Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1871-06-07

but the highest interests of the coming
generations, the triumph of republican
liberty throughout the world, and, as a ne
cessary sequence thereto, the noblest re-
suits and fairest fruits of Christian civili-
zation. In this faith, the result both of
early teaching and of mature thinking,
when the storm-cloud of civil war, which,
to use the magnificent imagery of Burke,
"blackened all their horizon" burst upon
the land, these dead, whose myriad graves
are honored shrines to-day, turned aside
from all their wonted pursuits of life, sew
cred all domestic ties, babe adieu to those
dearer than life itself, and flew to arms,
animated by the very spirit in which the
Angel of Freedom speaks in the verses of
Whittier:
Then Freedom sternly said, / shun
No strife nor pang beneath the sun,
When human rights are staNed and won.
Il knelt with Zisca's hunted flock,
/ watched in Toussaints cell of rock,
/ walked with Sidney to the block.
The moor of Marston felt my tread,
Through Jersey SHOWS the march led,
My voice Magenta chargers Sped"
1t was to maintain and preserve, not to
disintegrate and destroy, they donned their
country's uniform of blue. 1t was to fore
stall the possibility of America presenting,
through successive generations, q spectacle
such as disunited Germany has shown
during the three centuries that have elaps-
ed between the time of Charles V. and
the Emperor William, through all which
period the German people have been in
volved in aconstant succession of wars, Ger
mans battling against Germans, and vast
ing the resources and pouring out the life
blood of q common fatherland in contests
concerning the boundaries of petty states,
and the feudal rights of petty dynasties.
They comprehend fully the meaning of
Nah nj for fu IF
common country and his prayer that his
eyes Knight never look upon the broken
fragments of a once glorious Union, on
States discovered, discorded, belligerenp
had sunk deep into their hearts, and if
they were, as is sometimes charged, mere
men of one idea, that idea was the grand
eur and immortality of the Republic
They knew that the thirty millions of the
census of 1860 would swell to one hundred
millions before the close of the century.
This progress in numbers involving cor
responding increase in wealth, in culture,
in national power and development, they
knew, even before this generation should
pass from the earth, would place their
country foremost and without a rival in
the vanguard of advancing, because free,
and Christian nations. They fought, as
they believed, the battle of all humanity
not for theirs and themselves alone. No!
They felt their victory ought to be, and,
in the providence of Him who raises up
and pulls down nations at His will,
would be the victory of North and South
alike that it would, in its beneficent re-
suits, be the common heritage of their
own, and the children and children's chill
dren of those then wearing of the gray"
who stood arrayed in arms against them,
but for whose manly courage even, in a
mistaken cause, they felt a respect
and admiration akin to that which the
GaCCQaEG nf
splendid horsemanship and gallant bearing
of Murat, when leading his fl cry and inn
petuous charges against their ranks. need
not, / can not, in the short half hour you
| lend me, recount the story of the Nation 3
dead. The world knows it by heart from
| the opening of the contest at Sumter to
| the closing scene at AppomattoX. Not to
| pass beyond the limits of our own State,
Donelson and Nashville, Knoxville and
Chattanooga, Lookout and Murfreesboro'
| have become household words forever
And the deeds of high daring, of unself-
| ish sacrifice, of persistent energy and de-
votion, which they, whose memory we
| this day consecrate, wrought out on the
| thousand battle fields of the war, will live
| in the remembrance of grateful hearts as
| long as noble deeds shall win the plaudits
of mankind. To them the world was as
| fair, home as loved and dear, and life as
sweet as to US who stand above their
graves. And we use the language of hui
| mility when we say that the sad history
| of war, speaking only of the dead, has
placed no nobler names on fame's eternal
| bead roll than those of Sedgwick,
whose bold yet gentle heart was stilled
| forever in the terrible struggle of the will
| derness Kearney, with his flashing eye
| and heart of fire; Mitchell, whose soul has
passed beyond those stars he studied so
| long and knew SO well Baker, who fell
| ealy in the fight, fresh from the Senate,
where his wondrous eloquence was the
envy of orators Mcpherson, splendid
gentleman, rare genius, stout soldier !;
Thomas, grim hero and glorious COM
mander, whose proud eulogy is, he never
made mistake and never lost battle /;
Farragut, fit compeer of England's Blake,
| and equal of Nelson, that greatest sailor
since our world began. But why enumer-
ate when the list is well nigh number
| less? Measureless is their need of praise
For who can fix the value of their sacri-
| fee?
''What price was Ellsworth I, young and brave ?
| How weigh the gift that Lyon gave
"Or count the cost of Winthrops grave
| Our services and ministratiOns here to-
| day are no idle ceremony. Most fitting is
! ii that gentle hands should drop flowers,
| those lOveliest children of spring time,
upon these lowly graves. For, scattered
| all over this Union are homes wherein
there is void that will never be filed (;
| from them presence has gone forth that
will never return; and to visit and beautify
and care for these silent graves, where so
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