.
America was destined to light the torch of liberty and lead the fight for human freedom. It was not of her choice, but of God's ordering. She was the chosen agency, and it was through aggressions and exaspera- tions that ripened into controversy, bitterness and blood, with their irresistible teachings and demands, that our fathers were finally brought to see both their opportu- nity and their duty. Then it was that the Declaration of July 6, 1775, gave way to the Declaration of Inde- pendence of July 4, 1776.
This document was a state paper worthy of a great people. It lent importance and gave dignity and con- sequence to the cause of the Colonists. It excited the admiration of the whole world, and strengthened and encouraged the weak and hesitating. It put into the hearts of all aims and purposes that involved the highest interests of humanity. From that moment forward the fight was not for the redress of wrongs under the British Government, but for absolute independence, and a new and different government of their own making. What that government should be they did not then see or
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comprehend. After more than a century of successful experience, our form of government seems to us most natural, and as though it would be the first thought of, but it was not so with our fathers. They had no such light as we enjoy. When they determined to fight for independence, it was without any clear idea as to the kind of government they would adopt, except only that it should be of their own making and subject to their own control. They reached final results by slow stages in the school of experience.
British oppression had made them so distrustful of all anthority superior to their own immediate colonial governments, that they were prejudiced against, and bitterly hostile to, all propositions that involved the establishment of any permanent controlling national authority or power.
The Continental Congress had scarcely more than the semblance of authority. There was no constitution, no judiciary, no executive, and no power of any kind lodged anywhere to compel anybody to do anything. But it was the first step toward a centralization that could represent the national name and force, and in the selection of a Commander-in-chief, the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, and by similar acts, resolutions and legislation, it familiarized the people with the idea of unity of country and interests, a com- mon flag and a common destiny.
The Articles of Confederation followed. They were intended to establish a common or National Govern- ment and define its powers. They were another step, but not a very long one, in the right direction. Ameri- cans had not yet accepted the idea of a permanent national authority. Therefore, while recognizing the necessity for union under a common government, based on a written, organic law, they were unwilling to act, except as independent States, and would not agree to
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any form of government unless the individual independ- ence or autonomy of each State was recognized and protected. They were so solicitous upon this point that but little else was successfully embodied in that document. The government it established had no executive, no judiciary, no revennie system, no machin- ery, functions or power. All legislative and executive action was vested in the Congress, in which the me111- bers voted and acted, not as representatives of the people, but as delegates of the States; and no proposed act of legislation could become a law without the votes and consent of a prescribed number of the States. The States were everything; the National Government was practically nothing. Its inadequacy was manifest from the beginning. Dissatisfaction followed and increased until all the common people, as well as the great inen and statesmen of that time, were studying and dis- cussing theories of government. The result was a con- vention to revise the Articles of Confederation. This body was well prepared for its work. Its members had lived under and had studied the English constitution and common law. They had passed through all the exciting experiences of the struggle for independence. They had been witnesses to the weakness of the Con- tinental Congress and the inefficiency of the Confeder- ation. They had been educated by these trials to appreciate the fact that no government could be success- ful that was not invested with all the necessary powers of preservation. They understood that any government mntist prove a failure which was unable to not only legislate, but enforce legislation, to raise revenues, maintain armies, and do all other things essential to sovereignty in its broadest and highest sense. They had learned something more from these experiences. They had learned that no national government could ever be successfully established and maintained that was a
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creature of the States, or that was a mere compact or agreement between States. As to whatever power it might have, it should be independent of and supreme over States and people alike. When they reached this point in their deliberations, they boldly resolved to set aside the Articles of Confederation which they had been appointed to revise, and discard the theory of a league or compact. They recognized that the people of all the States were the proper source and origin of all right- ful authority, and determined to frame a constitution in the name of the people, and for the people, and to sub- mit it to the people for their approval and adoption. The result was the Constitution of 1787, of which Mr. Gladstone has said: "It is the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man."
Its general scheme was a Federal Government of three co-ordinate, independent departments. Time has shown this to be a most happy distribution of power. It has met with such universal favor that no one has ever thought to change it.
When they came to details, aside from slavery and certain particulars in which it was amended soon after adoption, the framers were scarcely less fortunate.
