Clemson University - Taps Yearbook (Clemson, SC)

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34o THE CLEMSON COLLEGE CHRONICLE. Then let us cant no more of war and its horrors, for America, the envied pearl of the western diadem, stands proudly forth as the exponent of battle to the death. And may the time never come when it can be said of America, as of other less courageous countries, The nations do but murmur, snarling at each other ' s heels, And the jingling of the guinea helps the hurt that honor feels. For when a great nation takes its hand from the sword- hilt to put a penny in its purse, the end of its glory is near. This grand and mighty nation, which has been for the past hundred years gathering strength for the struggle, but yesterday stepped forth in her might, and flinging down the gauntlet, announced a new world-policy and principles of government, and by that act pledged herself to maintain in the face of all comers, not only her own freedom — for that no one will contest — but the freedom and independence of all who turned to her for aid. Shall she turn back to-day, fearing lest she spend a little blood and a little coin in war ; or lest she will not receive the plaudits of the Old World, jealous forsooth, and fearful for their own pet oppressions ? I sometimes dream that God in his mercy raised this nation up unto salvation. I delight to trace in the rise and fall of the past nations the finger of God, and strive to read the Almighty ' s plan in the historic page In the farthest East appeared the first feint light of civilization ' s dawn, and westward ever since, the star of empire hath taken its way ; while each succeeding nation that rose in its luminous path hath reached a higher plane and wrought out a grander destiny. Egypt, whose lofty pyramids stand as a monument to the people who gave to the world the beginning of mathematics ; the Greek, whose beautiful temples but symbolize the art and cul-

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THE CLEMSOX COLLEGE CHRONICLE. 339 would strive to relight those smouldering embers of sec- tional opposition and party strife. The bitter cup has passed ; the last stumbling-block has been removed from our path of progress, and we can now move forward with a giant ' s stride to that high destiny for which the chas- tening hand of God has fitted us — the greatest nation and the grandest people in all the mighty tide of time. Still following the history of our own republic, I would bring to your notice, sirs, the h ighest and noblest cause for battle — battle for the sake of humanity — the chastise- ment of an effete and corrupt nation, and the liberation of a brave and struggling people. In Cuba, that Pearl of the Antilles. which Spain had won so proudly, but which she had so sadly misused, she was at last to find her Nemesis. For the murder of her own people ; for the blood of those slaughtered millions during the reign of the Inquisition, whose terrible cry of suffering could not be silenced, but came ringing down through the centuries, Spain incurred a terrible retribution. By the same stroke, the right to push forward in the march of civilization, and to enjoy the blessings of liberty. Spain goaded us by her taunts and insults, and buried our brave sailors in the putrid waters of Havana Harbor ; Cuba cried to us through her widows and orphans. Was war ever more necessary — ever morally more justified ? But consider furthermore, the beneficent results of this war upon our own people. The Spanish-American war has welded the Union together, as fifty years of peaceful days could not have done, and to-day, North and South are side by side, blazing the path of civilization into dis- tant and foreign lands. Whatever sectional bitterness and party strife existed by virtue of the Civil war has been swept away, and we now stand in the close communion of a common brotherhood.

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THE CLEMSON COLLEGE CHRONICLE. 341 ture that they contributed ; the Roman, who first reduced government and organization to a science. The star now blazes in the world ' s extreme west, and it is now the appointed time for our own dear country to take the initiative and stand up and do battle for civil rights and liberties, wherever they are endangered in whatever clime. The awful responsibility of leadership against the opposite principle of empire and absolute rule, as exemplified in that other young nation which has grown up so rapidly in Eastern Europe and Asia, rests upon us who have shattered the scepter of the tyrant and broken the shackles of the slave ; who have torn the diadem from off princes ' brows, and placed the fasces of authority in the peoples ' hands. We have promised to lead the human race to a land where justice reigns supreme. Can we make good our promise ? Are we equal to the task to which we have given our hands ? All eyes are upon us, my countrymen, in hope or fear, in prayer or protest. Pause not in this grand career, this march of progress, this war of reformation. So long as we need fight the old order for justice ' s sake, let us not hesitate, They say that war is hell, the ' great accursed, ' The sin impossible to be forgiven, Yet I can look beyond it at its worst, And still find blue in Heaven. Methinks, I see how spirits may be tried, Transfigured into beauty on war ' s verge, Like the flowers, whose tender grace is learned, beside The trampling of the surge. And when I note how nobly nature ' s form Under the war ' s red rain, I deem it true, That he who made the earthquake and the storm, Perchance makes battles too. W. G. Hill, ' 01.