The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-05-30
Decoration UaY.

20! tne people Dy tne people, and Tor the peo
pie" which our fathers transmitted to US was
a priceless legacy. Its preservation by the
patriotism, valor and sacrifice of hundreds G.
thousands of men of our own generation.
should makeit yet more sacred, and they justly
merit every tribute we can offer. TODAY
hundreds, in words of eloquence, will do
homage to the nations dead-the saviors oil
fatherland. Hundreds of thousands will show
their regard for the nations dead by partici
pating in the imposing and suggestive services
to which the day is set apart. Hundreds ol
thousands will shed the silent tear above the
graves of those who fare regarded as the
martyrs to great and just cause. 1t is well
thus to do. We can never repay the debt we
owe the men who forfeited life for national
existence and universal freedom. The heroic
dead, the memory of whom we refresh to-day
have justly earned the largest praise which
living men can give.
But our homage will be but bitter mockery
if it is all to end with the public services o.
this day-with eloquent words of tribute and
the strewing of the graves of the dead with
flowers which will be withered tomorrow.
Our highest homage must be rendered in
deeds. We can best show our appreciation
of their faithful and unselfish service by striy.
ing to make the state they saved worthy o.
their martyrdom, and the people to which il
was bequeathed worthy of the great sacrifice
To save the country from another civil wal
and the vice and crime which always attenG
ignorant masses, the nation must secure
more general system Of public instruction.
To realize that which makes a Republic worth
the martyrdom of thousands of good men,
there must be q higher and truer civilization
BASED upon higher intelligence, a broader
sense of private and public integrity, no
bier code of public and private honor and q
more active private and public conscience.
To make the country worth what it has cost
in blood alone, it must be something more
than a state whose people regulate duty and
conscience by the statutes, and the decisions
of the courts; something more than terri
tory where material prosperity is the only
measure of greatness and an arena where
money is the standard by which character as
well as property is measured, and one man OF
class of men may become opulent at the
price of the wretchedness and ruin of others.
Great reforms are demanded in a genera
way, but the demand will be futile until all
that we desire in the administration of public
affairs prevails on the street, the farm, in the
mart, the workshop, and wherever man
comes in business and social contact with his
fellows.
Above all it is essential to maintain the
difference which existed between the men
who died for the Republic and those who fell
in attempting its overthrow. While as men
we should be above the resentments of the
late war, this sentiment should not lead us to
render the same homage to the rebel as to the
notions of patriotism and sacrifice for prin-
ciple. That they were brave men and true
men all will generously admit. But they
were brave and true to wicked cause. On
the other hand, the soldier of the Republic,
appreciated the great principle at stake and
dared and suffered death to maintain the
right. They belonged to the great army o
heroes who, in all ages, have given their lives
for human rights. They are martyrs of he
roic mould. For them we have garlands
honor and tears. For those who fought te
destroy our fair heritage, we have tears and
pity and for their present sufferings, aid. But
between the patriot who becomes a martyr
and the bravest man who dies in an endeayol
to destroy blood fought country there is q
gulf as wide and impossible as that which
separates heaven and hell. Our patriot lead
belong to that innumerable company of he
roic men who, in all ages, have died on the
battlefield, the scaffold aud in the dungeon
for human liberty. Let US not do violence to
their memory by putting them on the level Of
gladators or even of brave men who faced
death without holy cause, Rather than dc
this it is better to forget them, since to bt
forgotten is better than to be insulted
If we will but hear, these dead we honor
speak as the living cannot. Let us while
standing about the graves of the patriot
dead-these altars of sacrifce-dedicate our
selves anew to the higher duties of citizen.
ship, Thus may we be enabled at this cen
tennial time of the Republic to turn back tc
life's duties with a nobler purpose to be
worthy of the sacrifice made for us because
we have scattered flowers upon the graves o
the patriot dead and rendered true homage
to their noble martyrdom.