Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1874-06-04
Decoration Day.

cred in this village on Saturday last
to commemorate the memory of the
dead heros who fell in defense of
their country's flag. The volunteer
services of the Bloomington Cornet
Band were brought into requisition,
and that excellent organization dis
coursed splendid music throughout
the ceremonies. At o'clock, P. NJ.
!, the people were assembled in front
of Court House and called to order
by Hon. John H. Rountree, Presi-
dent of the day. When the follow.
ing programme was carried out
Music by the band,
PRAYER by Rev. S. W. Eaton,
Anthem by the choir,
Opening remarks by Hon. J. Fl. Rountree,
Music by the band.
Hon A r. Bushnell Their delivered
the following brief Grafton
Again, ON this 3Oth day of May, when the
| land is all aboom, when vegetation is leaping
forward with marvellous growth, giving hope
! ful promise of rich hsryests, and all nature is
throbbing with vigorous life, our loyal people
meet together to deck with wreaths and flow
ers the graves and memorial stones of those
soldiers who in the late great exigency of the
| nation died that their country might live. In
| accordance with the proclamation of the Gov
ernor OF our State, we have met here to-day
to thus testify our gratitude and love for those
brave men, nearly 800 in number, whose
names are Inscribed on this monument, who
went out from Grant county, and who now
| sleep--most of them-under the green sod, in
| nameless graves, scattered wide wherever
during the great rebellion the smoke of battle
lifted to heaven. 1t is generally true that
''man dieth and is forgotten" His body
crumbles into dust, his soul returns to God
who gave II, and his memory fades from the
EARTH The desire to escape this common fate
by honorable deeds is high and worthy am
bltiOn, and when in times of great national
peril such ambition prompts to noble actions
and seli-sacritces in behalf of country, com
mon gratitude and regard for future national
good demand proper recognition of such
services by the people in whose behalf such
actions are performed and such sacrifices
made. II is by such recognition that patri-
otto ardor and devotion TO country is kept
aglow in the hearts of future generations 1t
is thus the youth are taught when new ma
tional perils arise, as arise they will to emu
late the heroic deeds and sacrifices of their
forefathers in the defense of their country.
1t is in response to this demand that we are
now met here in honor of the memories of
Grant county's fallen soldiers. / have no
sympathy with the idea that our great rebel
lion and everything connected with il should
be buried and forgotten, and which led the
mistaken Sumner to offer his resolution to
strike from our reglmental flags the names of
the battles OF the rebellion in which their
regiments participated. It is but another way
of saying that those who fell IN subduing that
rebellion, if they fell not ingoriously, they at
least fell under such circumstances that the
national good requires that their services and
sacrifices should be forgotten and pass into
oblivion as soon as possible. In 1861, when
the hosts Of rebellion were marshallIng in
arms, and atterward, when disaster upon dis
aster followed quick, and the theater of the
contest was about TO be transferred to the
North, we heard nothing of this idea. Then
these men, and all capable of bearing arms,
were urged by every consideration of patriot
ism, by the duty they owed to themselves,
their families, their country and their God, to
enlist under our national banner, take their
lives in their hands and go forth to battle for
the people and property of the country, for
free government, for our national existence,
with the assurance that their services and sac
rlhces would be greatly appreciated and re-
membered. 1t is said by monarchists that
Republics are uHgrateful, and that they can
never long endure, because the people. always
tickle and easily led by jealous, unscrupuoas-
ly selhshland ambitious men, will seldom suit |
ably recognize or reward those who render
great and important services to their country, |
and that thus all patriotism is stifed, selfish |
ness is fostered and becomes supreme, and |
when great national exigencies arise few will
sacrifice or even risk personal security or in. |
terest for the common good, and numerous
examples are cited to prove the assertion |
But | do not believe the United States of
American will ever consent to forget or ignore
the services of these dead. The people will
never say tina the heroes who fell in that war
were deceived and defrauded into sacrificing
their lives for their country. No nation, no
people, can afford to be unjust to the dead or
the living.
Amnesty granted those lately in rebellion,
let them not be tainted with their misdeeds,
nor the defeat of their lost cause, but let us
not for the sake of conciating disobeyers of
the law, or pardoned rebels, withhold the due
need OF praise and reward from those whose
services saved us from the dire calamties, the
anarchy and ruin which must inevitably have
followed upon successful rebellion. The con-
trary course besides being unjust toward the
soldiers of the Union, would be impolitic to-
ward rebels, as In some measure recognizing
their right and excusing their course, being
the policy of Andrew Johnson when, the re-
belllous States being ready to accept any
terms, he sought to give back to them uncon-
ditionally all the rights they had lost through
their rebellion. AS in the revolutionary war,
when certain sections were nearly all tory,
few years or generations at most will work
the remedy. Few and foolish even now are
those at the North who boast that they ever
in the least sympathized with secession. Many
at the South have always been loyal, and
many more are anxious to prove that they
were never otherwise, and ere many years few
indeed will be found to boast that they are
descended of those who took part in the slave
holders rebellion.
By the Governors proclamation the charge
of these ceremonies is intr ted to the SUR
viving comrades of these fallen soldiers. A
comrades heart beats warm and fast as be
recalls those days with these men in the field,
the camp, the march, the retreat, the biviouac,
the common dangers shared, the battle, the
laundering cannon, the rafting musketry, the
shrieking and bursting shell, the crashing
shot, the Kissing deadly bullet, the densely
gathering smoke, the Fastening column, the
stern unyielding line, the charge, the yell, the
victory, and then the gathering up OF the
wounded, the sad but hasty burial of The dead,
the thinned ranks, the writing home of the
gloriousy fallen, and the surviving comrades
Of these dead would DO all the honor to their
memories that a brother soldiers love can
prompt; but tet,derer hearts than theirs are
here, and falrer hands to Irvine the adorning
wreath and strew the decorative flowers.
These men had all to live for that we have.
Life was as sweet to them as il is to US.
Their fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters,
wives, children and friends, were as dear to
them as ours are to US; they breathed this
same pure air, and basked in this sunlight Of
God that we do, and this bright and beautiful
world was theirs as it is ours; this noble State,
Grant county, these hills and valleys, these
farms, these towns and villages, this free gov
eminent, this glorious land, might now have
been theirs as they are ours, had other men
served and fallen in their places; yet they went
forth to battle and endured the tolls, the hard
ships, the sufferings, the disease, the wounds
Of a soldier,s life and finally with their lives;