LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 788 972 9 # peRnulii:^* pH83 E 706 .fl86 Copy 1 Continental Unity, f ili'" r A^t W K.d, ^a^Z I2Ja'(;6 ^\\\r^^'^ 0^ . WHICH American Unity, or British Domination? Memorial Address at Antrim, N. H., May 30, 1893. BY HENRY B. ATHERTON OF NASHUA, N. H. Price paid to Preserve the Union. Comrades and Friends : In the war for the Union New Hamp- shire had 33,937 enlisted men, or, reduced to a three years' standard 30,849. That was more tban 10 per cent, of our whole population, and more than half of the male population between the ages of 18 and 45. In other words one out of every 9.6 men, women and children, or one for every two households in the state, en- listed in defence of the Union. Of this number 4,882 or 16.7 per cent, died in the service. There were killed or mortally wounded 1963 or 6.5 per cent, a percen- tage of killed exceeded by only two states, Vermont and Pennsylvania. The total number enrolled in the Un- ion army wa? 2,326,168 and of them 110,070, or 4.7 per cent, were killed or died of their wounds. The deaths in the service from all causes was 359,528 or 15.4 per cent. Thus it will be seen that when a man volunteered for the suppression of the rebellion he took one chance in 20 of being killed in battle and one chance in 6 of dying in the service. The average age of the men in the Un- ion army was 25 years. Of those who successfully passed their medical exam- ination at enlistment the average expec- tation of life was 40 years. Here was a shortening of his life by 40 years of each one of 359,528 men who died in the ser- vice, or a loss, taken collectively, of 14,- 381,120 years of human life, to say noth- ing of those who died of disease or wounds after their discharge. To each one of these life was as sweet as to you or me. This was the price our fallen comrades paid for the restoration of the Union. By the side of this appall- ing sacrifice of human life, the destruc- tion of property and the waste of treas- ure sink into insignificance. Even the annual disbursement for pensions to the survivors and to the widows and depen- dent relatives of those who died, about which there is now so much patriotic, not to say political, concern and anxiety, dwindles to nothing in comparison. Nobody is conscious of any sacrifice in making those payments. If anybody's property or income is diminished by it, the loss IS imperceptible to him. Our comrades gave 14,391,120 years of their lives that we might individually and collectively as a people have the pros- perity we now enjoy. I have spoken only of those who died in the service. Others of our comrades also made sacrifices; some in impaired health and shortened lives and the con- sequent inabiliiy to provide for them- selves and their families as they other- wise might. Some left school and gave up the hope of a higher education. Many lost the opportunity to make for them- selves fortunes, as those who remained at home could do, in trade, manufactures or finance. They lost also in many cases the chance for political preferment. This may be contrary to the general impres- sion and seems a little singular in a state where patriotism was never at a dis- count. A glance at some of the state offices fi^lled since 1861 will I think sustain the statement. Of 372 state senators chosen in that period I recognize the names of only about a dozen who were in the service; of 17 speakers of the house only two; of 24 presidents of the senate, none; of six at- torney generals, one; of ten railroad com- missioners, none; of 45 councillors, only three or four; of 19 appointments to the bench of the supreme and supreme judi- cial courts, one; and of 17 governors, only two. And yet it will hardly be claimed that the 46 per cent, of the men of a mil- itary age in New Hampshire who,through physical infirmity or from prudential reasons remained at home, had on an av- erage more ability, character or patriot- ism than the 54 per cent, who went to the front. Thus in this state at least, it seems that the [opportunity for political preferment was another sacrifice which the public spirited volunteer made when he enlisted. AMERICAN UNITV OK BRITISH DOMIXATION? There were many minor personal in- conveniences and hardships also which he was called upon to undergo. He relin- quished the comforts of home, the com- panionship of friends, the freedom of civil life and voluntarily took upon him- self the deprivations of a life in camp and on the march, and a ready submission to the command of his superior officers. He underwent exposure to heat and cold, to rain and snow, miasma and.disease under conditions where he could do but little to protect himself. Was it Worth the Cost ? Looking back after the lapse of thirty years, was it our duty to do what in our old time enthusiasm we then believed it was? Was the preservation of the Amer- ican Union worth all the sacrifice, all the waste of treasure and human life which it cost? Was that war for freedom and humanity worth fighting? The gov- ernment of tue United States could have chosen the other alternative and permit- ted state after state