Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1875-06-03

The eighth anniversary of the day
hallowed to the memory of the patriot
dead of Grant county, whose names
are inscribed on marble, was BETTING
ly observed by a large body of the
people at Lancaster on Saturday last.
The day was bright and was as beau
tiful as the ceremony was dutiful and
sad. The scene was solemn, yet in its
impressiveness was grand. Taken as
a popular gathering of the people,
called together by sentiment touch
ing alike the heart of every man,
woman and child in our community,
this funeral day has never been more
generally observed since the dedica-
tory services at the monument eight
wears ago. We say the custom of an
nually strewing the graves OF the
brave dead with flowers is beautiful
one. 1t is also a peaceful one. A
writer in travelling over the battle field
of Bull Run saw pretty, pure. delicate
flowers growing out of the empty am
munition boxes wild rose thrusting
up its graceful head through the
top of brok en- drum, which
doubtless sounded its last charge IN
that battle; and cunning scarlet YER
bena peeping out of fragment OF an
exploded she'll in which strange pot it
was planted. Wasn't that peace
growing out of war? Even so does
the beautiful and graceful and good
grow out of the dark and terrible.
About ten O'clock people began to
arrive from a distance, COR NC from
every part of the county. At one
O'Clock the streets were thronged with
people, when the exercises in front OF
the court house opened. Gen. Calls,
the marshal of the day, assisted by
Capt. Baxter, organized procession
of the people, the line of march ex-
tending around the public square. The
assembly then gathered at the stand
near the county monument. Aprayer
by Rev. Cummings followed, when
Hon. J. III. Rountree, president of the
dow 1alivarnd an nv""h~--
tory speech. In referring to the brave
deeds and suferings of the soldier
dead and living of the late war he
made this patriotic utterance: ga
country so saved should live forever;
union cemented by blood SO sacred
and so profusely shed should never
be sundered." In conclusion he adj
vised all to emulate the noble deeds
and characters of those whom they
had assembled to honor, so that our
country should never call in vain in
time of trying necessity for an exhibi-
ton of that noble and self sacrificing
patriotism for which these illustrious
dead were distinguished.
Mr.. w. B. Clarke, of Bloomington,
then arose and delivered the following
Grafton:
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:
We meet to>day to lay the cypress and the
! HAWAI- aobJauoa of corrov and of honor unon
the tomb which tender and grateful hearts
have raised to the memory of those who died
that the Union of these States might live.
The friends of that Union as they gather thus,
| impelled by common, tender and holy i'm
pulse, in every hamlet of this reunited land,
bear new testimony to the truth of the words
of the old Roman poet, "dtlce ct gloria
pro patria mori"-"It is sweet and glorious to
! die for ones country"
They who thus die need no visible monu-
ment In the hearts of grateful nation
their memory is ever enshrined; on the choic-
est page of the worlds history their deeds find
an unfading monument that crumbes not but
is made beautiful and more enduring by the
man life, and he who voluntarily surrenders
it for the good of his fellow man is in the
highest sense hero. In the Pagan mythol
ogy hero was demi>god; mortal, indeed,
but believed by tie people to partake Of im-
mortality In the rich imagination of the
Greek, to be martyr to the cause of liberty,
made a citizen worthy to stand among the
family of his gods. In his expressive tongue,
a martyr was synonymous with witness, and
he who persisted on the alter Of Grecian lber-
ty was perpetual witness to that true no.
bility of soul, which, in his philosophy, stamp
ed man as divine. The browning act in the
life of the most perfect man the world ever
knew, is told 10 the simple story of the cross
he died for his fellow man. Great empires
rise and-fade away; mighty conquorers -four
ish for time and are forgotten while the
humblest deed of devotion or death in the
cause of liberty still excites our wonder and
our worship. The matchless eloquenoe of
Rome has ceased to echo in the forum, and
the gorgeous trophies of her many conquests
are buried with her ruins but the world yet
listens to the story of Scevola and of Regulus
The most perfect monuments of Greek philos-
ophy and song viii have been long forgotten,
while the world still reads the rugged epitaph
on the cliffs of Thermopolyae, stranger, tell
it in Lacadaemon, that we died here in obedi-
ence to her laws
The unveing of the statue of the minute
man, at Concord on the 18th of April last,
in the presence of a vast concourse of citizens,
among them the noted and honored of the na-
ton, told as that the memory of Davis and of
Hosmer was ever fresh in our hearts; while
the kingly tyrant, against whose encroachments
these humble plowmen dared to fire the 'shot
heard around the world,' is known no more
They fell at Concord and Lexington that on
their graves might rest the corners stone of
a new temple of liberty, On the very field !
they titled, on soil wet with their own blood, |
they have peacefully slept for a century, and |
now great and prosperous nation, sprung |
g. al. Ii,