The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-06-14
CONTINUED from the first page.1
As it shone upon his cottage in his distant
Northern nome.

Northern home
(After Bingen on the Rhine.)
To-day it is our proud duty and exalted
privilege to meet together here around these
graves of our comrades who now rest in
quiet slumber upon the western boundary OF
q great nation-a nation united and tree and
stlI stronger in peace than In war. Let us
stand as II upon holy ground; for here lies
1.-THE boy In blue" Here he sleeps upon his
old famlliar bed of Mother Earth. Here he
rests at last III his tinal rifle pit. Here the
sound OF early revelile will break no moro
his peaceful siumber. Here he made his last
halt III the great march to eternity. Here
the marble raised above him, ghtter.ng white
IN the morning sunshine, Ike the canvas OF
the tented tieid. MARKS well his encampment
upon the confines OF the great hereafter. In
VAIN to hum Will come the assembly cali,
sounded in old familiar bugle notes; In VAIN
to him will beat the alarming drum; IN VAN
will the thunder OF Heavens artillery salute
hum, tor he hearxens not. He has gone to
answer roll cali In the great company ot mar
tyrs who have died tor tree government.
Nor should We forget tnose who on other
occaslons and IN dinerent struggles have
fought and tell for their country. Nor yet
their surviving comrades A few of the
battle SCARED veterans OF the war with Mex
leo are still among US, most of them STRICKEN
with age, and many OF them proudly wearing
the soldiers medal. All honor TO tnem, anu
ali honor to tnelr comrades VINO repose side
by side with the heroes of the Union war.
here also sleep those VINO faced the nardsnIps
and dangers of frontier lite, and who tell at
last through prrvatlons or by the hand of
savage toe, III brave struggle to found these
promising young commonwcalths OF the Pa
chic COAST we will UarlandS for
them all.
How tit the services of this day? How
appropriate the ceremony of scattering flow
ers and evergreens above the sacred precincts
OF the tomb. 1t is true such ceremonies can
IN no wise benefit the cold and pulseless ashes
of the heroic dead, but they may serve as
valuable lessons of patriotism to the living.
Beyond this, however, they have a stli
higher and nobler mission. 1t is that of put
ting out forever the embers of civil dIscord-
OF nushlng forever the mlschievlous whisper
lngs which lead to internecine strife. FOR
VINO that has a human heart can stand, as
we stand to-day, by the graves of these tall
en- comrades, and engage IN these beautiful
ceremonies of love, with the green earth be-
meath us and the heavens above to smile up
on these symbols of our devotion, without
feeling OF charity and forgiveness tor those
errlng ones by whose hands our brethren tell.
Vi them, also, three hundred thousand We're
killed or died OF disease during the war, and
at least one hundred thousand more have
died since that time from causes Immediate
iy connected with mistaken service in de-
tense OF imaginary rights. Such sacrifice be-
speaks sincerity winch is well calculated to
soften the heart of the true soldier, who ever
understands how to be generous as well as
brave While we believe loyalty to be the
first duty of good citizens, We can but admire
the old Latin maxim which teaches us to
''say only that which is good of the dead.
The mute lips of our comrades that lie here
entombed IN Mother Clay; the evergreens
that flourish at the head of these grassy
mounds; and our offering of flowers, rlcn
with varied fragrance and beautiful In the
delicate tint of every hue, all seem to speak
In the tender language of love and mercy
These, indeed, are the grand features which
exalt this day; for its ceremonies are calcu-
lated to teach lessons of human fallbllity and
human forgiveness, which, let us hope, will
hasten the advent of that still greater and
better day ''when the sword shall be turned
into the plowshare, and the spear into the
pruning nook, p" and when nations shall prefer
rather to boast of the peaceful pursuits OF pro-
gressive industry than of the bloody tri-
umphs OF retrogressive war.
War has been denominated one of the ne
cessary evils of mankind; and so long as it
shall continue among the nations so long
will it be the duty OF all good citizens to
stand in arms for the defense of their hber.
ties when the nation is imperilled; and so
long will we continue to point with pride to
the courage and patriotism of him VINO gives
up his life upon the field of battle. Yet We
ali naturally look forward to the ultimate
reign of universal peace.
Such day may never come to this gener-
alton; but for one, have sufficient hope for
the progress of the human race, sufficient
faith In the better impulses of the human
heart, sufficient confidence in the genius of
the human mind, to believe that ways and
means will ultimately be devised by which
the dire calamity of war may be numbered
only among the many landmarks, which like
that of feudalism, shall be the future record
of the moral and intellectual development Of
mankind.
In this connection, word for our chief
Though absent in foreign land, he is not
forgotten. While we observe the ceremo.
MES of our Decoration Day" and rejoice In
all the good results which may come from its
lessons of love, it Is a matter of especial con.
graduation to us that the first grand lesson
OF peace ever given to the nations of the
earth, was given by the General of the Amer.
lean armies when he demonstrated to the
world, that as a soldier he could not only
conquer peace at Appomattox, but that as a
statesman he could also conquer war at &C.
neva To see the peaceful arbitration of so
grave an international dispute between two
great nations dictated by the hero of some of
the most brilliant battles of the 18th century,
was a spectacle which amazed the world, and