The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1868-06-06
ORATION.


Union Cemetery, near Raleigh, May 3Oth,
1868.
am persuaded that a common feeling OF
respect for the memory of the dead mas IN
tluenced this asscmblage day. 1t is trlb-
ute none should withhold, who are intcres
ted in the subject, complicated with those
who lie within this enclosure. If any class
of men. Twin" or dead, deserve the consid-
Grafton and respect of their fellow citizens.
it is the patriot soldier who has perled or
lost his life in the cause OF his country
Men NAV build cities, and endow institutions
of charity, and die remembered for their benz
ficence, in which they have sacrificed no per-
sonal inconvenience or comfort, while the
soldier leaves all that makes lite valuable,
and submits to the danger and privations
found in camp and field, and becomes the
safe guard and defence, not of city but OF
n nation: a government in whose existence
cities and charities are vested. These con-
stitute the soldiers claim while living, and
his demand, when dead, to the consideration
and respect Of every loyal man. When the
people cease to be grateful to those whose
strong hearts and muscle proved the bull
wark of defense, when their interest and lib
erty were at stake. and danger threatened
the final rupture of q united and prosperous
government, then may the grass grow rank
snd long on the graves of its victims, and
human gratIIutio become a myth of the past,
and sympathy a satire upon humanity
Kind acts like " kind words never die. -
They will live in their influence when gener-
ations have passed away, and like ripple
on the wave, they will wash the sand on
either shore of mortality. True, the dead
may not feel the act of to-day in garlanding
the graves where their bodies moulder.-
There is, however, sympathy linking ilV-
ing minds in the memory awakened by the
flowers which wreath the place of their en-
tombment. It speaks silent eloquence
which reaches the heart, no flourish of Rhet-
oric or Metaphor can attain, and forces upon
us the feeling" Blessed are the dead"
1t is not merely what we see around us to-
day which makes this spot hallowed ground.
1t is not the flowers strewn around and over
these graves which swels the heart with
emotion. The attraction is not found in Or
namenting these walks and avenues. There
is something more involved than the mere
parade and show of bringing garlands offow-
ers to lay upon IL strangers grave. These
bones are the nations trust. They became
so under circumstances that will render their
graves a special interest and care, when we
shall have passed away, and will go down to
coming ages. a memorial of disaffection as
causeless as it was sad and disastrous to the
public interest and national pride.
This cemetery is Il striking commend on
the wide spread desolatiOn which had nearly
made the existence of republic u nullity,
and wiped out the result of our fathers
blood and toll in throwing off the yoke of
a foreign despotism, and would have reduced
the confederation of States to Il feudalism.-
But for this these graves would not have
been made and thousands of valuable lives
might have been saved to their country and
their friends. 1t is often found that bless
ings long continued, become Intellectual in
producing contentment Desire becomes
rampant for change, and under the whip
and spur of excitement men rush iuconsid
erately into the conception of imaginary
evils which little time and patience would
have overcome. There are appropriate rem
edes for eoery wrong. Wretchedness and
ruin follow in the wake of a causeless strife.
There is time for men to think; an hour
when they should ponder the paths of their
feet That time and hour has been, and is
n0u A voice comes up from these graves
and from thousands of Others whose homes
have been made desolate, and could it be
heard to-day, it would cause the hills and
wales surrounding our once quiet and happy
homes to echo, and each ear tingle through
the length and breadth of the land with the
cries of agonized mortality.
Men of North Carolina. Men of the
country, yes, think Not upon a single
blessing lost. Not upon homes made desc
late by mistaken strife. Not upon the flat
tering speech of demagogues. Think for
yourselves, your wives and children. Think
for posterity, in combining a true loyalty
and patriotism, with industry and persever-
ing toll and although it may not restore
your dead to your homes and your fresides,
your positions will become elevated, and
your possessions will again. grow green under
your fostering care, and your homes happy
and prosperous under restored confidence
in yourselves and others, with a government
saved from the wreck of internal broils.-
That man who is constantly harping upon
technicalities, and confines his patriotism
and loyalty to what was, or has been, is at
fault, and is no less untrue to his country
than himself. 1t is not the men whose sim
ews breasted the smoke and strife of battle,
who keep up this strife and discomfort
among the masses, but the loungers at hOme
whose sensitive nerves avoided the smell of
gunpowder and the tasting of death. Such
men may make fair speeches, and call you
towards, for your Discrimination to follow
their lead, but you have faced the deadller
aim of the shot and shell of the battlefield,
and need not fear to meet them in war of
words. 4 ne advancement OF intelligence
and the exercise of fOrbearance with close
application of the means of relieving the
necessities, the past few years have inaugur-
ated will soon cover the breeches. Leave
these 6 by cones" with their cause and orr
gin, and seek the recuperation of wasted for
tunes and the establishment of true loyal
ty and patriotism on a foundation so broad
and deep, that future generations may find
no cause for breach of their fealty. Then
may the symbol of our nationality rest Sc
cure and undisturbed in its majesty and
pride on its pinnacle, and the dome of free
dom reflect the glory and power Of her insti-
tutions and unfurl her banner to the world
without the absence of a single star.
The sacrifice of human life is terrible to
contemplate 1t was fearful price to pay,
and every section of the country is overshad
owed by the gloom of the retrospect. If
there is any power in genGr rfross ! ~
arising for similar ,-'oo VI o!stress anu sui
S.-:-s, W reuhite and consolidate suspended
interest, then each and all who have become
alienated from circumstances have the heal
ing panacea at hand for the whole land groans
under the burden, "Joseph is not" Surely
the cemetery has become a favored spot
where affection fingers over the graves of the
loved and lost, and where reflection is
awakened to the uncertainty of earthly hopes
and prospects. This is one of the great life
lessons we hage been, or are to be taught,
that the tendency of progress, and all with
oh xua hava to rio 10 fo Joon,,