They
did not come here to plunder the soil and return to Spain to spend the
proceeds in riot. They were men in whose hearts liberty never died. They
sought this continent that they might create liberty, and they did it.
Their labor was fruitful.
FOOTNOTE:
[58] Auditorium, Chicago, April 30, 1894. By permission of the author.
A VISION OF WAR[59]
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
The past rises before me like a dream. Again we are in the great
struggle for national life. We hear the sounds of preparation, the
music of boisterous drums, the silver voices of heroic bugles. We see
thousands of assemblages, and hear the appeals of orators. We see the
pale cheeks of women, and the flushed faces of men; and in those
assemblages we see all the dead whose dust we have covered with flowers.
We lose sight of them no more. We are with them when they enlist in the
great army of freedom. We see them part with those they love. Some are
walking for the last time in quiet, woody places, with the maidens they
adore. We hear the whisperings and the sweet vows of eternal love as
they lingeringly part forever.
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