The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1870-06-14

day to bring their floral tributes Of love
and affection to the shrine of the holy
dead, and that at this moment. upon every
field where freedoms SONS lie buried
loving fingers are strewing,upon the graves
OF the hero and patriot, the choicest and
richest offering of the early spring, while
from ten thousand affairs, and from ten
thousand times ten thousand hearts are
offered up to the throne of Jehovah, praise
and thanksgiving for our great deliverance
and earnest supplications for our future
peace and prosperity.
Let us then forever cherish and prepetu.
ate this hallowed and holy ceremony; LEI
this day be forever set apart as day
consecrated to the memories of those who
gave their lives for the Republic. Why
my comrades, in what other way could we
so well keep alive in our own minds, and
in the minds of our children, the memor.
les of those who died that the nation
might live; and in what way could we SC
tenderly set forth our love and affection
for them, as by this simple ceremony, Of
gathering the earliest flowers of spring
and laying them, moistened with our
tears, upon their new made graves; these
silent mementoes are the emblems OF our
Immortality and are the purcst and holi.
est tribute which sincere affection can offer
at the shrine of the departed.
In what other way could we so renew
our own lives, and receive a new baptism
into the service of our country, land at the
same time teach our children the lessons
Of pure and matchless patriotism which
they have taught us, as by these annual
pilgrimages to the tombs of our country s
defenders, and there are oft repeated
pledges Of our allegiance upon this sacred
altar of our common country.
In all ages of the world, and among all
natious, the name and memories of those
who fell fighting their country's battles
have been preserved, cherished and i'm.
mortalized the brazen pillar and the
marble shaft have been reared to mark
their final resting place, and to tell the
anxious and weary pilgrim that the soil
whereon he stands is holy ground; it is
the universal and spontaneous tribute of
affection and reverence, which grateful
country pays to her devoted sons. The
natural instincts of mankind have always
prompted them to honor the memory of
the departed hero. The silent city of the
heroic dead has everywhere been held
sacred art has adorned them with the
most beautiful monuments and over them
genius has uttered those sublime senti.
ments of universal gratitude and venera-
tion, which men have ever cherished for
those whose ashes they contain.
We are told by the historian that in
Athens it was appointed by law. that the
obsequies of those who fell in battle,
should be performed at the public ex.
pense, and in the most honorable manner;
their bones werc carefully and tenderly
gathered up and brought home to the
city, and there for three long days they
lay in state beneath tents Of honor to re.
ceive the votive offerings of their fellow
citizens, flowers, weapons and precious
ornaments, the last tribute of surviving
veneration and affection. At the end Of
these three days of mourning and adorn.
ing, ten caskets of funeral cypress re-
ceived the honored deposit one for each
of the nine tribes of the city, and one in
honor of the unknown and unrecognized
dead whose remains could not be recover
ed. On the fourth day the mournful pro-
cession was formed and moved out of the
city to the place of interment in the most
beautiful suburb of Athens, place which
had been adorned by the city with walks
and fountains and columns; whose gar
dens were kept forever green by streams
from the neighboring hills and shaded
with sacred trees whose ages were coeval
with the foundations of the city; whose
pathways cleaned with the monuments Of
the illustrious dead, wrought out by the
most consu inmate masters that ever gave
life to marble.
There in quiet and solitude, beneath
the overarching trees among whose bran.
ches " the attic bird trilled his thick war.
Bile note the summer long" they laid
them down in their honored beds.
These tokens Of respect were required
to be paid at Athens to the memory Of
those who had sacrificed their lives fol
the Republic.
For the immortal heroes of Marathon a
peculiar honor was reserved as that ter
rife and bloody conflict was distinguish.
ed from all others, in the history Of
Greece, as the great turning point in the
fortunes Of the Republic; as the great
question whether Greece should continue
to live under the blessings of her Repub.
lica Government, or be swallowed up in
that vortex which marked the grave yard
of Republics depended upon the issues Of
that day; so the honors lavished upon
the heroes of that battle were such as
Athens bestowed on no other occasion and
on no other men.
The most skillful artists were produced
who inscribed the names of these martyr
heroes upon ten brazen pillars which were
erected upon the mound which covered
their sacred dust; those monuments have
since disappeared and mouldered back to
their original elements, but the venerable
mound still points out to the weary pill
grim where the heroes fought, and
showed the world that they were not
afraid to die.
=" That BATTLE field where Persia's victim horde,
FIRST bowed beneath the brunt of Helas sword
Can we, my fellow citizens, with all
these bright and glorious examples before
us, and in the glowing light Of our coun.
try's history for the past ten years, re-
main Indifferent and stand unmoved over
the graves of our brothers and sons, who
but few short months ago on those
bloody and terrific days which change a
nations history; moments upon whose
issue hung the fate of this Republic for
all coming time? No, heaven forbid it
For if We should become so callous and
insensble to every feeling of honor and
nat r;ot;am a N fnroat onr dutv to thasa