USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > History of the Cuyahoga County soldiers' and sailors' monument > Part 31
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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 mnost 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 form 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 form of a struggle for political power. The great question was whether free- dom 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 hier 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 made 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 might 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 com- 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- mal chattels.
It had another and an equally bad result. It blunted
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the moral 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 smites 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- eignty 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 inade 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. 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 sentimentalisin, 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, armies 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 mothers, and lovers to their sweethearts. From the farms, the workshops, the counting-houses, the school-houses ; from every employ- ment, vocation and calling of our diversified social and business worlds mnen 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 unselfishi patriotism, or a more devoted consecration to duty. No army was ever more representative of the people from which it sprang, inore 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 thein, 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 inoral-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 failure because we were without Divine approbation. The Almighty seemed to act, if I may say so without 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 perpetuation 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 alarını- 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 squirm. It kindled the eye, flushed the cheek, nerved the arın 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- ments, 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 remem- bered only as the great Union Army.
But while individual names and deeds will be for- gotten, the results of their achievements will live. They are enduring as the Republic itself. Our heroes fought not for a day, but for all time ; not for transient ideas, but for everlasting principles ; not to subdue a few dissatisfied States, but for the integrity of our whole great empire ; not for themselves alone, but for their enemies as well, and the proudest and most gratifying thought any Union Soldier can have must be that
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already the time lias come when those who mnet him on the field recognize that his victory was their victory as well, and to-day stand pledged to uphold and preserve the Government they then sought to destroy. Their triumph brought freedom, peace, prosperity, power and promise to all the people of every section of an undivided and indivisible country.
Cuyahoga County is justly proud of her part in the struggle. Her sons bore a conspicuous part on the water and participated among the foremost in every great battle of the War.
Wherever men were called upon to die, on either land or sea, they were there to offer their lives. It is a fitting tribute to place here, on this favorite spot, in the heart of this great city, this beautiful Monument. It shows a just appreciation of sacrifice, heroism and fidelity to duty. Silently but eloquently it will teach lessons of patriotismn to all who shall look upon its tow- ering shaft. No true citizen of the Republic can be- hold it without a higher and nobler sense of the duties and responsibilities of his citizenship. It will point every child and student to the most thrilling and inspir- ing chapter of our national history, and lift up all alike to the highest planes of patriotic purpose.
And now as we engage in its dedication, let us also dedicate ourselves anew to the interests of our country. Let no man think he lives under the institutions these men saved merely to enjoy them. There will be no inore slavery to abolish ; no more lieresies of secession to destroy ; no inore such rebellions to suppress ; 110 more wars of any kind between the North and the South, but there is other work to do, less heroic, per- haps, but scarcely less important.
No government will execute itself, and no form of government will answer human requirements unless it be rightly administered. It is not the business of gov-
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ernment to furnish employment or bread; neither is it the right of government, by imbecility or the applica- tion of false theories, to paralyze business, destroy prosperity and enforce idleness, with its consequent misery and crime.
With industrial armies marching on Washington, and the military of both the States and the United States marching on organized labor ; with a coal miners' strike that cost the country millions of dollars just ended, and a railroad strike that will cost, no one yet knows how many millions more, now in progress; with tens of thousands toiling for less than enough to secure the necessary comforts of life, and other tens of thou- sands in idleness, with unrest and sullen dissatisfaction almost universal, we have a condition, not a theory, confronting us, that invites and demands immediate and serious attention.
We must not have either hunger or bayonets, and we will not have either long. The mills and the factories must be started ; the mines must be kept open ; the railroads must operate, and all who are willing to work must, shall and will have employment, and the whole country must and will again enjoy prosperity. But this change cannot be brought by violence. It must come about in due form and orderly manner, under and in accordance with the forins, provisions and require- ments of law.
Let no man take the law into his own hands. It is our sovereign rule, and whosoever strikes at it, strikes at the only king we have. Every such blow, no matter in whose name it is struck, or how it may be disguised, is moral, if not legal, treason as rank and foul as was the assassin thrust that struck down the President of the French Republic.
If we would perpetuate what our fathers achieved, and these Soldiers saved, we must suppress not only as-
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saults upon constituted authority, but also the men who make such assaults. We have no room, broad as our country is, for the anarchist, the communist, the social- ist, or the boycotter. They are all of the same ilk. They are all un-American. They are all the enemies of labor, as well as of capital. Their tyranny is greater than that which precipitated the revolution. Their success would mean the dissolution of society, and the overthrow of the Republic.
Looking beyond our borders, the time has come for the extension of our trade relations. We should not only do business with all the world, but our full share of it. This is particularly true as to the Western Hemisphere.
The commercial dependencies of England are her Greater Britain. They turn the wealth of the world to the island that rules them, and make it the creditor and financial dictator of all nations. Let us learn from ex- ample not to be unduly ambitious, but to be sufficiently so to subserve and protect our own best interests. Not by violence, but by the moral force of our position and relationships we should at least secure our own from those who are our natural friends.
Other great questions are pressing upon us. We can not escape them if we would, and we should not if we could. In the immediate future we must answer whether or not we intend to wait indefinitely upon the pleasure of European nations for remonetization of sil- ver. Some way must be found to secure their co-oper- ation, or some way for us to act in safety without it. Glittering generalities and plausible platitudes will no longer answer. And how long, think you, will the world continue to sail ships around the Horn ? Not long. We must either build the Nicaragua Canal and control it, or let somebody else do it. Let us not be afraid to do it ourselves. Let us claim what belongs to
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11s. Let us not be afraid to own the Sandwich Islands, and every other island that may want to fly the Ameri- can flag. Let us not be afraid to be greater than we are. We have only to trust ourselves. Bloodless conquests with rich rewards are before us. The good of the world, as well as our own, commands us to go forward. Let us not hesitate, but with broad, patriotic, comprehensive statesmanship lay hold upon the peace, happiness, power and glory that are within our grasp. Whether we are Democrats or Republicans, let us be, first of all, Americans.
The gifted orator was frequently applauded, and, at the conclusion of his masterly effort, he was enthusi- astically cheered.
The children then sang "The Star Spangled Banner." Governor Mckinley suggested to the audience that they would be pleased to have presented to them two ladies who were all but one of the survivors of the women perpetuated in the bronze panel of the Monu- ment devoted to the work of the Sanitary Commission in this city during the War. Prompt and hearty ex- pressions of approval were heard from every side. Governor Mckinley responded by introducing Mrs. Sarah Adams Estabrook Thatcher and Mrs. Esther M. Harris, widow of the late J. A. Harris, in the following appropriate manner:
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