We are a restless, aggressive and progressive people, impatient of all restraint. It is not singular, therefore, that there is now and then complaint against some provision that may, for the time being, come in contact with our desires, but we seldom have to wait long for transpiring events and changing conditions to answer our objections.
Just at present the Senate is much criticised, but in- vestigation has developed the fact that the trouble is with individuals rather than the body, and the people can be trusted to make such changes as will enable it
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to regain its accustomed dignity, efficiency, integrity and popularity.
Of late years we have heard much about election disturbances, and to avoid having them too frequently it has been proposed, with much show of support at times, to change the Presidential term to six years, but we have probably heard the last of this demand, for it is now pretty generally conceded that four years are quite long enough.
And so it is that the longer it stands the better we become satisfied with it.
But the most important feature of the Constitution, for the purposes of this occasion, is found in the follow- ing stately declarations of its preamble :
"We, the people of the United States, in order to forin a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
These are golden words. They are worthy of the Convention presided over by George Washington. They constitute the great, broad foundation-stone upon which rest all the governmental institutions of America.
Upon them Webster stood master in argument. In- spired by them Lincoln was immovable in administra- tion, and Grant was invincible in war. When we recall them, and the history leading up to them, it seems in- credible that we should ever have had serious differ- ences, let alone war, as to whether or not a State of this Union had a constitutional right of secession.
And yet, incredible as it may seem, such was the fact. The trouble was not to understand the language that had been employed, for that was unmistakably plain. It arose from the fact that we had two kinds of civiliza-
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tion-one freedom, and the other slavery-one estab- lished in the Northern States, and the other in the Southern States, and the Constitution undertook to compromise their differences and protect and perpetuate both. That was possible for the time being, but im- possible as a permanent provision. Their influences were at fatal war with each other. They could not peaceably co-exist. What Mr. Seward characterized as an irrepressible conflict was inevitable. It came, and it was early foreseen that we would have no cessation of the contest until we became either all slave or all free. The rivalry naturally took the forin of a struggle for political power. The great question was whether free- doin or slavery, the North or the South, should control the destinies of the Nation.
At first, slavery was in the ascendency, but the North outgrew the South in population and material develop- ment. The South sought to maintain her control by regulating the admission of new States, by the acquisi- tion of Texas and other territory, and by threats and menaces whereby compromises were secured and friend- ly legislation was enacted. Despite all these helps she steadily lost ground until it soon became apparent that it was only a question of time when she could no longer control. She was represented by able men. They were far-seeing. They professed to believe in slavery, that cotton was king, and that there was no safety for them, except they should govern. Foreseeing the time when they could no longer rule, they deliberately conspired to ruin. In this behalf they revived the doctrine of State sovereignty, which had been destroyed by the abrogation of the Articles of Confederation, and mnade it a cardinal point of their political faith. Their con- tention was, when stated in plain language, that each State had a constitutional right to destroy the Constitu- tion. They insisted that any State could, lawfully and
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constitutionally, withdraw from the Union whenever it inight see fit to do so. This doctrine was an iniquitous heresy. It was opposed to all ideas of stability and permanency. It meant weakness, confusion and an- archy. It was the end of all our progress and power. It meant that this great country should be subdivided and Mexicanized. Instead of one mighty Republic, we were to have a lot of petty States. Instead of one flag, we were to have two, six, a dozen-no man could tell how many. If the South could secede, so could the East, the West, the Middle States, or any single State.
The success of such a doctrine was the end of self- government. And what was the purpose? Why was such a doctrine espoused? Why were such conse- quences invited? What good was to come as a conll- pensation for all these evils ?
No good whatever. The object sought was worse than the doctrine invoked. The sole purpose was to protect and perpetuate human slavery.
And what was human slavery ? You get no adequate idea of the character of that institution from the mere statement that it was the holding of human beings in bondage.
You begin to comprehend its stupendous wickedness only when you think of the auction-block and the whipping-post, and recall that it was by law made a crime to teach the slave the letters of the alphabet, or administer to him the ordinances of marriage and bap- tism.
It not only deprived its victims of liberty and exacted from them unrequited toil, but it purposely and by pro- visions of law debased and degraded them as nearly as it was possible to the ignorance and dependence of ani- mnal chattels.
