FOR about three-quarters of a century the statesmen, that is to say, the
politicians, of the North and South', had been busy making compromises,
adopting constitutions and enacting laws; busy making speeches, framing
platforms and political pretences, to the end that liberty and slavery
might dwell in peace and friendship under the same flag.
Arrogance on one side, hypocrisy on the other.
Right apologized to Wrong for the sake of the Union.
The sources of justice were poisoned, and patriotism became the defender
of piracy. In the name of humanity mothers were robbed of their babes.
Thirty years ago to-day a shot was fired, and in a moment all the
promises, all the laws, all the constitutional amendments, and all
the idiotic and heartless decisions of courts, and all the speeches of
orators inspired by the hope of place and power, were blown into rags
and ravelings, pieces and patches.
The North and South had been masquerading as friends, and in a moment,
while the sound of that shot was ringing in their ears, they faced each
other as enemies.
The roar of that cannon announced the birth of a new epoch. The echoes
of that shot went out, not only over the bay of Charleston, but over the
hills, the prairies and forests of the continent.
These echoes said marvelous things and uttered prophecies that none were
wise enough to understand.
Who at that time had the slightest conception of the immediate future?
Who then was great enough to see the end? Who then was wise enough
to know that the echoes would be kept alive and repeated for years by
thousands and thousands of cannon, by millions of muskets, on the fields
of ruthless war?
At that time Abraham Lincoln, an Illinois lawyer, was barely a month in
the President's chair, and that shot made him the most commanding and
majestic figure of the nineteenth century--a figure that stands alone.
Who could have guessed the names of the heroes to be repeated by
countless lips before the echoes of that shot should have died away?
There was at that time a young man at Galena, silent, unobtrusive,
unknown; and yet, the moment that shot was fired he was destined to lead
the greatest host ever marshaled on a field of war, destined to receive
the final sword of the Rebellion.
There was another, in the Southwest, who heard one of the echoes of that
shot, and who afterward marched from Atlanta to the sea; and another,
far away by the Pacific, who also heard one of the echoes, and who
became one of the immortal three.
But, above all, the echoes were heard by millions of men and women in
the fields of unpaid toil, and they knew not the meaning, but felt that
they had heard a prophecy of freedom. And the echoes told of death
and glory for many thousands--of the agonies of women--the sobs of
orphans--the sighs of the imprisoned, and the glad shouts of the
delivered, the enfranchised, the redeemed.
They who fired that gun did not dream that they were giving liberty to
millions of people, including themselves, white as well as black, North
as well as South, and that before the echoes should die away, all the
shackles would be broken, all the constitutions and statutes of slavery
repealed, and all the compromises merged and lost in a great compact
made to preserve the liberties of all.