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MILITARY SERVICES. - ADDRESS
ON TEMPERANCE, 1845. - INFLUENCE AT HOME.
BY nature Mr. Wilson
possesses the endowments requisite to success, not only as a political,
but also as a military leader. Rapid in his combinations, quick to
discover the weak point in an opponent, fertile in expedients, fearless
and far-seeing, he has elements both of mind and body for a commander.
His thoughts were early turned towards military life; and, during his
minority, he took delight in reading the history of the campaigns of
Marlborough, Wolfe, Washington, Wellington, Napoleon, and other eminent
generals. He drew in his mind the plans of celebrated battles, and
criticised, as he could, the movements of distinguished leaders in the
field. He first appeared upon the training-field in Farmington, where he
was appointed to an inferior military office. On coming to Natick, he
continued to take a lively interest in military affairs. He abominated
war, viewed simply as a means of attaining personal glory; but he felt
that it was sometimes indispensable to self-protection, and that the
military system of Massachusetts needed revision and support.
This opinion he privately
and publicly expressed as opportunity occurred. In the State Senate,
1844, he was appointed chairman of the Military Committee, and made a
strong speech on the 14th of February of that year in favor of
increasing the pay of soldiers doing military duty.
In 1843, without his
knowledge or consent, he was elected major of the first regiment of
artillery, of which William Schouler was then colonel. He knew nothing
of his election until he saw the announcement of it in the public
papers. His duties as a major he faithfully discharged, and thereby won
the confidence and respect of the soldiers under him. In June, 1846, he
was elected as colonel of the same regiment; and, six weeks later,
brigadier-general of the third brigade of the Massachusetts volunteer
militia, in which office he continued for the next five years. During
this period he studied military tactics carefully, and by his skill and
industry brought his brigade up to an admirable state of discipline. His
soldiers loved him and obeyed him, carrying out his orders with
alacrity, and priding themselves upon the bearing and ability of their
commander. He had the reputation of drilling his brigade with greater
thoroughness than any other officer in the State, and of being, at the
same time, highly popular with his men. By his strenuous exertions in
the legislature, much was done to revive the military spirit in
Massachusetts, and to put her into position for a struggle which some
prophetic eyes discovered even then to be impending. In a defence of the
integrity of the soldiers at the polls, Mr. Wilson, referring to his own
connection with the militia of the State, said in the Convention of
1853, -
"I may speak from some
little experience, having been a member of the volunteer militia of
Massachusetts for nine years, and having during these years held the
offices of major, lieutenant-colonel, colonel, and brigadier-general. I
held the command of a brigade of more than eight hundred men for five
years; and during these nine years I made many acquaintances and formed
many friendships I shall ever fondly cherish. Not one unkind word ever
passed between me and any officer or private of the brigade during my
nine years of connection with it. I received from many of my comrades
many acts of kindness I hope never to forget. During these years I was
five times a candidate for senator of Middlesex, the county where the
members of my brigade resided ; and I can truly say that I do not know
or think that I ever received a single vote owing to my connection with
the brigade. Four of the five gentlemen who were members of my staff
were of a different political faith from mine; and I have no reason to
think they ever sacrificed their opinions on account of our personal
relations as members of a military family. The members of the volunteer
militia of Massachusetts are generally men of intelligence and
character, who are not won from their political allegiance by the plume
and epaulet."
So in the same speech he
thus eloquently expresses his views of peace and war -
"I am not one of those
men who cry peace when there is no peace without slavery, injustice, and
wrong. I may be in error; but I have sometimes thought that the song
which the peace-movement has hymned into the ear of Europe during the
past five years has made far easier the march of the legions of Russia
and Austria upon Hungary and Italy, and the march of the legions of
France - of apostate republican France - upon Rome. While the people
have listened with softened hearts to the songs of peace, their masters
have disarmed them, and sent forth their increasing standing armies to
crush every manifestation of freedom, progress, and popular rights. When
tyranny is overthrown, and freedom established; when standing armies are
disbanded, and the people armed for their own protection against
arbitrary power, - then I would write 'Peace' on banners of the people,
and send them forth to make the tour of the world. My motto is, 'LIBERTY
first; PEACE afterwards.'"
By these faithful
military services in his own State, Mr. Wilson was unconsciously making
preparation for the intelligent performance of the important duties
which devolved on him as chairman of the Military Committee of the
United-States Senate during the Rebellion. For that post, not only
comprehensive views, and industry that fears no task, but large
experience and information gained by actual practice, were demanded; and
these Mr. Wilson had.
In regard to temperance
Mr. Wilson's record has ever been clear, decided, and consistent. With
profound sorrow he early saw the havoc produced among his fellow-men by
the use of stimulating drink; and with unwavering steadiness he has ever
used his tongue, his pen, and his vote, to dissuade and to restrain them
from the sale and from the use of any thing which intoxicates the brain.
Next to slavery, he has considered intemperance as the tremendous evil
of this nation; and therefore, as a friend of humanity and a lover of
his country, he has ever striven most earnestly to arrest its progress.
His views on this question in 1845 appear in an animated address
delivered on behalf of the Young Men's Temperance Society in Natick on
the presentation by a lady of a beautiful banner to that body. It will
be read with interest:
"MADAM, - In receiving at
your hands this beautiful banner from the ladies of the Martha
Washington Society, permit me, in return, in behalf of my associates, to
tender to you, and the ladies whose organ you are, our sincere and
grateful acknowledgments for this expression of your favor. For this
evidence of zeal in our cause, and regard for our success, you have the
thanks of many warm and generous hearts, that will ever throb with
grateful recollection of your kindness till they shall cease to beat
forever. We receive, madam, with the deepest and liveliest sensibility,
the kind sentiments you have expressed in behalf of our society. Be
assured that these sentiments are appreciated and reciprocated by us.
