Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1875-06-02

military establishment is useless and uncalled for
because every should feel that military service
| is duty, sacrifice which he must render his
country in her hour of need. And it is our pOpu
lar liberty which renders the performance Of this
| duty imperative, which makes it easy to fulfil,
which raises it from the level of a mere physical
| task, to the dignity and sublimity and grandeur of
a moral obligation l contend, and statistics will
| vindicatc my claim, that no truer, braver, more
| faithful and incorruptble body of men were ever
| assembled or banded together than our armies
during the war Of the rebellion 60 still further,
and assert that on them their moral character and
their integrity, the socalled vices and mmoralities
of military life made NO impression, produced no
evil results whatever; that these men returned to
| society. at the close of the war, virtuous, rs
| honest, as faithful and moral, when they en-
| rolled themselves under the standards they so
proudly bore to vctory,-yes, and came back more
matured, more self-reliant, more manly by far,
| than when they took up arms and assumed the re-
sponsibilities and burdens Of the camp and battle
field.
One in ten of our whole population enrolled
| themselves in the Army and Navy Of the Union,
giving the strength and vigor of the best part Of
their youth and manhood to their country; and of
this vast host, in ten laid down their lives in
| her defence, and never has the world beheld a
more incorruptible body of men than these Amer
ican Volunteers. 1t could not be otherwise, for
| they represented the whole body of the people.
They represented the character, and intelligence
and intregty, and virtue and morality OF the peo-
II
| of union, the patriotic impulse, the deliberate,
stern purpose Of the people; and after four and five
years of constant, active service IN the most
gigantic civil war that ever shook to its very CEN
tire the mighty fabric OF national unity and exist
ence, they came back to you without any imme-
date personal advantage gained, without any
benefit to themselves, except the preservation OF
| the life and liberties of great people, who, in
less than ten years, have almost forgotten their
sacrifices and the inestimabe results Of their work.
| But, comrades, though men forget those whose
seldevotion preserved to them all that makes life
fair and beautiful all that makes it worth the liv
ing,-though they fail, through neglect or inditfer
! ence, to even mark their last resting places
though the graves of brothers lie all about us
unheeded forgotten, unknown, perhaps, still it is
a sweet solace to feel that Nature never forgets
| the departed. She ever sings her sweetest grand
/ est reQuiems for her heroic dead. We can hear
them in the wailing Of the winters blast, we can
hear them in the plaintive murmurs of the sum-
mer evenings breeze, in the mighty roar of the
oceans booming surges, in the awful crash OF roll
ing thunders and they come up to us in the low
hperings of the soft south wind, as it sighs
| the lonely pillows of our martyred heroes.
| Be comforted, oh mourning mothers, who know
| not where your dear ones sleep, lying among the
innumerable multitude of the unknown dead, y
| remembering that every grave is registered in
heaven and that the same God who gave your
| boys the victory in the field, He who plants the
flowers yonder hillside and in the quiet forest
dell, can make them bloom just sweetly on their
mounds and send his unseen messengers to care
for them as they keep vigil by those lonely, un-
| known graves.
No, Nature never forgets the dead. From her
bounteous store she brings forth the bright green
grass ard the modest wild flowers, and with never
failing, tender sympathy herself decks every hum
| BILE grave. We, from all the immeasurable full
ness of our hearts, from the Questionable depths
of our love, can only add what she gives to her
generous gifts to the departed. She does more
than we can ever do for if there be any little grave
v1f oh Ernu not fttl
to his rest in quiet village churchyard, amid
the tangled ferns of some southern wilderness in
the forest depths where he fighting bravely, fell !;
by the dusty roadside at the ford, ON the old pick
ct line ''tenting still on the old camp ground"
| she has surely found that sacred spot where he
lies. and has flung over him her mantle of beauty.
| If these graves be SO dear to her, oh how much
more precious should they be to our still bleeding
hearts! Fellow citizens, you remember well the
| misgivings and solicitude with which the nation
looked forward to the disbanding of our armies at
the close of the war. The absorption of two mil.
lions Of veteran soldiers into the peaceful occupa
tions Of civil life declared to be impossible 1t
was asserted by thousands and believed by mil
lions more that tn is suddenly letting loose upon
| society such host of men, fresh from all the Ii
cense of actual warfare, and tainted with all the
| fancied mmoralites of camp life, would deluge
| the community with vice and evil influences and
entail unutterable horrors upon the people. Such
was the prediction such the fear, and the world
looked on to see the overthrow OF democratic gov
eminent by military despotism, by the men who
| had just rescued the Union from anarchy and who
| now, under the lead of some successful general
| would be used as subservent tools wherewith to
| set up throne upon the ruins of Republicanism,
| forgetting that soldiers were thinking moral
beings, actuated by rational patriotic motives, and
| ignorant of the fact that such men can never be
| made the toels of designing demagogues, but
would rally with one impulse for the overthrow Of
| any individual despot, as they had already done
for the destruction of tyrannous oligarchy. The
| result was signal and triumphant refutation of
| the calumny. Our armies were not composed of
professional soldiers, whose lives had been spent
| in war and conquest, but Of men who carried into
the service with them loyal convictions, fostered
| from childhood by earnest, God-feariDg mothers,
| who prompted by the love of liberty and
country and were guided by principles of integri-
/ ty and morality. During all the darkest hours Of
| the war, in quarters and around the camp-i fire.
the march, and on the lonely picket watch, where
none but the Omnscient eye could read the secrets
of their inmost souls, their thoughts reverted to
| the happy homes and cheerful iresides to which,
| their duty done, they hoped, God willing, to re-
turn. And so, when the last blow had been struck,
| the last engagement fought, the last gun fired,
when victory had crowned our cause with unfad-
ing laurel-hey turned their eager footsteps home
ward, laid their proud standards wreathed with
glory their arms all upsullied their trophies wrest-
| ed from gallant and stubborn foe on q hundred
well contested fields, at the feet of the people
whose battles they had fought well, whose lib
critics they had rescued anu preserved, ana dieven
while the nation looked on in speechless amaze
ment, the mighty host faded away the vast, su-
perb army was absorbed into the body polite, and
had already become only name, precious men,
ory. its heroic deeds story of the past Where,
| in all history, can you find grander, more i'm
posing spectacle than this ; Two millions of men
in in response to the call of their chosen rul
ers in obedience to high and holy principle
| a trained, veteran army flushed with magnificent
victory, disbanded at once, submissive to the same
will that created it
In that baptism of blood by those cleansing fires,
the nation was redeemed and purified. by the
mortal agony of that terrible struggle was this
people uplifted to higher. truer life. The lofty
spirit Of allegiance, the deep, intense love of hber-
ty and union which stirred the mighty heart of the
great Republic, reused its latent energies raised
and equipped millions of men, tenderly cared for
our sick and wounded soldiers. maintained the
public credit, poured untold millions into the pub
lie treasury, and awed the nations Of the old world
by a sublime exhibition of the grandest elements
of msgnanimity and power-was the same spirit
| which pervaded and animated those disciplined,
victorious armies. elated with triumph and con-
scious of their invincble might, making it possible
for them to quietly melt away into the common
tide of eyerv day life.