"I am equally anxious for peace with yourself and the whole North entertains the same feeling. The terms upon which peace can be had are well understood. By the South laying down their arms they will hasten that most desirable event, save thousands of human lives, and hundreds of millions of property not yet destroyed."
"The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged, and each company or regimental commander sign a like parole for the men of their commands.
"The surrender of all munitions of war will not embrace the side arms of the officers, nor their private horses or baggage. Each officer and man will be allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by the United States authorities so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside."
Still marching onward in my mission of my love for freedom and keeping close and quick step to the music of the Great Republic, I rose again in soul, heart and pride, as I stood on the deck of the Olympia, fronting Manila and the Spanish navy, and heard the great
ADMIRAL GEORGE DEWEY
say: "When you are ready, fire, Gridley!"
In an hour the royal navy of Spain was at the bottom of the sea, and over the citadel of Manila waved the Stars and Stripes, a hope and a blessing to the Philippine Islands.
I stood on the turrets of Morro Castle, Havana, as the devilish Weyler sailed away from the beautiful "Queen of the Antilles," and wondered that the cruel, infernal, tyrannical wretch was not ignominiously slaughtered by some of the victims of his starvation reign. A rattlesnake-cobra-tarantula human deformity!
It is not the plutocracy of wealth, or the aristocracy of learning, but the democracy of the heart that makes the world better and greater.
Selfishness, cupidity and greed lead to tyranny, and tyranny finally destroys itself.
Down with the villains who would enslave the people!
Only cure for tyrant ills!
And on the heights of San Juan I beheld the American troops, white and black, shoot the cruel Spaniard into defeat, and last, but not least, I stood on the prow of the Oregon and beheld the most destructive naval engagement of the century.
"Santiago was a captains' fight," and, as Admiral Schley said: "There is glory enough for all."
Schley, Sampson, Cook, Clarke, Evans, Taylor and Wainwright shall be remembered down the ages with Paul Jones, Decatur, Porter and Farragut; and with them the great Arctic hero, Admiral George W. Melville.
The monarchy of Spain that once ruled the western world has been swept off the seas, and does not own an inch of land on the American Continent.
I personally participated, with my soldier comrades, in the inauguration ceremonies of the lofty Lincoln, the glorious Garfield and the magnanimous McKinley, and heard their burning words of patriotism delivered from the east front of the National Capitol.
And again it was my melancholy duty to march with the Grand Army of the Republic in the funeral train that took their assassinated remains to lie in state under the dome of the Capitol for the last view of the people upon the calm countenance of these illustrious Americans.
The greatest characters of earth vanish away and are forgotten like the mists of the morning.
And all that beauty, all that wealth ere gave,
Await alike the inevitable hour—
The paths of glory lead but to the grave."
And now bestriding the Isthmus beneath the Stars and Stripes, with my right foot at Colon and left foot at Panama, I watch the digging of the interocean canal, with the High Priest Roosevelt joining the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in eternal wedlock, where the commerce of the globe shall float equal and free forever!
Congregated at the World's Fair at St. Louis, the grandest exposition of the globe, I see passing in review the men and women of all nations, where art, science, letters, manufacture, commerce and government power reveal the wonders of man's handiwork.
And now, navigating the circumambient air in an electric ship, I'll sail away to the "Island of Immortality," and dream a season from my multifarious labors.
Through six hundred future years,
With the roses and the myrtle
Growing in celestial spheres;
And sweet Freedom, heaven slated
Round my footsteps, night and day,
When I am incarnated—
Shall still hold its deathless sway!
And great Shakspere then shall meet me
To renew our former youth,
And exclaim with honest fervor—
"Jack, you always told the truth!"
THE END.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
Please hover your mouse over the words with a thin dotted grey line underneath them for seeing what the original reads.
The original varied spelling has been retained.
Fixed issues
- p. xvi—typo fixed, changed "Blackfraiars" into "Blackfriars"
- p. 062—inserted missing closing quote after "Henry the Fourth"
- p. 067—typo fixed, changed "Southhampton" to "Southampton"
- p. 077—typo fixed, changed period after Ovid into comma
- p. 078—removed extra comma after "action, shall"
- p. 082—typo fixed, changed "O'Neill" to "O'Neil"
- p. 099—typo fixed, changed "fued" into "feud"
- p. 114—typo fixed, changed "Arnum" to "Arnim"
- p. 122—inserted missing closing quote after "the dogs of war"
- p. 150—typo fixed, changed "exurberant" to "exuberant"
- p. 160—typo fixed, changed "hatheth" to "hateth"
- p. 163—inserted missing closing quote after "the sea maid's music?"
- p. 190—typo fixed, changed "pick" into "prick"
- p. 196—typo fixed, removed an extra word "PAGE"
- p. 203—inserted a missing period after "the Prince of Denmark"
- p. 209—typo fixed, changed "my" into "by"
- p. 216—typo fixed, changed "beauty" into "honesty"
- p. 218—typo fixed, changed "Dump" into "Dumb"
- p. 224—typo fixed, changed "Margaret" into "Gertrude"
- p. 232—typo fixed, changed "deeds" to "weeds"
- p. 237—typo fixed, changed "Armyn" to "Armin"
- p. 252—typo fixed, changed "speech" to "peace"
- p. 253—typo fixed, changed a closing single qoute to a double quote
- p. 254—typo fixed, changed "parent's yes" to "parents' eyes"
- p. 254—inserted a missing comma after "and trades"
- p. 256—inserted a missing period after "quoth I"
- p. 297—typo fixed, changed "mutally" into "mutually"