The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1869-05-31

resulted In pollGlcal reYoluJlOn
unequaled in the worlds annals, 80 let
our efforts be directed that the moral
renovation of our day may transcend
the past aud brighten with the ages.
Let us not shut our eyes to the lessons
of the hear.
Let us not bliudly imagine that mans
mission is ended, aud that his works are
complete.
We must apply ourselves with dill
gence and wisdom to blending and &C.
menting of every social and other atom
necessary to accord perfect unity. =,
Call back the erring-deal gently with
the repentant-have charity for thS
wayward, for charity suffereth all
things" and above all things is charlty.
Give your enemies credit for their VIZ
tines; make them your friends; do wise
ly, do well, do right.
| Blind unbelief is sure to err,
| And scan his work In vain,
God is his own interpreter,
| And He will make it plain
Let US then from this hallowed spot
and hour, with new courage and hlgh
purpose, 90 forward, onward and up
ward in the amelioration of the condl-
ton of mankind.
Then, indeed, will we have highly re-
solved, "that these dead shall not nave
died in vain; then, indeed, this nation,
under God, will have had a new blrt OF
freedom, and this our government otthe
people, by the people and for the people,
will be the heritage of our children and
the chosen of God"
After dirge had been played by the
band, Governor Stevenson was intro
dueed by Capt. Badger, and spoke as
| follows:
GOV. STEvENsoN's SPEECH.
have but few words to add to what
has been so eloquently spoken by the
gentleman who has jnst taken his seat.
| Commemorations in favor ofgreat events
are common to all countries, and when IN
| tended to hold in remembrance the
deeds of those who have been the de-
tenders of liberty and the benetactors
of mankind, they make direct appeal
to the heart and bring into active life
the grandest and noblest feelings OF our
nature. Who does not look back with ex-
alted emotions through more than six
centuries to Runneymede and Windsor
Castle, and the great Baronss who
wrested Magma Charta from the un-
willing hands of King John, or to that
still brighter epoch in the worlds his
tory, when our fathers pledged their
lives, their fortunes and their honors to
tho declaration that "all men are crea-
ted equal" But the soldiers whose
graves are decorated with flowers to-day
achieved the mightiest victory for the
human race recorded in the annals OF
time, and their memory should be cher
Ished, and will be, as long as the love
of liberty finds q resting place IN the
hearts of men.
IN other countries these public dem.
onstrations are generally in honor OF
some great event in which the people
have but little heart and little interest,
some victory perhaps which snatched the
crown from the head of one tyrant only
to put it upon the head of another.
But the men whose memory we honor
| to day laid down their lives in defence
of flag under which all men are free; 4
government within whose broad do
minions, stretching from sea to sea, the
sun no longer shines upon tho castle Of
tyrant nor the hut of a slave. The
men who fell in the fierce conflicts be-
tween the Wilderness and AppomattOx,
or whose graves mark the line Of Sher
mans great march "from Chattanooga
to the sea-" were martyrs, not for this
country alone, but for all countries and
all men. and these mounds of green
earth in this delightful spot, those in
I,h g,ll Of Eat
tysburg and elsewhere, the dead around
the stOckades of Andersonville, or the
soldiers graves scattered through the
solitudes of deserts and mountains over
: which, to-day, the wild flowers bloom
attest with what unselfsh devotion they
gave all, even life itself, for the Republic
and for man.
Theirs, too, was devotion that never
faltered There was n time-yOu, my
fellow citizens, remember it well-when
the fortunes of war seemed against
us. The best men with gloomy fore
bodings anXiously inquired of each
other, was our beloved land to be dis
membered Were two rival empires to
exist side by side, where in the nature
Of things il was clear there should be
but onei We were then in the midst
of an awful strife. The doctrine Of Sc
cesSion had eliminated in fierce civil
war.
The handbreadth cloud the sages saw,
Its bloody rain was dropping.
But it is matter of history that amid
all our reveTSeS the soldier never lost
faith; to him it always seemed that some
how the old flag though it might be torn
to ribbons was TO triumph In the end.
The hour came when the tide of fortune
was to change, the country could not
endure longer the painful suspense.
The patient, forgiviug, but far seeing
Abraham Lincoln said to the instigators
of this bloody work, "If you are deter
mined to make this fight as to wheth-
er this nation shall live, or slavery shall
i've by the destruction of the Govern
meut, then you had better get slavery
ready to die on short notice. And it
didn't take our soldiers long to strike
the fetters from the limbs of four mil
lions of human beings. Then it was
; seen that the very spirit of violence
which rebellion had invoked, rebounded,
J and at a single blow struck forever from
existence the very institution it was
? intended to perpetuate. The nation
was born again. Out of this tribula.
3 tion, this chaos of war, God himself
brought deliverence, as from the dark
ness of night he brings the morning
star.
1t is well, my friends, we should re-
member that our duties do not end " ith
, ornamenting the graves of our depaEted
soldiers. While honoring the dead !let
us not forget the living. This ceremony
Is worse than a mockery if the soldiers
widow Is struggling with poverty, or
MS children are suffering for bread. 1t
l. Is cheap patriotism to make speeches
, and sing anthems over these handsful
| et aust, but it costs something TO buy a
j oarrel OF Hour for destitute family or
comfortable clothing for shivering or
phanS a patriotism that can throw up
us hat and cheers Justify for the sol
y, uIeTS Is all very well, but if it does
7 nothing more, it's very timber kind of
J psttiousm-it has the bones taken ont