New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1877-05-30

glory. Around US is the soft, velveted
landscape, enriched and beautifed with
bright blossoms of magnolia, oleander,
honeysuckle and rose, while the air
comes to us freighted with all the sweet
est odors of summer. Yonder rises the
many spired city, the great, the proud, the
queenly city of the South with its throngs
of labor, love and life.
But, standing here at this time, I ask
why this gathered throng from out the
city fullp Why come we here today
What shrine is this at which we pay this
grateful service2 Tell me, 0 ye, sons Of
America! What impulse is this which
stirs the hearts in ten thousand breasts
to-day? All b! that is a question Of easy
answer. turn from yonder great city Of
the living to this great city of the dead.
Here the living have come from beneath
the shadows of yonder spires to homer the
dead who lie within the deeper shadows
of the grave We have come to gather
new inspiration hard by the dust OF the
heroic, the beautiful dead.
We have come to pay our tribute OF
love over the ashes of the men who wore
the uniform of the blue; We gather here
to-day with tender hearts and gentle
hands to lay on these green mounds be-
meath whose covering sleep the brave dead
of nation, the beautiful emblems OF
our love-emblems of the immortal life
we all hope to live.
The mother, the wife, the sister, the
daughter and the maiden of plighted af-
lection away yonder in the distant North
will sleep all the more sweetly tonight to
know that even stranger hands have for
a nor.
formed this holy Office of love.
We come to strew these soldier graves
with flowers graves of the known,
graves of the unknown-and as we en-
wreathe the marble that bears some cher
ished name, we place our garlands with
equal love on the nameless grave where
sleeps some dear boy of the blue whose
youthful steps, departing away from a
mothers door with the measured stroke OF
the drum, have left only sad echos bound
! ing through the chambers of that old and
worn heart.
Some people are cold enough to object
to this custom because they tell us it is q
| reminder of the bitterness of other
days-days of the ''tented field" days OF
the hot blast of war. Let us, my fellow
citizens, cherish no such feelings in this
presence. 1t is the glory of our enlight-
ened manhood that we can be forgiving
if we will. It is the duty of the hour to
rise above the lower passions Of our ma
ture, and that we throw the golden light
of our forgiveness and breathe the sweet
breath of peace over all the dark and bit
ter past. Let US be brothers all. In the
language of Gerald Massey:
ty,t.-. =. -. 5a,r4l of l;ndrass
Or love among mankind
But in the darkling loneness
Hooded hearts grow blind.
Full of kindness tingling
Soul is shut from soul,
When they might be mingling
In one kindred whole"
The act or ceremony which engages u
to-day has in it nothing of the element o
bitterness. No; it is properly an occa
sion of sentiment. 1t is true the blu
was victorious over the gray, and the gra,
returned the sword to its sheath, and tn
brave leader of the conquered said to hi
men: 'Soldiers, I have done all thing
for your good" Then it was that brothe
stood face to face with brother, and th
nation held its breath in silence. In th
language of poet whose strains hav
found echo in many Southern home;
Grant was as courteous
As the great knights of old;
| No glad cheers were uttered
No loud drums were rolled.
The victors saluted
The gsunt men of gray;
And the fire winged tempest
| Died'softly away"
This ceremony is devotional, but it ca
1 - he r1t nf hn pfnJ
It can not restore to the bereaved wife he
buried love. 1t will not bring back
the mother her noble son whose dust ha
its place in these consecrated grounds
But it is grateful to the yearning hearts
hearts of the aching void-to pay thi
tender tribute of love.
No voice may speak out of the deel
chamber hid away from our senses; N
hand may be extended to grasp our own
no eye even may look upon us as we linge
within these grounds, but still as VI
stand here amid this forest of white mar
bles, to the eye of faith the veil doe
open and the invisible draws nearer; W
tread upon border land quite on tn
verge of heaven.
This ceremony has its personal aspects
On this day the wife wends her way wher
ever she can, to the grave Of the one sh
loved with love as strong as life, tori
from her by the red hand of war, and lay
there the sweet floral tribute and tn
evergreen wreath. The mother, the sis
ter, the child seek out to-day in many
cemetery throughout, the land the plac
where the dear ones are sleeping to ex
press in this simple and beautiful way tn
tender and the deathless love. And SO
too, comes the great nation, panoplie
and war clad, and with the gentleness o
a woman's heart lays down the musket
returns the sword to its scabbard, droop
the flag upon its staff, and with soft ste
and muffied drum gathers about tn
graves of the men who wore its uniforr
and marched at its mandate right int
the jaws of death. We come, then, to
day, my friends, to bind ourselves aneV
in bonds of loyalty about the treasure
dust of our heroic dead.
L In almost every age and nation it ha
been the custom of the living to plac
flowers on the graves of the departed. /
the lands of the East they planted owe
the grave the palm tree as an emblem c
victory. The evergreen myrtle was cult
waited in the East as an emblem Of immol
tality. The Romans strewed over til
graves of their loved ones the rose, quee
Of the gardens. Among the Greeks th
amaranth was a favorite. The bay tret
which, dry and seemingly dead, restore
itself from the roots, and resumes its vel
dure, has often been employed as an en-
blem of the Christians surviving hopes.
| 1t is proper for me to say here this
very many Of the men in the Union arm
were possessed Of the noblest Christia