Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1871-06-29


rors of death Their decaying bodies
and bleeching bones may be found in
every leafy valley and on every cheer
full hilltop of this beautiful land. A
PATRIOTS grassy mound marks the spot /
where their unmantled forms repose
in the bosom of the earth. But this |
is not the only emblem of their lives. |
Their works are a richer trophy of
their name. When time shall have |
down the wooden or mar
BILE slab, and the storms of Heaven |
shall have leveled the grassy mound |
into an unknown spot, the memory
of the soldier will not then perish
but so long as freedom and liberty
shall find an advocate, his noble deeds
will SHINE down the line of ages, even
to the latest generation. Yes, he has
drawn to his memory for all time to
come, the homage of a grateful pos
terity. Those thoughts and affections
for race and country which were so
brightly embodied in useful action
can not and will not die
For when the great and good go down,
Their statutes shall arise
Within these temples of our own
Our fadeleSS memories
/, marble
And art goes IN to die,
Their forms shall live in holier walls
The pantheon of the sky
Ancient Rome and Greece. reared
many lofty monuments to their mighty
conquerors, also grand temples to
their Gods, whom they consulted in
times of great political commotion for
hint of The future, that their armies
might walk forth to success and vic
tory. If magnificent memorial struc-
lures with epitaphs deeply wrought in
marble are rewards for pure motives
and noble sacrifices, no country should
have so many as ours. But we have
faith that the departed worth of our
illustrious dead have won for them a
| more worthy reward in that beautiful
land with its ''bright jasper walls" and
where the cypress and myrtle bloom
in eternal splendor. Our monuments
are more enduring than marble. They
consist in a series of human events,
sculptured by the historians pen in
the hirtory of a Ncw Continent,
drought IN the annals Of q higher cic-
aization.
How unlike the ancient has been the
plain chr stian burial of our departed
countrymen, when the pilgrim fathers
landed on the American shores they
were decimated with disease, many
! died, the survivors after their burial
smoothed the earth over their graves
that the savage might not learn theil
number was decreasing. And the
graves we are visiting and which are
spread all over this country, while
they speak not of vanity they tell us
that the day when the ancient Greeks
and Romans visited the temples of the
Gods for breath of the future is past
that people that aspire to great des
tiny bear their constant oracles in theil
own high impulse, which uphold the
liberal institutions of better era.
But when we speak of the heroic en-
durance of our soldiery in connection
with it, the many noble hearted womer
of our land should not be forgotten
The sanitary commissions and volun
tary contributions with which she wa
so conspicuously identified, contribut
ed great relief to the soldier. No
only to his bodily comfort, but wer
so many tokens of the loved ones a
home. Also by converse and CORES
: pondence she kept alive those kindl,
charities and friendly sympathies il
the soldiers bosom, which dcvelol
J themselves into heroic virtues an
, are the only safeguards of a nation
integrity and honor Nor was this al
2 many Of our noble women were fOun
in the hospital administering to th
/ wants of the sick, wounded and dyin
t watching over them with a mother
5 care-cheering them in life and com
forting them in death. In every pos
sible way she was eXerting her Unfit
ence. both in sympathy and action 70
= the soldiers comfort and happines
4, and the nations strength. And ca
we not imagine to day as she scatter
S wreaths of fragrant flowers on the so
t that covers the mouldering frame c
: the dead soldier that her presence
: spiritually felt Aeven If it be a singl
: flower, this tosthy remembrance"
But after all m3st is due to the so
e dier who takes his life in his hand an
d goes forward to fight the battles {
' his country. He stood like a wall {
/ fire between our homes and the moaC
? ing foe. His hopes and aspiration
!, were far beyond those of persona
: honor or personal aggrandisement.-
s The long and weary march-the e.
j. posure of the camp-often with II
: tent to shelter him but the blue dom
j of Heaven-all these privations an
e perils nobly attest his unfinching fide
Y ity TO the cardinal principles of civ
e liberty and the American ConstitI
f ton.
!, While we strew beautiful and fr;
c grant flowers on the cherished dust W
e fondly hope this day to honor; let L
n not by this method alone express ou
f gratitude. Our practical duties di
r not end with the war. Almost a mil
e ion of Americas noble sons paid til
r debt of nature in the storm of battl
e or by the pestilence of disease. OF
S land was. filed with crippled an
: mained soldiers. Hosts of widowe
It women in their weeds of bereavement
d and thousands upon thousands of Of
phan children who in their prattlin
J. innocence would say, "when shall m
o father return" The war left these cril
II pies, widows and orphans, who in mo.
a part, were depending for their snppo
= upon the charities of a grateful pee
d pie. 1t was a duty encunbent upO
d us to guarantee unto those made dest
B. tute by the war, a tender care an
protection. Their sorrows and b
reavements were hey ond the liberal