at the South to se- cede. We could have recognized the in- dependence of the new Confederacy, the corner stone of which, according to Alex- ander H. Stephens its vice president, was human slavery. We could pusillani- mously have abandoned the border states and treachously have turned our backs upon the Union men of the South. We might have permitted the dismember- ment of this Union and consented to the peaceful establishment of a rival govern- ment within its limits. If we had waited until the new Confederacy was well or- ganized, armed, and fortified, with a full- treasury and possibly a strong foreign alliance, and it had then demanded the territories and the Prcific slope for the further extension of slavery, we should have been still less able to resist these de- mands of the Confederacy grown strong and powerful. The aggressions of the possessing the same common law, th( same literature and history, broken intc two or more fragments with separatt governments and rival and con- flicting interests, ready to fly at each others throats on the slightest provoca- tion and each always a prey to the politi- cal interference and intrigues of any foreign power, which In order to divide and conquer us might desire to make the separation between the sections perma- nent. We should see a row of custom houses and military posts along the Chesapeake, the Ohio, the Missouri, across the plains and over the mountains to the Pacific along an imaginary line between two rival and antagonistic states. The inland commerce of the western rivers would be passing through foreign territory to reach the Gulf or the Atlan- tic. The people would be supporting the burden of two governments where but one exists. To this would be added the expense of vast standing armies, in Europe, in which the men would -^erve while the women tilled the fields. Two navies would be needed each larger than the one we now have. The car of prog- ress would be halted. The hands on the dial of time would move downward show- ing that the mid day of the world's civilization had passed. Retrogression would be the order of the day. Liberty would take flight, free institutions would cease to exist and that state whose corner stone was the hideous wrong of chattel slavery would soon elevate to power the despot and tyrant. But this country could not be thus di- vided and continue half free and half pro-slavery, half on the pathway of mod- ern civilization and half incorporating the barbarism of slavery and gradually reverting to monarchy or some form of absolute government. It is more than probable that in the North, also, human South would have become every day more ^^®^<^o™ and the rights of the individual '"■" . • - ■ \yould at last be sacrificed, the light of civilization become obscure and the hopes of the oppressed and down- trodden everywhere die out. As this country could not remain half slave and half free so it could not long continue half Confederate and half Union. The spirit of secession, let loose and given free rein, all respect for written statutes and constitutions would cease. Selfish interest, unreasoning prejudice, momen- tary impulse would rise superior to the law. Personal differences would be per- petuated in Corsican vendettas and Ken- tucky feuds. Lynch law, illegal shooting and hanging, torture and burning alive ar yet to 'be ^^ recently practiced in the South might would not be a fevail and thus, imperceptibly perhaps but none the less certainly, conduct so- ciety backward to the horrid cruelties and fiendish barbarism of the medieval persecutions. md more insolent and overbearing, until the remaining fragment of the old Union had been either ingloriously subjugated, or at last, when shorn of territory, treas- ure and men, it would have been go«ded into armed resistance to these encroach- ments. In the latter event it would have been war at last with the odds against the Union cause greatly increased by the delay. Kven if this latter alternative had been averted to the present time, and we, too timid to assert our rights and too cow- ardly to do our duty, had deferred the iHHue for a generation and left children, with our tarnished divided heritage and waged, the situation pleasant one for us to contemplate. The Other Alt«rnallv«>. We should now behold one people of the same descent.speuking the same language, to our honor. Instead of a comparatively short, sharp AMERICAN UNITY OR BRITISH DOMINATIONS I and decisive conflict in the beginning, as the war for the Union really was, we , should have entailed for ourselves and our children after us an interminable struggle growing each year more barbar- ous in its character. Possibly in the North, as already in the South, the bal- lot, as the expression of the will of a sov- ereign people would no longer be held sacred, and fraud and force, false counts and the shot gun would usurp its place. Elections would be carried by fear and I intimidation, until elections even in form would be no longer held, and a score of military tyrants, under the guise of seek- ing to preserve order, would hold place and power as the result of successful