"You have this day,
ladies, consecrated and devoted this banner to the great moral movement
of the age. We accept its guardianship with mingled feelings of pride,
hope, and joy. It is indeed a fit and noble tribute, an offering worthy
of the cause and of you. May its fair folds never be stained or
dishonored by any act of ours! Tasteful and expressive in design and
execution, we prize it highly for its intrinsic worth; but we prize it
still higher as a manifest and enduring memorial of your devotion to
principle and duty. Ever proud shall we be to unroll its gorgeous folds
to the sunshine and the breeze; to gather round it, and rally under it,
and guard and defend it, as we would defend from every danger its fair
and generous donors. It was not intended that the eye should feast alone
on its splendor, but that, so often as the eye should gaze upon it, a
quick and lively appreciation of the transcendent magnitude of the cause
to which you have devoted it should live in our understanding, and
affect our hearts.
"Ours is a peaceful
reform, a moral warfare. We are not called upon to leave our homes and
the loved ones that cluster around our domestic altars to go to the
field of bloody strife on an errand of wrath and hatred. Our battles are
bloodless; our victories are tearless.
Yet the contest in which
we are engaged is a fearful one; for it is a struggle with the vitiated
and depraved appetites and passions of our fallen race, —foes that have
triumphed over earth's brightest and fairest, over all that is noble in
man and lovely in woman. These foes have gathered their victims from
every clime and every age. No age, sex, or condition, has escaped.
Heroes who have led their mailed legions over a hundred fields of glory
and renown, and planted their victorious eagles on the capitals of
conquered nations; statesmen who have wielded the destinies of mighty
empires, setting up and pulling down thrones and dynasties, and stamping
the impress of their genius upon the institutions of their age; orators
who have held listening senates in mute and rapt admiration, and whose
eloquence has thrown a halo of imperishable light and unfading glory
over their age and nation; scholars who have laid under contribution the
vast domains of matter and mind, grasping and mastering the mighty
problems of moral, intellectual, and physical science, and left behind
them monuments of toil and wisdom for the study and admiration of all
ages, - have been the victims, the slaves, of these foes, - foes which
we have pledged ourselves to conquer. In this fearful contest we will
bear aloft this banner and when the conflict thickens, when trials,
doubts, and temptations come around us like the floods, may it glitter
through the gloom like a beacon-light over the dark and troubled waste
of waters, a sign of hope and promise, to which may come, in the hour of
loneliness, sorrow, and penitence, some erring and fallen brother! You
can sustain us by your prayers, and cheer us by your approving smiles.
You can visit, as you have done, the drunkard's home of poverty,
destitution, and misery, and by offices of kindness and charity and
something to dry up the tears and alleviate the wants of its neglected
and sorrowing inmates.
"Every great struggle for
humanity has been blessed by woman's prayers, and aided by her generous
toil. The history of our country, of our own renowned commonwealth, is
full of the noblest instances of her constancy and devotion. She trod
with our fathers the deck of 'The Mayflower.' She sat beside them in
unrepining and uncomplaining constancy as they gathered in council,
houseless and homeless in mid-winter, to lay in prayers and tears the
foundations of a free Christian commonwealth. In the long, perilous
struggles with the wild sons of the forest, she shared without complaint
their privations and dangers; and, in the great struggle for
independence, she counselled the wise, infused courage into the brave,
armed fathers, husbands, sons, and brothers, and sent them to the field
where freedom was to be won by blood. In the great struggle in which we
are engaged to free our native land from the blighting, withering,
soul-destroying curse of intemperance, our fair country-women have shown
that they inherit the virtues of our patriotic mothers.
"Ladies, you have this
day given up substantial evidence of your friendship, sympathy, and
co-operation. May we not, then, indulge the hope that our societies will
move along in union and harmony, each in its appropriate sphere of duty,
laboring to hasten on the day when every drunkard shall be redeemed, and
restored to his manhood and to society?
"Friends and associates,
we shall doubtless, in the changes and mutations of life, be called to
separate. Wherever we may go, on the land or on the sea, in our own or
other climes, may a deep and abiding sense of duty go with us! May the
influences of this hour be ever upon us! May this banner, the gift of
those near and dear to us, ever float in our mind's eye, inciting us to
duty, and guarding us in the hour of temptation! And when life's labors
are done, its trials over, and its honors won, may each of us have the
proud consciousness that we have kept the pledge inviolate; that we have
done something in our day and generation for our race, - something that
shall cause, our names and memories to be mentioned with respect and
gratitude when 'the golden bowl shall be broken and the silver cord
loosed,' when our 'bodies' shall have mouldered and mingled with the
dust, and 'our spirits have returned to God who gave them'"!
Thus at home, among his
own immediate friends and acquaintances, Mr. Wilson's words and example
were from the outset unchangeably on the side of sobriety, civil order,
social progress, and reform. If any thing beneficent was to be
attempted, his friends knew where to find him. His hand and heart were
ready. On the young people of the village his influence was ever
salutary and inspiring. His friendly counsel was ever given for a
higher, nobler course of life. In the social circle, in the shop, the
lecture-room, or in the street, he was always on the right side. Very
many of his companions can trace their success in life mainly to the
elevating influence he exerted over them. The steady vote of Natick in
his favor, and the public demonstrations of joy which that town has made
on his advancement to political power, evince the estimation in which he
is held as a townsman, friend, and neighbor at home. Those who know him
best appreciate him most highly as a citizen and as a man. |
