The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1870-05-31

| Hour aiter tnt tiiue ANNOUNCED ZOE tue peSiH>
ming of the exercises. Just before haf-past
eight Major Land, Past Commander of the
Post, announced the opening piece by the
Band, which was followed by choral from
st Paul. by the Haydn Association, who
occupied nearly all the platform.
Rev. Mr.. Gibbs of the Congress Square Uni
| versalist Church then addressed the Throne of
| Grace ina prayer of great fervency, particu-
larly asking the divine favor upon our civil au-
| thorities the widows and orphans of the dead
| patriots, AID that the national life which their
death had secured to great people might be
preserved in purity to coming generations.
After the prayer from Moses in Egypt by
the Haydns, Maj. land introduced His Honor
| Chas. w. Goddard, Judge of the Superior
Court, who spoke as follows:
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen The
war which Southern traitors waged against
their country, and which Northern valor and
| patriotism ended in glory and triumph has
doubled the number OF our national anniver-
sares. To the Fourth of July has been added
a National Thanksgiving-tO the birthday of
countrys martyrs, and as New England, with
an honest feeling of pride, has relinquished to
| the people of the United States the dear old
Thanksgiving of the Pilgrim Fathers, so per-
haps may we at last adopt this consecrated
day, hallOwed by the memory of the heroic
dead as the worthy successor of the solemn
Fast Day of our pous ancestors. If the an
Gent Jews were divinely commanded to OBJ
serve with reverence and devotion their an
nual passover, ought not Americans to COM
memorate forever their deliverance DO less
providential, its price the blood of the heroes
whose graves you have today decorated with
Springs fairest flowers. Never, perbaps. since
the passage of the Red Sea has God wrought
Il
so sublime national deliverance; never, GER
tainly, has so costly price been required
There is no danger that this generation will
forget the lessons of the war. They have been
engraven on every mans heart as with pen of
iron and with the point of a diamond; they
have been burned deep into tue memory and
conscience of the 10Th century. 1t is not then
so much for our sakes as for our children and
future generations that we should consecrate
this day to the memory of those who died that
the country might live forever And as we
acorn their graves with flowers at this lovlest
season OF the year, and water them with the
tears oil affection and piety, let us keen their
memories green as the turf which covers them
by holding up their lives to the admiration of
our children. Let us see to it that the price,
less blrthrlght of American citizenship which
those patriots redeemed with their blood shall
never again be endangered by the Indifference
of those who are its heirs. Let the duties of
the citizen of free republic to his country be
elevated IN the public estimation to the digni-
ty OF the highest earthly trust. Let us learn
to brand an unpatriotic Citizen a false, corrupt
and selfish public servant as an enemy to his
country's liberties and unworthy of public or
private confidence. Demanding higher per-
sonal character in our public men, let us not
forget to set the example ourselves. A nation.
whose freedom has cost the lives of half mil
lion OF its citizens, surely is justified in de-
handing for every department of its service
men whose characters are not only above re-
preach but beyond suspicion
On nnI oia,,.< n:
sacrifices of our soldiers and sailors tower
above and eclipse those of the civilian
The popular instinct which sought out from
our country's defenders Governor for Maine
and PRESIDENT for the nation was an honest,
igenerous impulse of the peoples heart. Amid
1lll the refinements of modern civilization
'there still remains work which cannot be Der-
formed vicariously. The dangers and suffer
ings of the battlefield, like those of materni-
ty cannot be endured by substitution, and
what were the gifts OF the wealthy or the eo-
quent speeches of the orator to the wounds of
the soldier, the sickness of the hospital and
the horrors of the rebel prison?
AZ. honor then to the men who personally Of
lered theIr lives to their country, to those
whose offering was accented and to those
whom a kind Providence has spared to CRATE
tul people. All honor to the noble women who
followed our armies and exposed their lives in
hospitals, restoring by their angelic minis
Try SO many OF onr brave soldiers and smooth
e.
we adorn our heroes graves with fading flow
ers we ought to raise to their memory the mon
umehtal marble or the enduring bronze. If
we and our descendants arc mindful of the
rebelllon-no other civil war. Then let the
names OF those who with their blood accom-
pliShed under God their cOuntry's salvation
go down to the remotest posterity crowned with
the noolest efforts of the sculptor's chsel, as
monument of the heroic days of the republic.
n thus hOUOrjnU tho ,lap faI daft pdare +I,o
Unlon we honor ourselves and our age and we
bless posterity by holding up for imitation the
light of their glorious example.
