The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1875-06-05
Decoration Day.
The Speeches.
ADDRESS OF E. N. LEWIS, esq,
IN WASHINGTON SQUARE.

IN WASHINGTON SQUARE.
The task YOU have assigned me today viii
il seems to me, be fairly accomplished, II
nat into words the feelings which prompt tn
ceremonies and inspire the observances o
this occasion.
We do not meet to discuss questions which
involve the administration of the government
or the prosperity Of the people. True, thes'
questions do not lie fur aside from the emo
lions of to-day. Since the foundation OF oui
new and greater national existence were laiG
few years ago with cement OF sacred 6iooo
in the enduring masonry of dedicated ives
every great political question demands 70 %
considered with remembrance OF the Diood
that was shed and the lives that were given
Tue roots OF such questions reach to and knl'
around the graves of our dead soldiers: there
is somewhat of solemnity in them-we can
not forget the price that has been pa,d. ana
he is a foolish if not an unfaithful citiZen
who would have US cast out from our memo
ries those great days when the tramp OF ar
mics and the crash of battles made the very
earth shake, and hushed the voices ana the
breath of the dwelers in our fartherest homes
Unwise in Judgment and unsafe in counsel
are they who for the sake OF merely external
union. apparent but unreal fellowship, and
unenduring peace, would have US forget that
but a few short years ago the questions oil ma
tional polity were submitted to the stern arbi
uament of war and decided by hundreds OF
battles and countless heaps Of slain.
But this day and hour are dedicated to high
er themes. The emotions that stir in oul
hearts are far different from the fierce pass
ions of political partisanship. Here are
gathered, not men with ballots in their hands
expressing in loud, positive tones their parti
san preferences, but men and women and
childlen, bearing flowers and wreaths, to DO
honors to our dead heroes. Over us is the
"infinte blue dome tretted with golden fire"
the same sky which, with its stars not
wholly lost in the glory of the morning. bent
over Mary Magdalene and that other Mary
when, bearing fragrance in their hands, they
hasted on that first Lords Day to the grave
of their beloved dead. Around us. glorious
with summer verdure and splendid with tae
shining of the summer sun, are the rivers ana
rounded bluffs which the eyes OF the dead so
often locked upon with delight How often
TO them, on the hot and dusty march, IN the
WEAKNESS and pain of the bare and cherries
hospital-or ia the prison pen, with It's inde-
scribable and namcless horrcrs-how Often
must this fair scene have stood in sleeping
and in waking dreams before their vision,
awakening sudden and intense longings-
inconsistencies hard to bear! And not this
scene only: these rivers that fash In the sur
shine, and the valleys through which they I'M
roll the white silver of their courses; the Nils
with their vesture OF green grass and crowns
of emerald trees, and the ravines where In
the earliest springtime the spring beauties
and anemones timidly reveal their modest
beauty, and where in later summer the cool
shadows and the forest sileHces make their
Baunt-not this scene only appeared on the
march, in hospital and prison, to the mental
vision of those whom we are gathered this
day to honor All around US are other fair
scenes, other hills clothed with the splendors
of summer, other ravines and valleys fair to
see; and also prairie homes scattered and
shining like white rocks In an emerald ocean.
The hundreds of brave men whose names are
chiseed on yonder mo nument-what vi sions
they must have had of these fair scenes! The
homes they left behind them, the little gate,
the path worn by the feet of social neighbors,
the shade trees In the yard and sturdy ranks
of the orchard, the hooks and corners where
they played when children, the meadows and
grain fields where they worked when grown
to be strong and active boys, the Ihorses IN
the stalls, the cattle in the pasture, the very
dog that frollicked with them in the gleeful
wears of childhood-how they remembered,
and thought of and pictured out all these
things! What Is common and unnoticed to
US were no small matters to them. For these
men-young men, the most of them-bOys
they were in their free, joyous, frolicsome
spirits-thesc boys above all things loved
their homes Their army life did not weaken
that feeling, but rather made 1t superlatively
strong. The memory of home was precious
to them. Without doubt those who LETT
homes of their own, with wife anu child-no
doubt these dreamed of home by day and by
night; their thoughts were rs constant to 1t
as the heavenly longings OF holy saints, But
the others--thosc to whom home was the
place where father and mother and sisters
iived-thc place where they had passed the
years OF childhood-how few of them forgot
their homes! In the hearts Of what multi
tudes of them did that love grow intense and
passionate until 1t became master feeling.
Those who came back to US when the war
was done, and who live among us still, VIII
bear witness to the truth of what | say. Ihey
remember how vivid and sweet were their
memories of home how they loved to call up
the picture OF it and think the vision WAS real
dream that they stood before the house
door and were Just about 10 open 1t ana
stand suddenly in the presence OF the dear
ones Did YOU not dream such dreams, brave
friends? Did you not on the march, by the
camp fire, on guard and picket, gaze upon the
picture of home that rose before your minds
eye, till not detail Of all the well remember
ed scene escaped you, and until the longing
TO see the real scenes grew almost too intense
to bear?
What, then, must 1t have been TO those who
Welded up their lives from wasting disease
or slow wounds IN Southern hospitals, or
who gave way at last under the fortunes OF
the prison penY What dreams of home must
they have dreamed! How often did the farm
house or the cottage seem TO stand before
their dim eyes, its doors almost within reach
of their wasted hands. How clearly did the
dear faces, gathered in the home room, ap
pear before them And how vividly, even
when their ears were growing dull with death
must the home notes.-the voices OF mothei
and father. the sweet tones of sisters singing
at twllight-how often must these SOUNDS
have been heard by them, as II God mac
wrought miracle Of mercy TO comfort th'
Door souls in their final pain.
I said that the great questions OF natiOha
,,ol,cv had something of sOlcmnity in them