Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-07-16
GEN. GARFIELD's ADDRESS.

Gen. Garfield gave the concluding speech
at the Painesyille observance Of the 4th.
He was introduced by Mayor Burrows
with the remark, that it was pleasure TO
introduce to such an audience their own
distinguished fellow citizen. The General
was greeted with round after round Of en-
thusiastic applause.
FELLOW CITIZENS: (Applause.) l cannot
fail 70 respond on such an occasion, in
sight Of such monument 10 such a cause,
sustained by such men. applause and
cheers.) While / have listened to what
my friend has said, two questions have
been sweeping through my heart. One
was, what does the monument meanE and
the other, what will the monument teach?
Let me try, and ask you for moment TO
help me, to answer, What does the monu-
ment mean! Oh, the monument means a
world of memories, and a world Of deeds,
o world of tears and a world Of glOries.
You know, thousands know, what it is to
offer up your life TO the country, aud that
is no small thing, as every soldier knows.
Let me put the question to you for mo
inert. Suppose your country, in the aw-
full embodied form of majestic Law should
stand before you and say, Il want your
life; come up here on this platform aud
offer it" How many would walk up be-
fore that majestic presence and say. Here
am l.; take this life and use it for your
great needs" (Applause.) And monu-
ment stands yonder to commemorate their
answer. That 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, and all-almOst all. But let
me test you this way further. Suppose
that awful majestic form should cali out
TO you and say, Il 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 thousands
OF our soldiers did that. That is what the
monument means also. [Applause.
But let me ask you TO 60 one step fur
ther. Suppose your country should say,
"Come here upon this platform, and in
my name ana for my sake consent to be
idiots; consent that your very brain
and intellect shall be broken down into
hopeless idiocy for my sake, how many
could be found TO make that venture
And yet thousands did that with their
eyes wide open to the horrible consequence.
And let me tell you how. One hundred
and eighty thousand Of our soldiers were
prisoners of war, and among them, when
death was stalking, when famine was
climbing up into their hearts, and wheT
idiOcy was thretening all that was left OF
their intellects, the gates Of their prison
stood open every day if they would just
desert their flag and enlist under the flag
/ Of the enemy; and out OF 1S0, 600 not two
| per cent. ever received the liberation from
death, starvation, idiocy, all that might
come to them, but they took all these hOr
rors, and all these sufferings in preference
to going back upon the flag Of their coun-
try and the glory of its truth Great APP
| plause. Great God! Was ever such meas
| ure of patriotism reached by any men upoT
this earth before! Applause That i
what your monument means. By the sub
tie chemistry that no man knows, all tn
blood that was shed by our brethren, al
the lives that were thus devoted, all tn
great grief that was felt, at last crystalizeC
itself into granite and rendered immorta
| the great truths for which they died. AI
1
that is what your monument means.
Now, what will it leach? What will
teaoh2 Why, remember the story Of on
Of the old conquerers of Greece, who
when he had travelled in his boyhood owe
the battle fields where Miltiades had VOL
victories and set up trophies, returning b
said: "These trophies Of Miltiades viii
never let me sleep" Why? Something
had taught him from the ehiseled stone
lesson that he could never forget. And
fellow citizens, that silent sentinel tina
crowns your granite column will look dow
upon the boys who shall walk these street
for generations 10 come, and he will no
let them sleep when the country calls
IApplausel More than the bugler Of thu
feid, from his dead lips will 60 out cal
that the children of Lake county will hea
after the grave has covered us all and ou
immediate children. That is the teaching
Of your monuments that is its lesson. /
is the lesson Of endurance for what we bC
lieve in. 1t is the lesson Of sacrifice 70
what we think, the lesson Of heroism 70
what we mean to sustain; and that lessO
cannot be lost on a people like this.
Il is not a lesson Of revenge; it is not
lesson of wrath. 1t is the grand, sweet
broad lesson OF the immortality Of trut
that we hope will soon cover, as with th
grand Sheohinah Of light and glory, a
parts of this Republic from the lakes
the Gulf. (Applause.l