Alas! all our honOred dead are not with us
some sleep In Southern soil in nameless graves,
some like the noble assailant of Sumpter
among his sable soldiers before the frowning
bastions of that ruined fortress; others beneath
the waves. But they are not forgotten, their
memories survive, they have entered into the
history of their country and humanity and are
embamed in the national memory.
''What hallows ground where heroes sleep?
lis not the sculptured piles we heap
In dews that Heavens tar distant weep,
- Their turf may bloom.
Their coral tomb.
But strew his ashes to the wind.
whose sword or voice has served ma akind,
And is he dead whose glorious mind
Lifts thine on high?
10 i've i've IN n those nos we leave behind
ANOduiCiu vi IlSIOcs3 \t1UW
sleep the Brave who sink to rest introducing
Chopin's Funeral March, was sung with real
tenderness and pathos by the large choir; and
at the close of it His Honor Mayor Kngsbury
was introduced, who spoke as follows:
Mr.. Commander, Ladies and Gentlemen: Port
land with population OF 30, 000-sent 5000 of her
m! men to the war. The mother gave up her boy,
the wife gave up her husband, the maiden gave
up her betrothed, the sister gave up her broth
err. Ihere was generous, grand and noble
seif-sacrhce among our people. Our men of
means SAID, send these, tax US until our prop
erty is gone. take our men, our husbands, our
Drothers, our sons, our property, and all, but in
the name OF God, save our country; and of
those 5000 men, the best in the community
there are $500 remaining who can respond to
their names. Where are the $500 other men?
Where are they to-day? Some of them are
scattered abroad; some of them are buried in
Southern soil, making it sacred; some Of them.
/! have been told, are buried in cemeteries at
home.
went to-day, honored by the invitation,
MIR. Commander, of your noble and patriotic
organization, to find your dead in our ceme
teries. followed your loving hands as you
laid your beautiful flowers upon their graves
found no dead there; but it seemed to me in.
stead that there stood white-rObed angel at
each grave, who said to me, Why seek We the
living among the dead? He is not here He
is risen God is not the God of the dead but
OF the living; for all are alive unto Him. There
was no sadness in that graveyard. L felt as
Mary did when she went to the Lords sepul-
chre, weeping there to meet Him. Then with
sparkling eyes and willing feet she rushed to the
disciples, saying that The Lord is risen indeed.
He is not in the sepulchre. This, mother, is
your joy tonight This, widowed wife, is your
joy tonight. This. boweddown old father, is
your joy tonight. He is not in the cemetery.
He has risen. He has taken life's furloug6,
and enlisted into the Grand Army of heaven,
under a perpetual and benignant Commander.
Ten years ago-how many years ago-ten
years ago this black cloud began to lower over
the horizon of our country. How our hearts
began to weep as the agony, the struggle, the
peril increased; and yet the people of the
North, the people of Portland and the peopIe
of Maine were determined that this country
should be saved. And it is saved to-day. and
it has been saved, Mr.. Commander, saved.
brothers of the Grand Army of the Republic
by you and others like you; and We stand here
to- night, we civilians, to thank you in the
100000 liberated bondsmen tonight; we
thank you because you have aided in wiping
black spot from our flag and washing it out
in the blood that you and others have shed for
it. We thank you tonight for free country
Ten years in the history of q nation is an in-
visible point, ten years in the life of n man is
OF great consequence; but that invisible pon t
in the life of nation may be pivot on which
its very existence turns; and these ten years
were the pivot on which the life of this nation
rested. Aud was it all for nothing? Why
did they give their loved ones? Was it on the
point of honor? 1t was to save a nation that
evil in this country; and it was an evil that
staraJ n N tho f1cn A II ovar the world das-