, 1876-11-11

Again we are in the great struggle for
national life. We hear the sounds OF
prcpantion-thc music Of the boisterous
drums-the silver voices OF heroic bu-
dies. We see thousands of asScmhNgcs,
and hear the appeals OF orators we see
the pale checks of women, and the flush
cd faces of men and in those assemble
ncs we see all the dead whose dust we
have covered with flowers. We lose
>ight of them no more. We are with
them when they enlist in the great army
of freedom. We see them part from
those they love. Some are walking IN
quiet woody places with the maldens
they adore. We hear the whisperings
and the sweet VOWS of eternal love as
they lngcringlp part forever. Others
are bending over cradles, kissing babies
that are asleep. Some are receiving the
blessings of old men. Some are parting
with mothers who hold them and press
them to their hearts again and again
and say nothing; and some are talking
with wives and endeavoring with brave
words spoken in the old tones to drive
from their hearts the awful fear. We see
them part. We see the wife standing in
the door, with the babe in her arms
standing In the sunlight sobbing-at the
turn of the road hand waves-she an
swers by holdidg high in her loving
handst sthe child. lie eisgone, and forever
We see them all as they march proud
ly away under the Haunting flags, keep
ing time to the wild grand music OF war
marching down the streets of the great
through the towns and across the
prairics--down to the fields of glory, to
do and die for the eternal right.
We 90 with them one and all. We
are by their side on all the CORY fields
in all the hospitals Of pain on all the
weary marches. We stand guard with
them in the wild storm and under the
stars. We are with them in ravines run.
ming with blood-in the furrows Of old
fields. We are with them between con.
tending hosts, unable to move, wild with
thirst, the life ebbing slowly away
among the withered leaves. We see
them pielccd by balls and torn with
shell in the trenches 10y forts, and in the
whirlwind of the charge, where men be-
come iron. with nerves OF steel.
We are with them in the prisons OF
hatred and famine; but human speech
can never tell what they endured.
We are at home when the news comes
that they are dead. We see the maiIen
in the shadow of her first sorrow. We
see the silvcred head of the old man
bowed with the last grief.
The past rises before us and we see
four millions of human beings governed
by the lash-we see them bound hand
and fOOt-we hear the strokes of cruel
whips--we see the hounds tracking wo-
men through tangled swamps. We see
babes sold from the breasts of mothers.
Cruelty mspeakable! Outrage infinite !.
Four million bodies in chains-tour
million souls in fetters. All the sacred
relations of wife, mother, father, and
child trampled beueath the brutal feet OF
might. And all this was done under
our own beautiful banner of the free.
The past rises before us. We hear the
roar and shrek of the bursting shell
The broken fetters fall. These heroes
died. We look. Instead of slaves VIC
see men and women and children. The
wand of progress touches the auction
block, the slave pen, the whipping post
and we see homes and tiresides and
school houses and books, and where al
was want and crime and cruelty and fet
ters we see the faces of the free.
These heroes are dead. They died fol
liberty-they died for us. They are a
rest. They sleep in the land they made
free, under the flag they rendered stain
less, under the solemn pines, the sac
hemlocks, the fearful willows, the EN-
bracing vines They sleep beneath thu
shadows of the clouds, careless alike o
the sunshine or of storm, each in thu
windowless palace of rest. Earth ma!
lun red with other wars-they are Al
peace. In the midst of battle, in thu
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