The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1874-06-01

over this land to-day thousands Of del
icste hands and cultured thoughts are
busy strewing flowers over the graves
of the brave and gallant soldiers OF the
war.
Softly, silently and sweetly they fall
on the grassy mounds. bringing the
first fragrant fruits OF spring as q
heart-offering to fidelity and vsior.
THE LESSON OF THE HOUR, RECONCILIATION
And now, my friends, standing here
at the narrow house, which soon or late
will claim US all, and looking down the
future as with the eye OF . seer, what
are the visions, prompting and lessons
OF the hour2
Fit is possible for those in the flesh
10 add to the pleasures OF disembodled
spirits, | can imagine no greater Joy
we can give 10 them aud to ourselves,
than on these occasions to make their
graves and memories the means OF rec
onciiation. For this, on these occs-
sions, my voice has been given for
years and I rejoice to know that the
day is al hand when the victors and
vanouished, the reconciled survivors Of
each army who respected the living
soldier OF the other, join heart and
hand to pay homage to the memory OF
the heroic dead.
Claiming integrity and honesty OF
purpose for my comrades in blue. |
know speak their united voice when
declare that we detract not one whit
from the valor and sincerity OF those
who fought and bled aud died for the
sunny South.
No men actuated by a base purpose
could have fought as valiantly as they
did. None but true heroes, worthy
sons OF worthy sires, could have accept
ed defeat so gracefully and so man.
fully:
THEORY OF THE WAR.
We conducted the war upon the the
ory that we all were countrymen. brotht
ers OF the same household, kinsmen o.
the same maternal line-that the he
roes, histories and traditions o! the revs
olution, and the development.
of the country were common
heritage. That we could not happily
and safely dwell apart and that our re-
al strength was in unity and equality
before the law.
The war decided that countrymeu we
were, and are and nust remain-the
living and the dead.
IT'S at the graves OF these our ceun-
trymeu we reason OF these things. Tis
at the grave the earth seems most re-
mote aud CLEANS OF Heaven are seen.
II in such coil and at such eacred hour
conciliating seeds are sown, they will
bud and blossom and bloom forever.
'Tis here we catch the sunny side OF
mortality and brighter hopes OF i'm
mortality. 'Tis at an hour like this.
when the spirits OF the departed hover
around us, and beckon US to higher as'
pirations, that we look each other In
the face and murmur in o borrowed
phrase,
at must be 30, Plato,
Else why this longing after Immortality.
And we awake to the realization that
at Ia not all OF life to live,
| Nor all OF death TO die"
The men who went down to battle
against each other were countrymen,
often from the came neighborhood, not
unfrequently from the same paternal
roof, one with the blue, one with the
gray, and that sister is not all ideal
through whom the poet says:
| "Upon my bosom lies
| A kno, Of blue and and gray;
| You ask me why? Tears oil my eyes,
| And low TO you say:
| "J had two brothers once
Warm-hearted, brave and gay;
| They left my slde-one wore the blue,
The other wore the gray.
zone rode with Stonewall and his men,
And Joined his fa e 10 Lee;
The other followed Shermans march
Triumphant TO he sea.
Both fought for what they deemed the
AMI died with sword in hand;
One sleeps amid Virglnis's hills,
| And one in Georgia's sand.
"The same sun shines upon their graves,
Nv love unchanged lust stay,
| And so upon my bosom lies
The knot OF blue and gray"
Whether the war might have been
sverted is useless now 10 inquire. II
seems TO me it was inevitable; that
publication and lasting peace could
only come through the crucial expert
ment OF war, but whether 30 or not it L.
40 admitted fact that each party. with q
few exceptions, honestly and sincerely
believed the other to be inrmIcsl 10
good government and constitutional
liberty.
Tne war demonstrated that, while
we would fight as to constitutional
construction we were welded 10 a con.
s,itutionsl form OF government as
transmitted by the fathers. 1t was
this that made the war possible and after
it peace. 1t is this that makes perpetuiiy
possible and more than probable.
STRONGER BEFORE TIE WAR.
Before the war we cav each other
from afsr, "a through a glass darkly.
| During the war each party learned
more OF the other And to respect the
other more. Hitherto they had not
mingled much they met aud wrspgIe5,
isuuderstood ard quarelled by proxy
through politicians not always az
honest as ambitious whose theory
OF legislation was 1.-The greatest good TO
the greatest number" but whose prac-
tice was, that the greatest number was
number one.
The actual contact OF the soldiers by
thousands, on the field, in the hospitals
aud elsew here, became . school TO un-
fold aud develop traits OF character 10
each that the other could admire. Each