The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1868-06-05
address by Governor Baker.

D
pirate address was delivered by Gov
ernor BAKER, on the occasion Of the
dedication of the soldiers graves in
Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis,
last Saturday:
TIE humanizing influence of our
modern civilization is marked by the
increasing interest taken by the liv-
/ ing in the last resting places Of the
deceased Moved by this influence,
we stand to-day In one of the beauti-
full quiet cities of the dead, aAd In a
ward of that city which is consecrated
as the burial places of brave and true
men, who died in the military service
Of their and our country.
We came to these graves with
Springs first floral offerings and with
wreaths of evergreen, not because we
believe that such tributes of grateful
appreciation and pious affection can
benefit the honored dead who here
sleep; but because we would keep
alive in our own hearts, and in the
hearts of those who shall come after
u proper love of their virtue and
patriotism, and the cause for. which
they died.
1t is BETTING that the surviving
comrades of these departed braves,
assisted by innocent children and
lovely women, should bring these
floral and evergreen tributes for the
signify not only the most exalted in
dividual fidelity to the highest duties
of citizenship, but also national unity,
social virtue and human progress.
As we love these let Us cultivate in
ourselves and IN our children an af-
fectionate, remembrance of the pa
triotic examples, and pieus .venera-
ton for the sepulchers of those who
performed, endured and suffered so
much for. US and for those who shall
ere long succeed US In the places
which will soon know us no more for
ever. rees CA.
IF Washington could say at the
close of his public life to the men of
that generation that the unity of gov
eminent which constituted them one
people was then dear to them, in the
presence Of these graves, and in view
Of all the precious lives which the
preservation of that unity has cost
the nation, how doubly dear ought
not that same national unity be to us +?
It has been saved through great tribu-
lation, and we, now standing In the
last resting place of hundreds of the
men who shared in the sacrifices nee
essary to effect this great salvation,
attest our appreciation of its value
and their devotion.
And in the performance OF the la
Dor of love and duty of patriotism In
which we are now engaged, let US not
forget to praise and thank the Benev-
olent Father of all that He has given
us a country productive of so many
bright examples of unfaltering devo-
ton to the duties, trials and services
of American citizenship.
May we not, standing by these
graves, and while engaged in bedeck-
ing them with flowers, repeat the
beautiful utterance of the beloved
chief of our fallen ones, himself the
noblest of the slain, that =" the mystic
cord of memory, stretching from
every battlefield and patriot grave to
every living heart and hearthstone,
all over this broad land, will yet swell
the chorus of the Union, when again /
touched, as surely it will be, by the
better angels of our nature.
May we not hope, too, that the SER
vices in which we, and others all over
the land, are this day engaged, may
be instrumentalities In the hands of
those better angels of our nature to
touch this mystic cord which shall ere
long swell the chorus of perpetuated
and perfectly restored Union. When
that grand chorus shall again go
forth, sustained by the voices of the
people, then will the cherished MEMO
ries of our fallen ones shine as the
brightest gems in the crown of our
country's rejoicing, and no bad angels
of our nature will be permitted to
mar, by a single note of discord, the
hallelujahs Of regenerated nation
And in concluding these brief re-
marks catching the Inspiration which
swelled the fame lofty and patriotic
soul on a subsequent occasion, may
we not repeat that other sublime ut
terance which he said, : With malice
toward none, with charity for all,
with frmness in the right as God
gives US to see the right, let US strive
on to finish the work we are in; to
bind up the Nations wounds, to care
for him who has borne the brunt of
the battle, and for his widow and or
phans, to do all which may achieve
and cherish just and lasting peace
among ourselves and with all nations"