13 to enquire “ What meaneth it? ” But more specifically, the triumph of Americans over victories which have rolled back national dangers, should express. Secondly, The intelligent appreciation of the value of the government and institutions in defence of which they have been gained. It should mean that we understand the worth of the foundation upon which civil, political, and religious liberty rests, its value to ourselves and to mankind, —that we have a government worthy of the greatest sacrifices of the nation, one esteemed above considerations of quiet, wealth, or blood. It ought to mean that whilst we abhor war and all its doings, that whilst every heart aches for the suffering of the wounded on the field of battle, for the bleeding hearts of widows and orphans all over the land, for the loss of the brave, “unshrouded dead,” whose bodies lie in informal graves, but whose memories are placed within the inner sanctuary of the nation’s heart, its pride and treasure ; yet that such is the nation’s estimate of the main principles of their government, that over all this a shout of gladness may ring at every well-struck blow for its preservation. It should be joy in the hope of the preservation of an organic body of truth' which contains a priceless legacy for our posterity ; and not for ours only, but for all the race. When we see our standard planted on the ramparts of rebellion, and traitors fleeing from its shadow, we should shout because the great thought it symbolizes has risen somewhat to the view of the skeptical yet hoping nations. Each time we see the starry emblem of free speech, free press, free labor, and free conscience, borne on high by the hands of masterless men, above new fields of victory, we should shout as though beholding the faces of the unborn millions
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