Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 10.djvu/88

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS

lection of the battles fought and the victories won in defense of their hopeless cause; and re- specting, as all true and brave men must respect, the martial spirit with which the men of the North vindicated the integrity of the Union, and their devotion to the principles of human free- dom, they do not ask, they do not wish the North to strike the mementoes of heroism and victory from either records or monuments or battle-flags. They would rather that both sections should gather up the glories won by each section, not 'jivious, but proud of each other, and regard tiiem as a common heritage of American valor. Let us hope that future generations, when they remember the deeds of heroism and devotion done on both sides, will speak, not of Northern prowess or Southern courage, but of the heroism, courage and fortitude of the Americans in a war of ideas — a war in which each section sig- nalized its consecration to the principles, as each understood them, of American liberty and of the Constitution received from their fathers.

Charles Sumner in life believed that all occa- sion for strife and distrust between the North and South had passed away, and there no longer remained any cause for continued estrangement between those two sections of our common coun- try. Are there not many of us who believe the same thing? Is not that the common sentiment, or if not, ought it not to be, of the great mass of our people, North and South ? Bound to each other by a common constitution, destined to 62

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