revo- lution. Our Present Prosperity. Hold your gaze for a moment on this dark picture of what might have been in order that you may the more clearly real- ize what our comrades did for the wel- fare of this people — that by the contrast you may the more distinctly see the bles- sings secured to the inhabitants of this country by the successful prosecution of the war for the Union. j Look now on the American Union pre- I served— 65,000,000 of people at peace with I one another and all the world — each one free to pursue his own honest calling in his own waj' — peace and plenty within our borders— the hand of this free gov- ernment resting so lightly upon us that we cannot feel it — no honest man afraid of the civil power^ — every branch of hu- man industry multiplying ana ejsiending — education diffused and reaching further and further every year — a broad belt of fertile territory extending from ocean to ocean through the temperate zone, with every variety of climate and production that civilized man can desire — separated by thousands of miles of trackless ocean from the great military powers of Europe. It would seem that here and now the highest problems in self-government and civilization are to be wrought out 1 to a successful issue. No where else and i at no other time from the very nature of things can the conditions be so favorable. A free country where every man has fair play and equal opportunity. The love of liberty has invited the best of all lands to our shores. The dismal exception now and again only proves the general rule. They come educated by labor, instructed by travel, animated and impelled by a love of free institutions, they expect here to better their condition. When they reach our shores the yoke is lifted from their 1 necks. They are no longer the personal I thralls of mercenary lords or lordlings. I They are no longer subjected to time- I honored abuses or the tyranny of ancient privilege. When their feet touch Ameri- \ can soil the hideous nightmare which tends to cramp body and soul in the old world is dispelled. The Look Ahead Here on this continent we are building up a mighty and masterful race, superior to any the world has ever yet produced. The American of the future we may be- lieve, will unite in himself the best char- acteristics of all the superior races — the administrative power of the Norman — the fidelity of the Teuton, the battle fury of the Celt as well as his poetic imagination — the love of fair play of the Englishman united to the sturdy good sense of the Scotsman, and a physique correspond- ingly superior to all who have gone be- fore — sound minds in sound bodies, "mens sana in corpore sano." With a population thus composed, which increases a hundred fold every twenty- five years, some of you now liv- ing may expect to see a hundred and fif- ty millions of inhabitants in this country, and the grandchildren of our grandchil- dren, a population as great as that of the whole world today — or reckoning safely enough that this territory can sustain a population one half as dense as that of Belgium, our grandchildren will live to see here a people numbering seven hun- dred millions. A recent brilliant French writer says of America, "in fifty years she will have more than two hundred millions of in- habitants. If during that time Europe makes progress only in the arts and sci- ences, while the social condition of its nations does not improve, she will be to America what barbarism is to civiliza- tion." This is not the exaggeration of a poet's vision nor the wild dream of an optimist, but the sober conclusion of a thoughtful observer. So far as we can conjecture or the hu- man mind can conceive, only those three scourges of the human race, famine, pes- tilence or war, can prevent the fulfilment of this forecast. As to the danger of any widespread famine, our fertile soil and the great va- riety of its products, and our facili- ties for their quick transportation, coupled with our individual intelligence, prosperity and self control, make the peril from that source remote indeed. We have long since passed that stage in our development as a people when we could reasonably apprehend danger from that source. What the future has in store for us in the nature of pestilence no human mind can forsee. A comparatively harmless appearing influenza may become as fatal as Asiatic cholera or threaten the distruc- tion of the population of the whole globe. We can imagine such a possibility. But with the spread of education and its thousand civilizing influences, with the constant improvement both in sanitary AMERICAN UNITV OR BRITISH DOMINATION r and hj'gienic conditions, and in the knowledge of disease and the healing art, and with our remarkably healthful cli- mate, we have little to fear from any wide spread or long continued pestilence. But of war who can say? Because to- day the sun shines are we to believe the storm will never come? The millenHium however much we may wish it, has not yet dawned. The lamb cannfct yet lie down with the lion in any degree of safety to the lamb. Europe does not support the almost intolerable burden of her