Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-05-31

/ MT. v. IL nlOilloOh1 OiS"ioh VI Nv
church. The choir of the Church of the Unity
then sang the following memorial hymn:
| O. cover with flowers the valiant dead;
Let them bloom on their bosom aud wave DER their
Let the beauty and fragrance of Springs richest
Fill the air that breathes DER the dead soldiers
| tomb
| In the day when rebellion and treason were rife,
And the land was convused and maddened with
| strife
They bravely put on the stern harness of war
| To fight for our Union, for freedom, and law
From homes fondy cherished and friends dearly
| loved,
At the call of their country they fearlessly moved
On the red fields of battle, they valiantly Stood
And gave for the nation, the price of their blood
| 0, fierce was the conflict and cruel the foe,
| And many brave freemen his fury laid lows
Freedom triumphed at last and broke his fell power,
| And rang the CLAN peals ofsweet victory's hour.
| Then cover with garlands the patriots grave,
| And perfume tine rest of the faithful and brave
Bring the beauty and fragrance of Springs sweetest
| bloom,
| To honor and hallow the dead hero's tomb.
| But no floral wreath loving hands can entwine,
/ Can rival the memories our fond hearts en-.
| shrine
| Of the noble and brave, the faithful and blest;
/ Honored martyrs of freedom, serene be your rest
| Then glory to God who our victories gave,
| And praise TO the men who our nation did save;
| And praise to heroes departed be given,
Their dust rests In peace, may their souls rest in
heaven.
Rev. C. NJ. Lamson then offered prayer, after
which came .a
GEN. DEvENs ADDRESS.
| Comrades We have passed the day together in
i the ceremonial by which we have sought to honor
the memory of the brave who died for their country
in the of the rebellion and ere we separate we
delay only for few words TINT shall in some meas
1 sneak the love and affpntiOn that
more fully testified. 1t was happy thought, sug-
| gested some three years since, that some one
designated day, wherever there lay Union soldier
| who had fallen martyr to liberty in great
civil strife, there should be effort made to visit
his grave and to lay upon it, in love, the flowers of
| the early spring BY this common act seek to
establish our communion with all who have loved
our brave, while living and who unite in honoring
them when dead; we join alike in the solemn pro-
| cessions which, with wreaths and music and all
| that can add dignity to funeral pomp have gone
forth from great cities to their crowded cemeteries
and with the little family, that on some hillside
| farm has repaired to-day to the quiet spot where
rests brave soldier, who was once beloved BROTH
| er or darling son. In the account of some of
our recent celebrations 1t was stated that in one
Of the smallest villages In the Connecticut Valley
there lay in its silent graveyard single Union sol
dier. 1t was at distance from any of our posts,
and he might have seemed to have been utterly
/ forgotten, yet the afternoon of this Memorial
day there came, after long walk over the hills
one who could not forget. Somehow she had heard,
IN her lonely home that on this day the graves of
the soldiers were to be visited, and his mother
bearing in her hands simple bunch of wayside
Vtolets came to lay them upon her boys grave To
Inc 1t is infinitely affecting this little procession if
| may call it So of one poor, toiling woman who
had given her all to her country and am glad to
believe that what we have done to-day we have
done in honor of that faithful son. and in sympathy
with that patient, suffering mother as much as in
honor Of those whose graves we have actually visit
ed, or as in sympathy with those who in our city
still mourn the household which has here been
made desolate To the observance of this day gem
eral as 1t has been, there have been, know obiec-
tions made, at some times, and dsparagng sugees-
tons at Others, and although these were more
frequent when the ceremonial was first proposed,
they nave not been entirely senced. In the mean.
