The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1863-01-23
The Dead of 1869.

From the New York World
The dead past buries its dead its SEX
tOnry is sure and silent Each generation
fatters itself and those whom it lays in the
grave to which itself is tending that its
own sorrow toreshadows the enduring grief
OF ages, its own praise the lasting eulogies
OF time. But swift oblivion swallows up
the brightest names, and the bleak aurora
OF glory fades away, almost "ere one can
say it lightens." 1t is in the cause he falls
for and in the faith and courage of his ser
vice that the dying soldiers soul must find
the strength his last hour needs, not in the
hope OF long renOwn and memorial hOnors
The hulnblest private in the ranks may
feel that a few short years at furthest will
contound the fate of his commander with
his own. One common epitaph sums up
the substance Of their common glory
dead upon the field of honor" is the
worlds Inscription alike upon the mound
which hides its indistinguishable thousands
and the monument which reminds the
passer-by how soon a famous name dies
out of the common thought and daily
speech Of men. The four thousand at
Thermopyle and Epaminondas dying at
Leuctra, Montcalm and Wolfe on the
Heights Of Abraham, and the embattled
farmers stretched name!eSs Oh the slopes OF
Bunker Hill, have passed away together
into one vague and general influence oi
human bravery and consistency and deyO-
ton, things that We're their own reward,
and that light the race with Il common ill
spiration more truly glorious and useful
than any individual fame
The rolls OF the dead in 1862 are filed
with memories OF unnoteti heroes. Though
many officers OF mark have fallen in the
numerous battles of the past twelve
months, the heart of the nation already
coniounds them i'll an honorable equality
with the thousands OF citizens who have
persisted in arms around them The
nation lnourns to-day not for her captains
ana her generals, but for her children: for
so many lives OF true and gallant men cut
short lii the flush OF their strength, and
yielded up to the honor of their country.
y Greeley or Beecher may think the
loss OF few thousand private soldiers,
more or less, slight thing in comparison
with the death Of one Major General, es-
pecially when that Major Generals culogy
can serve the one as the text for rhetori-
cal harrangue and the other ;ls the axis Of
political tirework. But the sounder in
stinct OF the people does truer justice to
the dead, and embalms them all in one
universal praise of loyalty and of valor
Lander and Reno, Mitchell and Mansfield
the Jancksons and Terrill, Rodman and
McCook and Jameson, rest from their
gallant labors with the. thousands whom
they led to victory and to death. and ask
no loftier funeral honor, than the nation
gives to these
Ia the sweep of death through the year
just ended it is strange how few have been
struck down Of those shining marks "
which the insatiate archer is said most to
love. 1t would almost seem that, before
the vast and terrible banquet of war to
which human passion has hidden him,
Death has lost his relish for the food of
calmer days.
The loyal States have lost no one man
Of extraordinary eminence in civil life, no
conspicuous author, no famous statesman
In the neurology of the Confederate South
the single name of John Tyler breaks a
similar uniformity. The South has lost.
in Albert Sydney Johnston, in Ashby,
Maxcy Gregg, Thomas Cobb, Zollicotfer,
and Twiggs, its full proportion of COM
manders, most of them. like most of our
own, perisiling by the sword which they
mad so hotly taken up. But in the South,
rs in the North, the army OF civil leaders
which opened the old year opens the new,
and Death has interviewed to save no one
prominent mover from the gathering re-
sponsibity of the formidable fifth act, to
ward which it is SO rapidly moving.
Scarcely less noticeable is the pause OF
the Great Reaper at his work among the
taller grain across the sea. With the ex-
ception of the philosophical historian
Buckle in England, and of the poet INLAND
in Germany, no one man Of absolutely
commanding position and power has passed
from the stage OF European public life since
January last came to Us with its regrets
and hopes.
Abroad and at home Death has torborne
to distract our thoughts from the one huge
carnival our own hands had prepared for
him. He has taken the thousands of the
people, and left their princes for q leisure
day, when the returning reason of the race
shall deny to him the fearful license in
which we have bid him revel. He CLEANS
over the last twelvemonth, not like the
lightning striking here and there giant
tree in the forest, but like prairie fire
rushing in pillows of flame far as the eye
can reach offering up the flower and hope
of a mighty people in one sad and terrible
holocaust Of wrath.
1t is suggestive fact that in New
Hampshire-one of the six New England
States, which are SO bent on spreading
&c freedom" and establishing ''hulnan
rights and planting g religious Eber-
ty" over the South--in New Hampshire,
the valiant and victorious Rosecrans would
be ineligible to either the Office of Cover
nor, Senator or Representative, on account
of his religious belief. General Phelps,
however, would not