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

ism, and to plant on this new continent free
and benefcent republic, surely they no less
grandly died battling for the same principle
at Gettysburg and Shiloh in a conflict between
citizens and brothers, to maintain and per-
petuate the liberty SO dearly purchased by
their fathers. Side by side, with the heroes of
Bunker Hill and Trenton, win stand on the
page of our history the martyrs of Bull Run
and Andersonvilleg The same quenchless
love of liberty the same exalted spirit of
self-sacrifce; the same matchless devotion to
country, and mighty resolve which sustained
the soldier of the infant Republic through the
perils of the revolution, cheered his eampshre
on the bloody SHOWS of Valley Forge, and in
spred his heart at Yorktown; cheered, ac-
tuated and guided those who in later years
bore the banner of union in triumph from At
lanta to the sea bivouaced in fever bearing
swamps, pinned in cruel prisons, or knowing
aught but to do or die left their homes to
bleach on the sunny fields of the South On
the grand sacrifices of this latest conflict, its
sufferings, hardships and perils; its deeds of
valor on many bloody field its story OF
silent, uncomplainng endurance in many a
fatal camp and Southern prison. I will not
dwell The graves Of its heroes, unknown
and countless, around which mourning ma
ton stands to- day. tell their own story best
a story that comes home to your hearts in sad
memories more eloquent than words. OF
your sons and brothers who lie here / will not
pronounce the eulogy, they live to~day fra
grant in the memory OF us all. Rayner, Par
ker, and their companions in arms, died for
their country, and so long as patriotism and
heroic vaor are loved among men they will re-
main to take their high place among the he
roes of the world They are gone from our
midst to join the illustrious company of the
mortals, and are crowned with the lays OF
perennial glory. No gorgeous monument per-
petuates their names or their deeds, but their
deeds are sacred and their names are precious
to our hearts.
We this day pay fitting obsequies to the
memory of our friends and brothers. not be-
cause they were the eminent of the world,
not because they were great leaders, states
men or reformers, but because in the rank
and file of a great army, with no ambition
but to do their duty, they did what they could
and gave all they had, their hopes, their blood,
their lives for you and me.
The graves of these union soldiers, name
less and yet not unknown, scattered through
the length and breadth of the land, from the
sunny slope of New England hills, side by
side with their fathers who died a like glorious
forests, and the breezy prairies of the West, to
the balmy plains of the South, appeal to us
today in silent yet irresistible eloquence.
They tell US how priceless a boon is liberty,
that men die for her without murmer; they
tell us of the mournful issues of sectional con-
test and party strife, the fatal consequence OF
any compromise with principle; that not in
war, nor oppression, nor selhshness, nor ii
valry- but in peace, purity and love shall this
nation find its highest good. They are 2 silent
yet mighty protest against selfish policies
false expedients, sectional strife and soeia
pride, and beautiful, unfading lesson of un
selfish devotion and lofty patriotism. Silent
they yet speak. And, as in obedience to thai
reverence which our hearts instinctively pay
to the memory of these heroes, we meet
here in sympathy with beautiful custom ole
as the world to do them honor, it becomes u:
to impress upon our minds and hearts the
value of the blessings their death secured tt
| us, and take counsel together how we may hes
preserve and maintain these blessings.
One of the most impressive lessons writer
on this monument is, that the liberty oul
fathers enshrined in this Republic is liberty
| for all humanity-not peculiar to race or color
not partial and discriminating, but guaranteed
| in equal measure to all who dwell within oul
| is not more or less than liberty for every mem,
| Der of the human family that claims America
as his home-be he bond or free. Teuton
Ethiope, or Celt. We realize in this presence
| to-day that whatever be their condition il
the social scale, all men, i'll the ringing phrase
of the Declaration, are born equal and tina
human thradom cannot stand side by side
with republican liberty.
Eighty years of time-serving, timid legisla'
ton, succeeded by ten long years of civil war
to those who lie there the shackles are forever
| stricken from the bondman; the theory o.
| human equality is indicated and this Repub
tic is now, in every truth, an asylum for the
| oppressed of every land, government by The
people and for the people. We have TO-DAY
| country whose policy is no longer slavery
| but universal freedom We have to day {
government whose just authority rests not or
| the aristocracy of unrequited labor, not in the
dictum Of mobs and factions, but in the wis
dom and self>sacrifce of united, virtuou.
people.
Behind the inscription on this monument
we read the eptaph of dead theory These
graves have silenced forever all hope of a di
vided union. When the great Webster rea.
soned with mastery eloquence that on the
the perpetuity of American liberty he little
knew that this fair land must be strewn with
countless graves ere we realized in its ful
force the truth Of the proposition. Too cost
ly has been the lesson, too deeply branded in
our very hearts, ever to be forgotten. Fol-
all time the union, sealed in the blood of two
revolutions, is assured. If party ambition as,
sail it /; if sectional pride and interest under
mine it; if selfish rivalry and unhaIlowed
| compromise endanger it, in the protest oil
these halowed graves shall it find an invinci-
BILE champion. Henceforth fidelity to the Re
public shall be the supreme law of the land
and State sovereignty pale before the one
splendor and power of federal unity 50 long
as we cherish the memories that with tender
es; and hottest influence hood our hearts, as
we make yearly pilgrimage to this mecca Of
our union, so long shall we be true to the re-
solve that "the union must and shall be for
ever preserved"
We read on this column yet another lesson
that the interests of the two great sections OF
our country are not separate and at variance.
but concurrent and harmonious That the
North, with it's grand old mountains encasing
mines Of inexhaustable wealth, its rugged
streams, giving life to countless and varied
industry, its magnificent prairies, whose fruit.
age feeuS the weird, ali teeUllnS with the in
dustry and intelligence of its hardy sons. in.
dignant of oppression and invincible for right,
cannot alone work out the great problem of
American republicanism. The great South, as
WE'LL crippled indeed and shorn of its old beau>
ty, yet, in the light of new liberty, rising to a
higher life, with all the afuonce of its fertile
plains mighty rivers and tropic forests, peo>
pied with the children of a common ancestry,
brilliant, versatile, chivalrous, brave, must
join hand in hand with us if we would meet the
just expectations Of mankind, realize the hopes
of the founders of this representative Republic,
and lead her up to truer unison and larger
liberty.
We learn by these graves lesson offorgve
ness and brotherly love. The soldiers Of the
South fought for what they believed to be their
rights, with the same conscientious devotion
and contempt of death as did the sons Of the
North. They fought With matches zeal, but
they fought for a mistaken canse; they pitted
error and injustice against truth and right
and were defeated We cherish toward them
to day no feeling of resentment Enmity
ceased at the grave. While we take not back
one iota of the principle for which we fought,
we extend to orr Southern brothers tho riobt