time 1t is certain that year after year it has taken
stronger hold upon the country, and its proprety
mas been more and more generally recognised It
| encourage continued enmity toward those with
whom we were lately at war, and that it betrays an
unwilingness to permit the angry passions to SUBJ
side which were excited by our late controversy
No charge could be more unjust than this There
Is no body OF men more anxious to be at peace with
all their countrymen than those who were the sol
diers of the federal army; there utterances
more cordial than those which proceed from every
| torgetfuIness to the individuals who were in
the ranks of the armies which opposed
them. But they cannot and ought not to forget
the great principles for which so many have
laid down their lives, and they have right to ex-
pect that throughout the vast region they subdued
| and rescued from rebellion, there shall be peace
not hollow but lasting and permanent, and that the
words, 81 am an American Citizen" no matter how
poor or humble may be the individual who utters
men, snall nave with them as mighty spell in
the ancient world did the almost magic words al
am Roman citizen" As idle as this too is the
suggestion that such gatherings ours encourage
the spirit and exalt martial glory in the ewes
of those who participate them. They have no
such tendency No man in tine world knows better
than we who have fought through this how horri-
BILE war is, and how countless the miseres which
it brings in its train When you hear the flippant
boastful talk which is so common about new wars
my comrades it is from those, in almost every in
stance, who have taken part in that through
which we have lately passed In all ages, of all
the curses which have afflicted man and which have
retarded his progress; which have impoverished
peoples and degraded nations, war has been among
the worst. 1t can only be justified upon great
and solemn cause that cause the American
people had when they resolved that the government
of fathers should not be DESTROYED and that the
liberty bequeathed to us should be preserved In
that great cause our heroes fell, and the honors we
Destow upon their memory we bestOw them and
the cause alike, reconsecrat1ng ourselves each time
we visit their graves SO too we have heard it OBJ
jected that these celebrations were attended with
great expenditure both of time and money and
that what was thus expended had better be devoted
to the support of the MANNED and poor and sick
among the living 1t is obvious that this same re-
mark might be applied to every tribute which
affection would seek to pay the departed and while
would not say anything unjust, / must permit my
self to say that 1t does not proceed from those who
are most liberal in their contributions to the wants
OF the distressed among the living. They who are
readest to spend of their money and time in reliey
ing the suffering living soldiers are those who are
readest to unite in honoring the memory of his de-
ceased comrade Man is not material only, it is the
sire to show his love for those who have passed.
away aud to show his gratitude to those who have
given up for their country life and all that was dear
in life We acknowledge fully all the obligations we
are under to the suffering among our living soldiers
to the families which our brave dead have left behind
them To enable us the better to perform those du-
ties we have united in this truly noble charity the
Grand Army of the Republic. But in this country
which has, through the devotion of its sons, EN-
tered upon q new career of prosperity, such as the
world has never seen, it would be shame and dis
grace If there not means enough alike to take
care of and cherish the living, and to mourn and
honor the dead.
This day. in its present form of observance is one
which may undoubtedly pass away with ms. Our
very society is one, from its nature that must in
the course Of time rapidly dissolve for we are an
army now which is to receive recruits. Much as
we respect and honor the heroes who fell in the
war OF the revolution, whose vast services through
out the world humanity has recognized we cannot
and do not pretend to that personal love and aec-
tion we feel towards our own comrades. To us, and
to our fellow-citizens who are with us they have
stood in every relation Of life that was beautiful
and tender; but we are to follow them soon and
another race is to succeed us, to whom they will be
known only by the proud place they occupy in their
countrys history. But while those who succeed us
may not visit these graves with the same personal
love and affection that we have done, there will pass
into the history of the country trust day al
ways to be remembered as marking the war of the
rebellion. As around the 4th of July all the fra
grant memories of the revolution cluster around
that should gather all the glores of our desperate
but triumphant struggle, whether that shall be the
anniversary of this on which, with proud tears we
yet SO noby, whether of one of our great battle
fields, of Antietam where we hurled back the rebel
army from its first invasion of the free states of
Gettysburg where the tide seemed fairly to have
turned at last, or of Appomatox Court House where
the sword of Lee was laid in the conquering hand
of Grant, whether it shall be the anniversary of
that great moral triumph when there went forth to
the world the solemn proclamation that there was
no longer master slave in the land, we cannot
know. OF one thing, however, let us be sure, that
while this generation lives that this day be not for
gotten; from our lips, from the lips of all who,
whether as citizens or soldiers did their duty as
long those lips have voice let the invitation of
to-day so forth:
Flowers for the valiant dead,
Who for the union bled,
Let all the summers shed
Sweets on our bravel
Let all the years renew
Liberty's color true
Plant the red white and blue
Over each gravew .r.r
1t is difficult to realize notwithstanding the vast
number of events which have crowded themselves
into the time that ten years have elapsed since the
country was alive with the mastering of squadrons
for the conflict which had already begun. Already
this city ten years ago had sent out the company of
Light Infantry and the Battalion of Rifles, which
were its contribution to the militia troops of the
war ialready it had been seen that the mustlbe
fought through by permanently organized bodies,
and the 18th regiment was mastering under the
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