Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1880-08-12
GARFIELD ON THE SOLDIERS.
His Noble Utterances at the
Painsville Dedication.
Shall the Bloody Shirt" Be
Flaunted.
Gen. Garfield at Geneva---His impress
sive Grafton at the Dedication of
the Soldiers Monument.
Other Political Points. Exc. Etc.

Other Political Points. Esc. Etc.
The following is the speech in full of
Generel Garfield at the dedication of the
soldiers monument at Painesville, Ohio:
FELLOW CITIZENS: 1 cannot fail to re-
spOnd on such an occasion, in sight of such
a monument to such cause, sustained by
such men. Applause and cheers While
l have listened TO what my friend has said
two questions have been sweeping through
my heart. One was, "What does this
monument mean?" and the other, 'What
will the monument teach?" Let me try
and ask you for moment to help me to
answer what does the monument mean?
Oh, the monument means world of men,
ories and world of deeds and a world of
tears and a world of glories. You know,
thousands know, what it is to offer up your
life to the country, and that is no small
thing, as every soldier knows. Let me
put the question to you for moment.
THE SOLDIERS TEST.
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
offer 1t, how many would walk up before
that majestic presence and say, "Here |
am; take this life and use il for your great
needs" Applause And yet almost two
million of men made that answer ap-
plauseI, and a monument stands yonder to
commemorate their answer. This is one,
of its meanings. But, my friends, let me
try you little 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 this aw-
fully majestic form should call out to you
and say: Il ask you to giveu 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 helpless condition. | ask
you to volunteer to do that. 1t calls for Il
higher reach of patriotism and self-sacri-
flee, but hundreds of thousands of you sol
diers did that. That is what the monu-
ment means also. But let me ask you to
go one step further. Suppose your coun-
form, and in my name and for my sake
here"] 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 eyes
wide open to the horrible consequences,
obeyed that call
SUFFERING IN PRISON.
And let me tell how 100000 Of our sol
diers 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 intellect, the gates of their
prison stood open every day if they would
quit, desert their flag, and enlist under the
flag ofthe enemy, and, out of 100000, not
two per cent. ever received the liberation
from death, starvation, idiocy, all that
might come to them, but they took all
these horrors and all these suferings in
preference to going back upon the flag of
their country and the glory of its truth
Applause. Great God was ever such
measure of patriotism reached by any man
On this earth before? Applause. 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 devoted, all the grief
that was felt, at last crystalized itself into
granite, rendered immortal the great
truth for which they died applause and
II stands there to-day, and that is what
your monument means.
WHAT THE MONUMENT TEACHES.
Now what does it teach? What will it
teach? Why, l remember the story of
one of the old conquerors of Greece who,
when he had travelled in his bovhood over
the battlefelds where MiItiades had won
victories and set up trophies, returning,
he said: These trophies of Mlltiades viii
never let me sleep" Why? Something
ha aI fol1rbf III IN, fro,,, bo oH;
lesson that he could never forget; and, fel-
low citizens, that silent sentinel, that
crowned grantine column will look down
upon the boys that will walk these streets
tor generations to come, and will not let
them sleep when the country calls them.
Applause From the dead lips of the
bulger on the field will go out call that
the children ofLake county will hear after
the grave has covered US all and our i'm
mediate children. That is the teaching of
your monument. That is its lesson, and
1t IS the lesson of endurance for what we
believe, and it is the lesson of sacrifices for
what we think; the lessiOn of heroism for
what we mean to sustain, ard that lesson
cannot be lost to people like this. 1t is
not lesson of revenge; it is not lesson of
wrath; it is the grand, sweet, broad lesson
of the 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 lakes to the Gulf. [Ap-
plause.l
A WORD FOR PEACE.
[ once entered a house in old Massachu-
sets where over its doors were two crossed
swords. One was the sword carried by the
grandfather of its owner on the field of
Bunker Hill, and the other was the sword
carried by the English grandsire of the
wife on the same field and on the other side
of the conflict. Under those crossed
swords, in the restored harmony of domes-
tic peace, lived happy and contented and
free family. Under the crossed swords and
the locked shields of Americans, north and
south, our people shall sleep in peace and
rise in liberty, love and harmony under
the union of one flag of the stars and
stripes. [Applause.l
The Bloody Shirt