Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 10.djvu/176

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS

in his ardent nature were fused the virtues of both, and in the depths of his great soul the faults of both were lost. 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, tho 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 reverend 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 sp^re for your forefathers and for mine.

Doctor Taimage has drawn for you, with a mas- ter 's hand, the picture of your returning armies. He has told you how, in the pomp and circum- stance of war, they came back to you, marching with proud and victorious tread, reading their glor}' in a nation's eyes I -Will you bear with me '.vhile 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 foot-sore Confederate soldier, as, but- toning up in his faded gray jacket the parole which was to bear testimony to his children of 144

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