vast standing armies for the pleasure of it. When in the midst of that im- mense powder magazine some sceptered hand shall ruthlessly strike the spark that will spread desolation far and wide, when Europe is again reeking with carnage and slaughter, what guarranty have we that our own country may not become involved? As often at least as once in a genera- tion this people thus far have engaged in war, so that from father to son each gen- eration in turn has had the opportunity to thus offer that supreme service to their country. We helped to put down the Re- bellion. Our fathers fought England in 1812. Their fathers again fought Eng- land in the war of the Revolution to establish an independent Continental power in North America. Such a govern- ment was established but it fell short of the original design because it failed to embrace the whole continent. The French settlements on the St. Lawrence under the control of their bishop de- clined to unite their fortunes with those of the young Republic. The fathers of the Revolutionary heroes fought for Con- tinental unity in the French and Indian wars. Frequently the same generation has served in more than one war. Stark learned something of the art of war as a prisoner under his Indian captors in Canada, later, as one of Rogers' Rangers in the French war, before he commanded a regiment of New Hampshire troops at Hunker Hill or led the Green Mountain Boys at Bennington. Scott fought in the war of 1812, the Mexican war, and lived to take a part in the opening scenes of the war Tor the Union. 1 remember meeting in the service at Alexandria during the Rebellion an artilleryman who had served In Ringold's famous battery in the Mexican war. His service, I recollect, in the land of the Montezumas had developed a peculiar and rather startling kind f)f patriotism as exhibited in his oaths. Cnlike the (Jroeks who swore "by all the gods at once," hJH deities were exclusively of this Continent. Apparently his favorite oath was "By the great North American Jehovah." In his mind Jeho- vah was as much the peculiar deity of the northern portion of this continent as he had been originally of the Hebrews, and evidently to him the whole United State? was "God's country" as was the loyal section of it to the prisoner in Anderson - ville or Salisbury. While I deprecated his profanity I had a hearty respect for his continental patriotism. In the usual course of events sufficient time has elapsed for this people to be again engaged in war. But for the valor which you, my comrades, and others like you displayed on many a well fought field this nation would have been again engaged in war long before now. In- deed it is not probable that the Alabama claims would ever have been arbitrated or paid by England had there not been A million or more disci^jlined soldiers in this country at the time. Even as it was a large section of the Tory' party were eager to fight. Wo have another arbitra- tion on hand now but the situation is changed. Grant and Sherman and SCeri- dan are dead.. We should not be,ivt)r'th so much in offensive military operations as we were twenty-five years ago but I think one or two hundred thousand dis- ciplined men could still be fomid who. would volunteer to do the state some ser- vice in case any of the great powers should attempt the invasion of this country. According to the statisticians the United States has more wealth than Great Britain, hitherto regarded the_^ealthiest country in the world, and we have nearly double her population. But undefended wealthi invites to attack and nobody knows better than you who were in the service that a thousand well drilled soldiers are more than a match for a. mob of ten thousand untrained rupn". An efficient army, modern fortifications, guns and battle ships necessary for the nation- al defense cannot be improvised in a day. Unbounded wealth will not do it; an im- mense population is insurticient. It takes- the element of time to transform the raw recruit into a soldier and to chaiige money into ships and forts. Such guns as Krupp makes and the English have on some of their forts that will carry a "pro- jectile twelve or fourteen miles it takes a year to build. It takes two or three years to build a battle ship. We have a few arined cruisers that compare favorably with anything afloat. We shall have more soon and a battle ship or two so necessary for defence. We have none yet. Our regular army is small, hardly suflB- cient to keep in subjection a few hostile Indians and anarchists, but answering very well for police purposes. We have as yet no coast defences worth mentioning. A few old fashioned stone forts and tor- pedo boats will hardly suffice to protect our ten thousand miles of coast, and on our four thousand miles of northern frontier we have no defences at all. AMERICAN UNITY OR BRITISH DOMINATION? The prospect of an offensive war on our part under such circumstances against any of the first -class powers of the earth is remote indeed — as remote as the prospect of pestilence or famine. As yet we are in no condition to wage such a war. We cannot in the words of Bis- mark <