History of Linn County Iowa Part 80

"Music by the Band.

"Music, 'America' Sung by the Glee Club and Audience.

"Benediction by Rev. A. B. Kendig.

"JUDGE HUBBARD'S ADDRESS

"Judge Hubbard's address was so fine that we reproduce it entire. He spoke as follows:

"My Countrymen, and Comrades of the Army of the Union:

"Courage and bravery always challenge admiration, but when combined with exalted patriotism, they command the affection and grat.i.tude of mankind.

"The highest earthly care of man is to preserve as long as possible this life, and therefore the greatest human sacrifice is to give this life for one's country.

"History is full of examples of this sacrifice in all time, and yet its frequency has never lessened the appreciation of it.

"Patriotism--love of country, makes a great nation possible.

Without it men would live isolated, or in mere tribes, and powerless.

"The intellectual development of man shows him at once how weak and insignificant he is alone, and he seeks, by a combination of great numbers, to attain not only great power, but even immortality. We all know that our own lives are short, but the life of a nation may be so long, that we are apt to make delusion that it may be immortal, real.

"The natural love and anxiety we have for our children, who are to live after us, extend to and embrace the country and the government in which they are to live.

"Hence, we may be said to have two lives, an individual and a national one; and the latter commands the former in proportion to its increased span. We value everything somewhat in proportion to its power to last.

"The study and contemplation of the national life, of which we are a part is always a matter of interest and solicitude.

"On every hand men are seemingly wholly engaged in devising and planning for their individual prosperity and happiness, and silently but surely national prosperity and greatness follow these individual efforts. It is only when the nation stands in immediate peril, that we become aware how much greater our anxiety is for it, than even for ourselves.

"You who can recall the thrill of horror, of anxiety, and of grim determination that came over you when the news first came that Sumter was fired upon, and the Stars and Stripes were shot away, can tell, but I can not describe what boundless sacrifices the national life is capable of calling forth.

"How quick we found what a pride and what an interest we had in the magnitude, power, and prosperity of our country, and how firmly we were attached to its beneficent government.

"The history of modern civilization in Europe has shown a constant struggle for many years for what they call the balance of power.

"Five leading nations, speaking five different languages, and having different modes of thought and life, have watched and emulated each other, and each at times has had the reputation of being the most powerful. Fifty years ago France was foremost, today Prussia is the first power in Europe. These changes may be traced almost indefinitely.

"In all the past, the national life, the national pride has grown with the growth of civilization.

"It would be impossible that a nation should become great or powerful without a national self-love that wrought glowing pictures of its manifest destiny.

"We find ourselves possessed of a country whose productive extent is far greater than all Europe, with its 300 million population, put together.

"Beginning a little less than a hundred years ago with a population of three million, it has doubled every twenty-five years, if we shall reach forty-eight million in 1875, which scarcely admits of a doubt. The whole emigration added is less than six million.

"At the same rate of increase for the next one hundred years our population will reach the enormous figures of seven hundred and sixty-eight millions. But suppose we shall touch the resistance, namely the lack of territory to supply so great a population with food; yet we may safely estimate reaching five hundred million, and the population equally distributed will then be about equal in density to the present population of Ma.s.sachusetts.

"I have neither time nor is it necessary to describe the variety of climate embracing the tropic and the temperate zones, nor the vastness, nor the fertility, nor the mineral and coal resources of our country.

"Thus far nothing is problematical, but the people of future America are a study.

"We know how st.u.r.dy and enduring the Anglo-Saxon is, how volatile yet tenacious is the Frenchman, how sober, solid and unwavering is the German, and how hardy and everlasting are the people who inhabit with the Polar bear. These are American now, but the Ethiopian and the Asiatic are to be added. The Star of Empire from the East and from the West have met upon the American continent. I believe the original Anglo-Saxon trunk will sustain all these grafts and that a nation will come of us by the cross of all civilized people that will be as superior to any of them, as the grafted fruit is superior to that of the seeding. Future America will be fitly symbolized by the Lion and the Polar Bear, surmounted by the American Eagle.

"With one country, one language, one hope, one aspiration, bent sublimely upon achieving the highest intelligence, virtue, and culture that man can ideal, diffused through a population of five hundred million people, inhabiting one-quarter of the habitable earth with a republican government, is a spectacle that the world has never yet seen, but is to see through us and our children.

