The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-07-27
rfftb Maine Reunion,

The Fifth Maine Regiment Association cele-
brated their fifth anniversary last evening with
literary exercises at Army and Navy Union
Hail. Owing to the inclement weather there
was not as large an audience gathered together
as there would otherwise have been, vet the at
tendance was fair. The hall presented beau
tiful appearance, gaily decorated with flags,
conspicuous among which was the flag of the
| regiment suspended with others, that formed
glory, over the rostrum. The banner displayed
battle-stained and war-worn appearance, con-
trasting strangely with the bright, fresh bunt-
ing of the corps and division flags that sur
rounded it,
Precisely at o'clock the President of the As
ISOLATION, with the orator and poet and several
of the Executive Committee, took their places
on the platform, after which Memorial Hymn
was sung with great taste and feeling by a
quartette composed of Miss Aggie Walker,
Mrs. Moves and Messrs. Stevens and Moves of
the India street choir. Rev. Geo. w. Bicknell
offered a very feeling and appropriate prayer,
after which the beautiful quartette Sunrise
was sung by the choir Capt VIM. E. Stevens,
of the Boston Journal, then delivered brilliant
and telling Grafton, of which the following is
an abstract:
Opening with pleasant allusion to the cir
cumstances which placed him in his present po-
sition, and which the habit of obedience ac-
quired as a soldier, no less than his duty to the
Association, impelled him to fulfil to the best
of his ability, although he could lay no claims
to oratorical skill, the speaker said his theme
was one that could never fail to interest the
people, however often it might be detained by
orators or depicted by poets. He should, there
fore, offer no apology for traversng a field so
well trodden as that which treated of the
achievements of the Union armies in the late
civil war. He then sketched, concisely, the
cause which produced the war, chief of which
was the ''irrepressible conflict" bequeathed us
by our fathers when they sought to reconcile the
two diverse systems of labor existing in the
North and the South under our Government,
and brought the discussion down to that STIR
ring period when the whole North was aroused
to knowledge of the dangers which threat
ened the Union by the attack on Fort Sumpter.
Reference was then made to the organization
of the Fifth Maine as a regiment, effected in
this city, and brief but highly eulogistic alu-
sion was made to the prominent part borne by
that gallant body of men in the terrific struggle
which ensued. The return of the regiment
with depleted ranks was also told, and fitting
tribute paid to its heroic dead. The speaker
next alluded to the cordial reception vouch-
safed to the veterans their retirement to civil
avocations: of the faithfulness of the Federal,
State and municipal Governments in caring
for the disabled, deducing therefrom the propo-
sition that the trite apothegm, Republics are
ungrateful," was a popular fallacy. A scath-
ing alluson was made in this connection to
those banacle office-holders who have COM
bned against the efforts of manned and limb
less soldiers to procure positions in the public
service. Referring to the current discussion
over the reconciliation" theory, the speaker,
while urging the necessity of concord of feeling
between the wearers of the 'blue' and the
gray" strongly deprecated any policy which
should demand forgetfulness for the past or
place on level terms and as equally deserving of
honors, the men who fought for the preserva-
ton of the Union and those who fought to de-
stroy it. Allusion was also made to the injus-
tice wrought upon the veterans who entered the
service without bounty and fought to the end
on the paltry pay of soldiers in having theft
property taxed to hep pay the debt SO greatly
augmented by the large bounties paid at the
close of the war, and the large sums expended
to procure substitutes and paper credits by
towns and cities. In its system of raising
troops the Government had greatly erred,
though it was not an error of intention. The
speaker concluded by urging his comrades to a
more general attendance on the annual re-
unions. The address was interspersed with apt
poetical quotations
Miss Agge Walker then sang solo, and her
powerful, flexible voice shone to excellent ad-
vantage, only Strengthening us in the favorable
opinion we had formed of it on previous &C.
casion
Mr.. Moses Owen, of Bath, then delivered a
brief but highly appropriate poem, in which his
illusions to the old flag, under which they had
so often marched to victory, brought down the
house. We regret that we are unable to pub
lish the poem in full while extracts would mar
its perfect whole. At its close Mr.. G. f. Mum
roe favored the audience with song, after
which short remarks were made by several of
the guests of the Association, and the evenings
exercises closed with singing by the quartstte.
The members of the Association go ON clam
bake to-day, leaving Custom House wharf at 8
o'clock.