Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1880-07-08
General Garfeld's Latest Speech.

General Garfield's Latest Speech.
At the dedication of the Soldiers
Monument at Painesville, on Saturday
last, Gen. Garfield delivered the follow
ing speech:
FELLow-CITIZENs- cannot fail Il
respond on such an occasion, in sight o.
such a monument, to such a cause, sus
tained by such men. While l have lis
tened to what my friend has said. TIVE
questions have been sweeping through
my heart. One was, What does tn,
monument mean?" and the other
i"What will the monument teach?" Le
me try and ask you for a moment t(
help me to answer what does the monu
ment mean? Oh, the monument means
a world of memries, and world Of
deeds. and a world of tears, and world
of glory. You know-thousands know
what it is to offer up your life to the
country, and that it is no small thing
as every soldier knows. Let me put the
question to you for moment, suppose
your country in the awfully embodied
form of majestic law, should stand
above you and say, 81 want your life
come up here on the platform and offel
it." how many would walk up before
that majestic presence and say, "Eere
am, take this life and use it for your
great needs" [applause] and yet almost
two millions of men made that answer
and a monument stands yonder to COM
memorate their answer.
But, my friends, let me try you lit
tie further. To give up life is much,
for it is to give up wife and home and
child and ambition. But let me test you
this way further. Suppose that awfully
majestic form should call out to you and
say, 81 ask you to give up health and
drag yourself, not dead, but half alive,
through a miserable existence for long
years, until you perish and die in your
crippled and hopeless condition. ask
you to volunteer to do that, and it calls
for higher reach of patriotism and
self-sacrifce;" but hundreds of thou
sands of you soldiers did that. That is
what the monument means also.
But let me ask you to go one step fur
ther Suppose your country should say,
"Come here on this platform. and in my
name and for my sake consent to be idi-
OTIS; consent that your very brain and
intellect shall be broken down into
hopeless idiocy for my sake" how many
could be found to make the venture !?
And yet thousands, and that with their
ewes wide open to the horrible conse-
quences. obeyed that call. And let me
tell how 100000 of our soldiers were
prisoners of war, and many of them,
when Death was stalking near, when
famine was climbing up into their
hearts, and idiocy was threatening all
that was left of their intellects-the
gates of their prison stood open every
day if they would quit, desert their flag,
and enlist under the flag OF the enemy I;
and out of 100000 not two per cent ever
received the liberation from death, star
yation, idiocy. All that might come to
them, but they took all these horrors
and all these sufferings in preference to
going back upon the flag of their cOun-
try and the glory of its truth. Great
Godi were ever such measures OF patrl-
otism reached by any man upon this
earth before?
That is what your monument means.
By the subtle chemistry that no man
knows all the blood that was shed by
our brethren, all the lives that were de-
voted, all the grief that was felt at last
crystalized itself into granite, rendered
immortal the great truth for which they
died Tapplausel, and it stands there to-
day, and that is what your monument
means.
Now what does it teachp Why, re-
member the story of one of the old con-
of yuh w
Travelled in his boyhood over the battle
fields where Miltiades had won victories
and set up trophies, returning he said:
These trophies of Niltiades will never
let me Sleep" Why? Something had
taught me from the chiseled stone les
son that he could never forget, and, fel-
low citizens, that silent sentinel, that
crowned granite column will look down
OH the boys that will walk these streets
for generations to come, and will not
let them sleep when their country calls
them. Applause More than the bu-
glar on the field, from his dead lips will
go out call that the children of Lake
county will hear after the grave has
covered us all and our immediate chill
dren.
That is the teaching of your monu-
ment. That is its lesson of endurance
for what we believe in, and it is the les
son of sacrifice for what we think, the
lesson of heroism for what we mean to
sustain, and that lessen can not be lost
to people like this.
1t is not lesson of revenge; Ut is not
lesson of wrath; it is the grand, sweet
broad lesson of Immortality of the truth
that we hope will soon cover, as with
the grand shekinah of light and glory,
all parts of this Republic, from the
Lakes to the Gulf.
l once entered house in old Massa-
chusetts, where over its doors were two
crossed swords; one was the sword car
ried by the grandfather of its owner on
the field of Bunker Hill, and the other
was the sword carried 10y the English
grandsire of the wife on the other side
of the conflict. Under those crossed
swords in the restored harmony of do
mestic peace, lived happy and content.
ed and free family under the light OF
our republican liberties. Applause.
l trust the time is not far distant when,
under the crossed swords and the lock-
ed shields of Americans, North and
South, our people shall sleep in peace
and rise in liberty, love and harmony
under the union of our flag of the Stars