"And but for these sacred graves, which we, and all the people throughout the land, have come today to crown with wreaths of flowers, no such hope, no such picture of the future of our country would be possible.

"The future destiny of the American absolutely demanded that the fundamental idea of the Declaration of Independence should be made true, and that Liberty (in fact, as in name) should be proclaimed throughout all the land to all the inhabitants thereof, and also, that the United States should be one and inseparable forever.

"Need I tell you how bravely and how well the army of the Union settled these questions? The men who lie silent beneath our feet and their comrades, have taught the South, and Great Britain, and the world, that the belt of country usually known as the North is the heart and power of the Republic. It is the strong arm that pushes the car of civilization in the new world. It is the second Defender of the faith of our Forefathers. It has fought the good fight, and many of its bravest sons have gone to their reward.

"The Republic is emanc.i.p.ated, impartial suffrage and equality before the law established, and the work of regeneration is left for us and our posterity.

"During all the long struggle which literally ridged the country with graves like these, there was everywhere present, through the ranks of the grand army, an abiding faith in the future greatness of their country, and in the final triumph.

No soldier ever despaired of the Republic.

"We come today to crown their valor by decorating their graves. What great eulogy can we p.r.o.nounce upon them?

"These silent graves are more eloquent than the tongues of the living. Their deeds commemorate their fame and their names do live after them.

"As we meet year after year to perform this ceremony of love and grat.i.tude to our fallen comrades, new graves will be added and new obligations will rest upon us, until the last soldier of the Army of the Union is laid to rest.

"When that day comes, let us trust that the national life and prosperity that has cost so much to maintain and defend, will be inestimably dear to our children, and that they may fully realize all the hopes and aspirations of our forefathers and the second Defenders of the faith. If we shall not be disappointed in this, the 30th day of May will be as sacred as the 4th of July.

"But new trials and new perils await us. Poverty is the home of virtue, and riches the abode of vice. The Republic has pa.s.sed the age of poverty, and is approaching the age of wealth--always the sure acc.u.mulation of generations. Rome withstood all her enemies from without and within, but the corruption following in the train of her conquests overcame her.

"If Heaven permits departed heroes still to know and watch over our beloved country, what anxious prayers are being made now, lest the blessing which the hand of their forefathers have left shall be wasted by the political dissension, frauds, corruptions, and wealth of coming generations! It is not fitting that I should name here and now what you all know so well and deplore. But may I not ask that we consecrate ourselves anew over these sacred graves, and resolve that our remaining days shall add something to the purity, patriotism, and l.u.s.tre of our country that has been vouchsafed to us through the blood of these martyrs of liberty.

"But whatever of adversity or misfortune may be in store for us as a nation, the fault in no way rests upon these graves.

Their services and their fame are secure.

"And today also the graves of the Confederate dead are decorated and strewn with flowers. It is a deserved tribute to their valor and patriotism. They had been educated to believe that the South alone was the nation. We believed and knew that the nation was from ocean to ocean and from the gulf to the lakes. But it was half slave and half free.

"Today it is all free, and fifty years hence, if our hopes of the future of the Republic are realized, the South and North will rejoice in a common joy, that 'Union and Liberty' have been so signally preserved to them and their posterity forever.

"And while we wreath flowers for these graves, let us not forget to return thanks and give honor to the brave seamen who guarded our coasts, and let the 'Father of Waters go unvexed to the sea.'

"And the widow and orphan of the soldier and sailor, let them be remembered with blessings, with charity and with thanks.

All they have left them for their great sacrifice is their country and its grat.i.tude. Let these be generous and unsparing.

"And still again let us not forget the brave men and women who fed and clothed all, who nursed and cared for the sick and wounded, who cheered and encouraged all with patriotic deeds and words. And finally, and above all, let us thank G.o.d who gave us the victory, whereby it has become possible that the Stars and Stripes float over an unbroken emanc.i.p.ated Republic, strong enough to maintain its existence against all foes, and yet without power to abridge the liberties of the humblest citizen."

FIRST LOCAL LABOR UNION ORGANIZED IN THE CITY

FROM CEDAR RAPIDS REPUBLICAN, JUNE, 1906