It had another and an equally bad result. It blunted
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the inoral sensibilities of those who believed in it, up- held, defended and enjoyed it.
It is a law of our nature that we cannot do conscious wrong to others without a corresponding injury to our- selves. There is a reflex action which sinites the con- science and sears it. Slavery inflicted this penalty upon its votaries, and thus prepared them to allow the horrors and barbarities of Andersonville, Libby and Salisbury.
It was simply a vile curse, wicked in itself and wicked in all its teachings and influences.
And yet it was for this the doctrine of State sover- eighty was invoked. It was for this the doctrine of secession was instilled. It was for this the work of George Washington was to be undone. It was for this the flag was to be struck down. It was for this the Union was to be dismembered. It was for this the ex- ample of America governing herself was to be ended in humiliation and shame. It was for this the Potomac and Ohio Rivers were to be made boundary lines be- tween hostile governments. It was for this we were to have at least two countries, two constitutions, two pres- idents, two flags and two destinies.
They argued long and fiercely, but the people decided against them. The verdict was rendered at the ballot box in 1860, when they elected Abraham Lincoln. He was chosen to administer according to the Constitution and the laws. Under these, slavery was secure wher- ever it existed. There was no purpose to interfere with it. Mr. Lincoln so announced. The official utterances of the political party he represented so declared. Every assurance was given that all rights of person and prop- erty would be respected. But all in vain. The leaders would not abide the result. They would not accept guarantees. They were deaf to entreaty. They would not listen to either argument or persuasion. The time had come against which the conspirators had conspired.
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They could no longer rule; they proceeded to ruin. State after State declared itself out of the Union, joined the Southern Confederacy and engaged in preparations for war.
The loyal people of the North were slow to believe they intended what they professed. They could not think it possible they would take the last fatal step. Until the last moment they had confidence there would be no blood shed. Their hope was in vain. On the 12th day of April, 1861, the opening gun was fired. A more causeless war never was. No war was ever waged on more inexcusable legal and moral grounds. It was simply treason and rebellion, without the excuse of bad government or oppression of any kind to provoke it, for it was war against the best government ever instituted among men. It was without the excuse of necessity to save from peril any kind of existing interest. It had not one single redeeming feature in either its origin, its theory, or its purpose.
This is mentioned with particularity, because with some people it seems to have become quite fashionable of late years to try to make it appear that after all that great struggle was nothing more than a sort of family quarrel, in which one side was as much at fault as the other.
All such talk should be indignantly resented. It is a slander upon the brave men to whose memory we dedi- cate this Monument. No braver men ever followed a flag than were the Soldiers of the Confederacy. They brought to the support of their cause all that valor and devotion could bring, but when it comes to the right and wrong of that struggle, there is no room for argu- ment. The Union side was altogether and absolutely right, and the other side was altogether and absolutely wrong. It is mistaken sentimentalism, and unwarranted misrepresentation to say anything else. This is not sec-
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tionalisin, and it is not said in any spirit of unkindness. Nobody wants to hurt anybody's feelings, but if we must give offense, let it be to those whom the truth will wound.
It was not until after the Union had been dissolved, a hostile government had been organized, arinies had been raised, war declared and the flag actually fired upon, that the Union cause was referred to the sword.
The people of the North did not want war. They were a peaceful people. They were engaged in busi- ness. They had no dreams of chivalry. They cared nothing for martial glory and distinction. They were willing and anxious to make any sacrifice for the sake of peace, consistent with their sense of duty and loyalty, but they were not willing to let the Union perish, and if nothing but war would save it, they were ready for the dread alternative. The roar of the guns at Fort Sumter had not died away until the challenge to battle was accepted. No words can exaggerate the outbursts of enthusiasm and the manifestations of patriotism that followed. From Maine to California the whole loyal land fairly blazed and burned. Flags were everywhere flying, drums were everywhere beating, volunteers were every- where marching, tears were everywhere streaming. Husbands said good-bye to their wives, fathers to their children, sons to their inothers, and lovers to their sweethearts. From the farmns, the workshops, the counting-houses, the school-houses ; from every employ- ment, vocation and calling of our diversified social and business worlds inen literally rushed to arms. They neither asked for nor thought of rank, pay or position. Their only desire of purpose was to suppress rebellion, punish treason, maintain the Union and preserve the Constitution. They thought only of this great country, with its tremendous possibilities for good to all inan- kind, and of their duty to posterity, as they turned their
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backs upon their homes of peace and happiness, and left behind with their ambitions and aspirations all that was near and dear, to do and die if need be, that this Nation might live.
