He was greater than Puritan, greater than Cavalier, in that he was
American, and that in his honest form were first gathered the vast and
thrilling forces of his ideal government--charging it with such
tremendous meaning and elevating it above human suffering that
martyrdom, though infamously aimed, came as a fitting crown to a life
consecrated from the cradle to human liberty. Let us, each cherishing
the traditions and honoring his fathers, build with reverent hands to
the type of this simple but sublime life, in which all types are
honored, and in our common glory as Americans there will be plenty and
to spare for your forefathers and for mine.
Dr. Talmage has drawn for you, with a master's hand, the picture of your
returning armies. He has told you how, in the pomp and circumstance of
war, they came back to you, marching with proud and victorious tread,
reading their glory in a nation's eyes! Will you bear with me while I
tell you of another army that sought its home at the close of the late
war--an army that marched home in defeat and not in victory--in pathos
and not in splendor, but in glory that equaled yours, and to hearts as
loving as ever welcomed heroes home! Let me picture to you the footsore
Confederate soldier, as buttoning up in his faded gray jacket the parole
which was to bear testimony to his children of his fidelity and faith,
he turned his face southward from Appomattox in April, 1865.
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