The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1873-06-02

Ing pIOllilucuCc VI tlTOTS WHICH lie laQ ldD0-
riously eliminated from a disheartening proof
sheet. The heart of the typo seems to expe-
rience fiendish delight in dragging the har-
row of a garbled text across the editorial soul
And such is life-in the sanctum.-Bang0r
Wing.
Address Of Gen. John Marshall Brown.
Among the many excellent addresses of Dec
Grafton day that have been printed we have
read none that were more practical, timely and
thoughtful than that delivered by Gen. John
Marshall Brown at Augusta which the Kenne-
bee Journal publishes in full. We make the
following abstracts:
Those who die for their country should not be
forgotten by their countrymen. The palms of
the victor's crown may fade; sooner or later
must be said "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" but
Honor does not die, the lustre of great exam
pies does not fade. In far distant years the
plough of the husbaudman may turn its fur
rows where we stand; these graves may be for
gotten but the deeds of their silent occupants
will have gone into history and the sweet arc
ma of their sacrifices will last forever. As we
look about US it seems as if this could scarcely
be. Barely eight years have passed since well
come Peace smiled upon the land. and yet the
hurry of these latter days has almost driven
that time of rejoicing from our minds; the
grass has grown green and been cut down, the
flowers have bloomed and withered and once a
year we gather them and strew them here So
recent the struggle, and yet how remote.
Young men walk our streets in the full flush of
manly vigor who only dimly remember those
days of gloom and glory. Thousands of happy,
laughing children at the widowed mothers
knee, look awe struck at the relics on the wall,
and ask for stories of the mysterious past, when
the father carried the sword or musket to the
war; the father whose grave, perchance, no one
knows, who when he said Good bye" kissed
with such love those baby lips, but never came
back for those baby eyes to see.
But to day We bring this Past nearer to us;
we have turned aside from the crowded
thorougbfare of the worlds progress TO wander
among the graves of our comrades and offer
them our tribute, and pledge ourselves again to
their memory and their work not us alone, not
here alone by this beautiful river, but by thou
sands OF others, beyond the hills to the far
north east, beyond the hills to the distant west,
wherever a wounded heart came home to die,
is this ceremony repeatee; wherever on the
painful road he fell, some hand to-day performs
the sacred duty. Alas, that SO many sleep we
know not where ION distant bsttle-fields in weary
prisons and sad hospitals, their eyes caught the
last glimpse of the brightness of the sky, and
now alone the tender hand of nature decorAtes
their unknown graves
The lesson of this day, is plain, Choose
what subject you may, the thought will be
Hinged with the color of this beautiful memo
rial. The legacy of the patriotic dead is the
noble example of their lives; the duty of the
living is to emulate that example and perfect
their work. Do what we may this day must
be sacred to one topic; the tender memories
of the past, the solemn exigencies of the pres
ent; the various possibilities of the future.
Fellow citizens, am wrong in saying that
we need more loyalty, we, ourselves, here,
now, to-day? Loyalty is obedience to the laws;
it is more than that; it is respect for authority,
it is faith in our institutions, it is selfrespect
it is the spirit of mutual sacrifice, of charity.
The savage is selfish by instinct and remains
selfish of necessity. Association implies and
something of his natural independence when
he takes a companion. He gives up something
that he may receive something which alone he
could not have. The citizen of free state,
where the people are the source and spring of
power cannot be selfish without injuring his
neighbor and his fellow; the development of
governn ent is logical; from mutual benefits
grow mutual obligations, and the concessions
and compromises which are necessary for the
public good become crystalized into laws.
Obedience to these laws is paramount duty
of the citizen; without this loyalty there can
be no virtue, no true happiness, no honor
nothing but vice aud crime and disease and
death. In this democratic republic the people
are the law makers-what can we hope for if
law makers become law breakers; if they make
laws, or cause them to be made, which cannot
be obeyed; if they look complacently upon fla
grant disobedience, or smile at the paltry meth
DDS by which are evaded solemn enactments
which have the seal and sanction of the State?
Does the almost fatal facility with which we
make and unmake laws, make the responsible
ty less serious, or lesson the need of patient
research, wise preparation, searching criticism?
How can we exemplify our confidence in ouI
own judgments when the statute book con-
tains for years laws which are not and eau
not be obeyed.
After great periods of excitement comes re-
action, after great exaltation depression, after
great victories apathy, often over-confdence
and boasting, sometimes, unhappily, arrogance
and intolerance and false pride.
Fellow citizens, can this be said of US? 1t is
said OF us; it is true of us and makes our duty
plain, to shake off this sloth and humble our
Boosting pride, and, cherishing the memories
each for himself and each for all and all for the
State, SO that honor and virtue and religion,
and good government may revive aud prosper
and prevail. There is no sound or threat of
war, but the country is not at rest, and there is
much earnest patient work to be done. FREQ
governments have been subverted, the greatest
nations have had their decline and fall Have
we solved the problem in barely one hundred
years which the Republics of the old world es-
sayed for centuries in vain? The name of Re
public is nothing without the substance; ma
jorlties may be tyrannical and dcspctic. There
is scrvitude which is contentment and happi-
ness; there is freedom which is not free. Let
US not cradle ourselves in vanity and hug our
great, our system is perfect we are the envy of
the nations, the refuge of the oppressed. We
used to say those very words when millions of
our countrymen were slaves bought and scld
and beaten and murdered under the very folds
of our Starry Flag. God be praised that He
has permitted us to cut that cancer out and
wipe away that stain, though with our blood.
Having done this tardy justice is there no more
to do; is tine problem solved, is our system
perfect? We have the right of suffrage; do we
use it wisely? Are our public men the purest?
Have We lost the right to criticise and punish?
Are men in power always the best men, are our
representatives faithful to their trusts, do we
relieve ourselves of the reproach of msgovern-
ment by delegating our right to make laws to
others? Have we less crime and more virtue
than others whom we call less free? All, let
our hearts respond, touched with the spirit of
this day, and in the name and memory of that
innImerable throng that have gone before let
US look the truth in the face and search out the
disease, and having found it, cure it, if tcan be
cured,