Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1879-06-05
Decoration Day.

DoSSA oeAou DHy ~ Wbtu iusoia"
BILE to large attendance. The PEE
ceding night gave rain and rendered
farm work impracticabie. but there
was not enough TO make impossible
roads and the morning was clear.
People began to come early. Soon
after twelve O'Clock very large as.
sembly occupied the east and part
of the north side Of the public
square. The seats were all taken
and many were standing. The Lam
caster Harmonic Band were 10 their
new Band house and entertained
the people until the hour for begin
ming the regular ceremonies. At l
o'clock Lieut.. II. S. Keene, the Pres.
ident of toe Day, called the Assem-
bly, to order ana delivered the fol-
lowing opening address
Ladies and Geatla,sea In accordance With
beautiful custom, we assemble to-day to pay
our annual tribute of flowers to the memory
of our sacred and heroic dead. We meet TO
recall and commemorate that patriotism, f.
deity to principle and devotion to country
which led them to make the greatest sacrifice
of which mankind is capable; to lay down
tn ,r lives that .he peace and honor Of their
country might be restored, and its unity per-
petuated.
II is such sacrifice as gilds the memory Of
every patriot of every nation and of every
rank, and which claims the lasting gratitude
of its benefciaries While we assemble to-
day, let US come together with malice to-
ward none, but with charity for all !" let us
cast the mantle of charity over the bitter
prejudices and fierce passions of the last let
us forgive and forget where forgiveness and
forgetfulness are virtue. But we cannot
Yield to that sickly sentimentalism by which
class OF demagogues, to further their indi-
vidual interests or that of party, would teach
us to ignore the memory of our gallant dead.
A nation can owe no greater debt of grati-
tude than that it owes to its defenders But
the achievements of those whose memory we
are thus met to honor exceeds the mere de,
tense of country, FOR they struck the shack,es
from race ofbondmen, and lifted them from
the despairing gloom Of slavery to the glori-
Gus light of liberty.
The fervid stream of their heroic blood has
cleansed the pollution from onr cherished old
hag-has washed the foul blot Of slavery from
our national escutcheon. Their sacrifices
and triumphs will shine with untarnished lus-
ter when yonder monumental marble, at the
corrosive touch of the finger of Time shall
have been resolved TO dust.
Yet, while we wreathe our brightest gar.
lands to entwinc the monument whereon are
craven the names of the loved the lost, the
wept of many patriot home--of those who
tell in the fierce combat, proudly and def
sntiy, with their faces to the toe of those
whose lives slowly wasted amid malarial at
mosphere until the light in the hollow eve
waned, grew dim and died of those who
loyalty endured the privatons, the gnawing
hunger and fiendish torture of the prison pens,
until welcome death relieved them from the
prisons horrors; let US not forget that there
are Others TO whom like debt of gratitude
is due.
There are other monuments that bespeak q
devotion not less fervent,. a heroism not less
exalted than that which caused our gallant
dead to yield their lives a sacrifice at their
c0untry's altar; monuments that are seen in
the crutch, the vacant sleeve, and the mutt
lated forms of those whose orders have not
yet come to fall into ranks with their breth.
renin the advance, who have already crossed
the mystic river.
After this address the Rev. G.. w.
Case OF PlattevilIe, invited by the
Chaplain, Rev. G. w. l.. Brown, Of
fered fervent and inspiring prayer,
and the choir sang, "Our Festal Day."
Gen. E. e. Bryant, the Orator of
the Day, spoke without notes, sub
stantially the following eloquent ad-
dress:
The day is one of the lovelest known to
our favored cline. IL is chosen in the season
when our land is fairest to the view, and when
the aspects of nature are those of life. of
youth and hope.
Prompted by the better feelings of our ma,
ture we have set apart this day and made it
sacred to the memory Of that noble host--a
third OF million Of men-who died. in a
great historic struggle, to secure to US and to
our children the choice blessings of union,
peace and liberty. 1t is we'll that we thus
come together. II is well that we symbolic
the nation mourning for her mar syred chill
dren, and lingering tearfully over their graves
1t is well that we bedeck the silent sod above
them with the emblems of reverential graft,
tude. 1t is well that forgetting for a little
while the busy cares and concerns of our
tranquil lives, we awaken in our souls those
noble sentiments which have prompted good
men to suffer and brave men to die and which
have illumined the page of history, blood
stained as it is, with bright examples of de-
votion to duty, to country and the dearest inter-
ests Of man. 1t is well for the people of this
community that they have raised here in their
midst memorial SO that the names of your
neighbors and kinsmen. who fell in that
great strife, shall not fade from human re,
membrance.
The memories that come thronging to each
heart on this occasion are more eloquent than
language can utter. In thought, as we gather
here. we live over again the long, hard strug-
gle into which those heroes went 80 bravely !:
from which they never returned. Our minds
recur to those sorrowing years of war which
have left their deep scars on this fair land
All its trials and its triumphs are again before
US. Again we hear the call to arms, electric
tying the land. Our young men are flocking
from every hill side, every prairie, from city
and hamlet. to the standard that treason has
dared to assail. The mother sobs upon the
bosom of her darling boy the long good bye
she can not find voice to speak. The father
gives his son his blessing, and with quiyering
lip bids him go and bear manly part The
maiden and the wife give up their dearest
treasures at their country's call, proud of the
sacrifice that almost breaks the heart. Again,
we wait to hear and yet dread to hear the
story of the far off battle. Again, with hushed
heart and blanched cheek, we ask who is safe.
and who has fallen. Once more we recall
the bitter sorrow and humiliation of defeat
and again we rejoice in victory with a ioy
that is the blending of mourning, of gratitude
and triumph, dear bought with noble blood
and manly lives. Again, the grim war cloud
lifts from our blood .drenched land, the brown.
faced heroes are marching home, proud and
joyous as only the victor for the right can be.
Again, the war-worn regiments return, but,
oh, their ranks are shrunken disease. the
prisons torture, the screaming she'll, the lead
en- storm, all have battered against those
walls of manhood till half their length is
down. The muster rolls tell the story "Died
on the field of honor" "Died of Wounds
"Died OF disease contracted in the service
Brief, but how eloquent OF grief and heart
ache at home, and suffering manfully borne,
and death calmly met by the hero far away
The old flag waves once more over the
whole land how proudly. We love it with
deeper love since
:" For every stripe Of stainless hue.
For every star in its field Of blue
Ten thousaad Of the brave and true,
Have laid them dewn and died.