The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1868-06-02
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OUR DEAD SOLDIERS.
Decoration of Their Graves on
Saturday Last.
Eloquent Remarks of General
James a. Garfield, at Wash
ington City.
wAsH1Noros, Nav 80.

| At an early hour this morning the
city was astir with the notes OF busy
preparations for the memorial services
of decorating with flowers the graves
of the Union dead, at Arlington. We
hicles of every description were In de-
mand, and the long bridge leading
into Virginia was covered from an
early hour with one long, continuous
procession. During the past week the
Committee OF Arrangements have
been busy gathering flowers of every
description, and very large amount
was secured by twelve o'clock to-day.
Many thousands OF people had as
sembled at Arlington Heights. At one
O'Clock General Orders No. IL was is
sued by General John A. Logan, Com
mander.in.C Chief of the Grand Army
of the Republic, designating the 3Oth
day OF May as the day to be observed
throughout the Union in decorating
the graves of the Union dead, was read
byw. T. Collins. Prayer was then Of
fered by the Rev. DIR. Sunderland. The
Hon. James A. Garfield then delivered
the following oration:-
GRAFTON ny HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD.
Ladies and gentlemen:-I am OPP
pressed with sense of the improprie-
~ of offering words on this occasion.
II silence is ever golden, it must be
here besides the graves of fifteen thou
sand men whose lives were more sig
nificant than speech, and whose death
was a poem the music of which can
never be sung. With words we make
promises, plight faith, and praise; but
our promises may not be kept, our
plighted faith may be broken, and our
Wanted virtue only cunning mask
for vice. We do not know one promise
these men made, one pledge they gave,
one word they spoke, but we do know
they summed up and perfected by one
supreme act the highest virtues OF men
and citizens. For love of country they
accepted death. That act removed
all doubts and made immortal
their patriotism and their virtue. From
the noblest man that lives there still
remains conflict. BE must Withstand
the assaults of time and fortune; he
must still be assailed by temptations
for which lofty nations have fallen.
But with these conflict was ended. vic
tory was won, when death stamped its
great seal on their characters, and
closed record which years can never
blot. --
know of nothing more appropriate
on this occasion than TO inquired what
brought these men here, what great
impulse lead them to condense life into
an hour, and TO crown that hour by
joyfuIly welcoming death. Let us con-
slider. Eight years ago We appeared
the most unwarlike nation of the
earth. For nearly fifty years no spot
In any of these States had been the
scene of battle. Thirty millions of
people had an army of less than ten
thousand men. The faith OF our people
in the stability and permRnency of our
institutions was like their faith In the
sun and stars.
Peace, liberty aud personal security
were blessings as common and as uni
versal az the sunshine, and showers
and fruitful seasons and all spring
from the same source, the principle
proclaimed in the pilgrim covenant,
that all OF us owed due submission and
obedience to the lawfully expressed
will of the majority. This Is not one OF
the documents of our political system,
1t is a system itself, our political hrma-
ment in which all other things are set
as stars in Heaven.
It is the exercising air, the breath of
the nations life. Against IL The whole
weight of the rebellion WIS thrown,
Its overthrow would have brought
such ruin as might follow in the phys
uhlNGASGS IL AAC PO"GA Va
ton we're destroyed, and thG plHnets,
rushing from aspect malign of tiercest
opposilion in Inid-sky, should combat,
and their Earring spheres couiound.
The nation was summoned TO arms
by the very highest motive which can
inspire men. Two centuries OF freedom
had rendered the people OF this Union
unfit for despotlsm. They must save
their Government or universally per-
ish. AS the flash OF lightning in the
midnight tempest reveals the Abyss
NAL horrors of the Sea, so did the flash
of the first gun disclose theawful abyss
into which the Rebellion was ready to
plunge us. That disclosure of one mo-
ment lighted fire in twenty millions
of hearts.
/ love to believe that no heroic sacrI-
fees are lost; that the characters of
men are moulded and improved by
what their fathers have done; that
treasured up in American souls are all
the unconscious influences of the great
deeds of the .Anglo-Saxon race from
Agincourt to Bunker Hill. 1t was
such an influence, which led the young
Greek two thousand years ago, when he
heard of Marathon, to say, "rhe tro-
phies OF MiltIades will not Let me
sleep.Y Could these men be silent in
1861, these whose ancestors had felt the
Inspiration of battles on every field
where others had fought in the last
Thousand Years2
Read their answer in this green turf.
Each for himself gathered up allthe
cherished purposes OF life-its aims
and ambitions, its dearest affections
and flung all, with life itself into the
scale of battle. At first they fought for
the Union alone, but soon new ele-
ment was added to the conhict-an ele-
ment which filled the army and nation
with cheerful but intense religious en-
thusiasm. In lessons that could not be
misunderstood, the nation was taught
that God had indissolnbly linked to its
own the destiny of an enslaved race.
Thus liberty and our Union were in
deed one and inseparable. 1t was in
deed this condition that made the soul
of old John Brown the marching
champion of our soldiers, and made
them sing on their way to battle. 81
ain the beauty OF the lilies,
Christ was borne across the sea,
With the glory in His bosom,
Which trans1gures you and me; tl
As He died TO maxi men holy
Let US die 70 make them free
While God is marching on"
With such aspirations failure was
impossible. The struggle consecrated,
| in some degree, every man who bore a
part in It. But doubly eonsecrated
were those who received into their own
hearts the fatal shafts that were aimed
at the life of their country. Fortunate
men! your country lives because you
died. Your fame is placed where the
breath of calumny can never reach 1t;
where the mistakes of weary life can
never dim its brightness.
And now consider this silent assem-
bly, of the dead. What does it repre-
sent7 Here is an epitome of war. Here
are sheaves reaped In the harvest of
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