History will be searched in vain for the record of greater self-sacrifice, a more unselfish patriotism, or a more devoted consecration to duty. No army was ever more representative of the people from which it sprang, more distinctly volunteer, or moved by nobler impulses. No bitterness, hatred, revenge, or spirit of conquest was in any heart. Of all the millions who rallied around the flag, not one wanted to take life, or destroy proper- ty, except as stern duty might require. Every man knew and appreciated that he was to fight his own countrymen, not to destroy, but to save them. Not be- cause he hated or despised them, and wanted to drive them away from us, but because he loved them, and loved their country, and wanted them and their country to remain in the Union where our fathers had placed them, to go forward with us as one people and one country to a common greatness and a common glory.
Such Soldiers should have been triumphantly suc- cessful from the beginning, but for a time they were only partially so. The trouble was in the fact that we had two questions to deal with when we commenced- one legal, and the other moral-one as to how the Con- stitution should be interpreted, the other what should be done about slavery. The law question was ours ; the other was God's question.
With man's characteristic selfishness we undertook to confine the War to the settlement of our own ques- tion, and left God's question to shift for itself.
Mr. Lincoln was careful to announce that he would save the Union with slavery if he could-without slav- ery if he must.
Accordingly, for the first eighteen months of the War
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we tried to save the Union with slavery. The effort was a failure. It was a faihire because we were without Divine approbation. The Almighty seemed to act, if I may say so withont irreverence, as though so long as we allowed His question to take care of itself, He would allow us to take care of ourselves. He was deaf to our prayers. Why should He not be when success meant only the preservation and perpetuiation of human slavery ?
We were defeated at Bull Run, repulsed at Ball's Bluff, and subjected to one kind of disappointment after another, with just enough of success now and then in- terspersed to keep us from becoming utterly discour- aged, until we were finally brought to see that both the necessity and the duty of the hour alike required us to broaden the issues, and strike for the destruction of the institution which was the mother of secession and the source and origin of all our troubles.
When that hour came, Abraham Lincoln said the bond should go free. His proclamation was a second Declaration of Independence. It rang out like an aların- bell at midnight. It challenged the attention and en- listed the sympathy of the right-thinking people of the whole world. It exalted and intensified the loyalty of all loyal men. It made every sympathizer with treason writhe and squirin. It kindled the eye, flushed the- cheek, nerved the arm and made stouter and braver the heart of every Union Soldier and Sailor.
From that time forward the War meant something worth praying for, fighting for and dying for. The tide turned. The navy won victory after victory, and the army swept on with irresistible power to Vicksburg and Gettysburg, Atlanta and the Sea, the Wilderness and Appomattox.
But, oh ! how bloody the way! Comparisons show there has been nothing equal to it in modern warfare ..
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At Waterloo, the entire loss of Wellington's army, both killed and wounded, was less than twelve per cent. Napoleon lost less than fifteen per cent. at Austerlitz, and a still smaller percentage at Morengo, Eylan and Wagram, while the average loss on both sides was less than thirteen per cent. at Magenta, Solferino, Grave- lotte and Sedan.
In more than one hundred of our battles the losses exceeded fifteen per cent., while at Shiloh, Stone River, 'Chickamauga, Gettysburg, the Wilderness and Spot- sylvania they were over thirty per cent., and in some instances more than forty per cent.
It is impossible on such an occasion as this to tell the story of such service. It is too long, too pathetic, too heroic and too patriotic to be dealt with except only by history. Suffice it to say the hardships endured, the valor displayed, the treasure expended, and the blood that was shed, are without a parallel in the annals of the world.
As the years go by we shall forget the different regi- inents, brigades, divisions, corps, and, in time, even the armies of the Potomac, the Cumberland and the Ten- nessee. Only a few great names like those of Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and Thomas will continue to enjoy individual renown. All the rest of that mighty host will become blended into a common rank to be remen- bered only as the great Union Army.
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