Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-06-30
QDblo Statesman,
10. Is PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY
The Ohio Statesman Company.
THURSDAY MORNING, - JUNE 30.
! GEN. GEO. B. MoCLELLAN'S
West Point Grafton.

The following is Gen. GEORGE B. Nc
CLELLAN's Grafton on the occasion of the
dedication of the site of the Battle Monu-
ment at West Point on Wednesday, June
18th, 1864: .aF5-..ta. f..s
The Grafton.
All nations have days sacred to the re-
membrance of joy and of grief. They have
thanksgiyings for success; hastings and
prayers in the hour of humiliation and
defeat; triumphs and peans to greet the liv-
ing, laurel-crowned victor. They have
obsequies and eulogies for the warrior slain
on the field of battle. Such is the duty we
are to perform to-day. The poetry, the
histories, the orations of antiquity, all re-
sound with the clang of arms; they dwell
rather upon rough deeds of war than the
to use the names of heroes and the memory
of their deeds, even to this distant day.
Our own Old Testament teens with the
narrations of the brave actions and heroic
deaths of Jewish patriots; while the New
Testament of our meek and suffering Saw
iour often selects the soldier and his weapons
to typify and illustrate religious heroism
and duty. These stories OF the actions of
the dead have frequently survived, in the
lapse of ages, the names of those whose
fall was thus commemorated centuries ago.
But although we know not now the names
of all the brave men who fought and fell
upon the plain of MarathOne, in the pass of
Thermopyla, and on the hills of Palestine,
we have not lost the memory of their eX-
amples. As long as the warm blood courses
in the veins of man; as long as the human
heart beats high and quick at the recital of
brave deeds and patriotic sacrifices, so long
will the lesson still invite generous men to
emulate the heroism of the past. Among
the Greeks it was the custom that the fathers
of the most valiant of the slain should pro-
nounce the eulogies of the dead. Sometimes
it devolved upon their great statesmen and
orators to perform this mournful duty
Would that new Demosthenes, or second
Pericles could rise and take my place to-
day, for he would find a theme worthy of
his most brilliant powers, of his most touch
ing eloquence.
stand here now, not as an orator, but as
the whilom commander, and in the place of
the fathers of the most valiant dead; as their
comrade, too, on many hard-fought field
against domestic and foreign foes-in eally
youth and mature manhood-moved by all
the love that David felt when he poured
forth his lamentation for the mighty father
and son who fell on Mount Gilboa. God
knows that David's love for Jonathan was
no more deep than mine for the tried friends
of many long and eventful. years. whose
names are to be recorded upon the struc-
ture that is to rise upon this spot. Would
that his more than mortal eloquence could
grace my lips and do juctice to the themel
We have met to-day, my comrades, to do
honor to our own dead-brothers united to
us by the closest and dearest ties-who have
freely given their lives for their country in
&c stroH oh inrht
its purpose is to crush rebellion and to save
our nation from the infinite evils of dis
memberment. Such an occasion should call
forth the deepest and noblest emotions of
our nature, pride, sorrow and prayer. Pride,
that our country has possessed such sons;
sorrow, that she has lost them; prayer, that
she may have others like them; that we and
our successors may adorn her annals as they
have done; and that when our parting hour
arrives, whenever and however it may be,
our souls may be prepared for the great
change.
THE VOLUNTEERS.
We have assembled to commemorate a
cenotaph which shall remind our children's
children in the distant future of their ia
theirs struggle in the days of the great re-
bellion. This monument is to perpetuate
the memory of portion only, of those who
war; it is dedicated to the officers and SOL
diers of the regular army. Yet this is done
in no class or exclusive spirit, and in the
act we remember with reverence and love
our comrades of the volunteers who have
$50 gloriously fought and fallen by our sides.
Each State will, no doubt commemorate
in some fitting way the services of its sons
who abandoned the avocations Of peace and
shed their blood in the ranks-will receive
some memento of nations love, nations
gratitude. With what heroism they have
confronted death, have wrested victory
from a stubborn foe, and have illustrated
defeat, 1t well becomes me to say, for it has
been my lot to command them on many
sanguinary field. know that but echo
the feelings of the regulars when | award
the high credit they deserve to their brave
brothers of the volunteers.
But We OF the regular army have no States
to look to for the honors dire 6ar dead. We
belong to the whole country. Wecan neither
expect nor desire the General Government
S %nk on1 yS rha az Are nESQ9S e@ II SbsIs SstRston
small band of comrades, united by peculiar
and very binding ties. For, with many of
us, our friendships were commenced in boy
hood, when we rested beneath the shadow
of the granite hills which look down on us
where we stand; with others the ties of
brotherhood were formed In more mature
years-while fighting amid the rugged
mountains and fertile valleys of Mexico
within hearing of the eternal waves of the |
Paeific-or in the. lonely grandeur of the
great plains Of the far West. With all, our |
love and confidence has been cemented by |
common dangers and sufferings-on the |
toilsome march, in the dreary bivouac, and
amid the clash of arms and the presence of
death ON scores of battle fields. West Point, |
with her large heart, adopts us all--gradu- |
ates, and those appointed from civil life |
officers and prlvates. In her eyes we are all |
her children, jealous of her fame, eager to |
sustain her worldwide reputation. Cen |
erals and private soldiers, men who have |
cheerfully offered our all for dear country, |
we stand here before this shrine, ever. here |
after sacred to our dead, equals and broth |
ers in the common death which awaits us /
all--perhaps in the same field and at the |
same hour. Such are the ties which unite |
,fs--the most endearing that exist among
men: such the relations which which bind |
us together-the closest Of the sacred broth
erhood Of arms. 1t has therefore seemed,
and it Is, fitting that we should erect upon
fthis spot, sacred to us all, an enduring mon |
ument to our dear brothers who have pre-
eeded us on the path of peril and Of honor
which i is the destiny, " many Of us some
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