The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-05-31
DECORATION DAY.
Exercises at Spring Grove Gem.
etery.
Grafton BY General Robert H. Kenne'
dy...Dec0ration Ode BY Mrs.
EnOch aylor..-Strewing
Of Flowers, Etc.

To-Day is Dec0ratl0n Day atSprlng GroVe OemS
tery. The day is lovely one, the sun being ou'
| in full splendor
The various military companies and CIVIC so
cieties formed at Eighth and Plum streets at 7:St
O'Clock in the order as published In saturday
STAR. The column moved promptly at O'Clock
| over the line of march to the Nj. q u Depot III
time to take the 10 O'Clock train. Every traln' one
being run every halfhour after O'Clock, look OUT
| crowds of people.
Upon the arrival at the Cemetery the military
and the societies were Joined by the train OF car
rages, wagons, etc. containing the orator, Id
dies Committee and General Committees Ine
procession then formed again and proceeoed 70
the mounds where the following order OF exer-
clses was observed:
Decoration Anthem" by B. c., True ESQ,
written for the occasion and sung by
choir of twenty young ladies. Music by :,
ID. j. Wethereii
Extemporaneous prayer by.Rev ph4maS on 81 neS nS
Grafton by y".... General Robert P. Kennedy,
of which the following is q brief abstract;
nation founded upon new continent, whose
cornerstone was liberty, and whose supeistruc- W
| ture was slavery, cut but sorry figure In the
grand drama of life, and merited as 1t won the
jeers and taunts of the nations OF the world Such
| a nation could not endure; the cry OF tne pohds-
man could not be silCnced by the shout OF tne
| freeman; the plea for liberty could not be put
| aside by men who were themselves opening the
gateways of the new world to the oppressed OF all
| lands and all climes: the hour for action had
Gomez the 'rrep-essiDle conflict between liberty
| and slavery, between right and wrong, between
| union and dis union, was not to end until ma
| ton should be redeemed, race in BONDAGE set
free and the unity of the nation so firmly cement
ed that neither trial nor defeat neither storm nor
disaster should ever again endanger the safety OF
the Government. or imperil the Liberties OF the
people.
We remember as but yesterday the peal OF the
fife and the drum; the quick moving to and fro
upon our streets; the anxious glances the earn
est inquiries, the determined faces, that followed
the first call to arms for the defense OF the Nation
threatened with civil war. We remember, too,
the quick response, when old and young. igno-
rant OF warfare, unused to camps and battles,
came from the loom and the anvil, from the bank
and the wo kshop, from the Office and the furrow,
to tender TO the Nat on not only their labor, but
their lives IN defense of its liberty and the preser-
vatOn of its unity.
We can hear the shout of victory we can see the
faltering columns, the grand panorama OF war
move before us. and the meadows are tramrled
by the feet of contending armies the h1llsides are
furrowed by the wheels OF artillery, the noun
tain streams are Redeemed with the blood OF our
fallen sons battle succeeds battle contest follows
contest army after army is swept away but the
end is not yet million of men in arms! A
million OF bayonets bristling in the sunlight The
land is i land of mourning.
But the end comes at last; the final battle is
IOugnt; tl6 last contest is cIlueu Tue hupitildCy
OF the National Government Is acknowledged
and the liberty which was threatened and the Ma
tional Unity which was to be destroyed, are again
firmly re-established.
They had been purchased with the blood OF our
fathers; they have now been redeemed and bap
tzed with the blood of our brothers. Peace
comes and with her, universal liberty.
"Thank God we see on every hand
Breast high The rpening grain crop stand,
Tho ordc bppd tho hprbe tuarnaSa
But oh, thank God! thank God for peace"
turned would that could call them back to-
day, 80 that they might pass in grand review be-
fore YOU. with their ranks OF battle unbroken,
their columns reformed, the graves OF every battle
field emptied OF their patriot Dead the foul prison
pens with their gates standing wide open the dead
of the hospitals, and the fever-slricken thousands
who lie buried under the burning suns of the
South, and as they passed in grand review before
YOU would point to their wounds, to their bills
tered feet, to their hlggard faces and starved
bodies that told of Andersonville and Belle Isle.
and would ask you, have these men died In
vain2
To me, liberty means something patriotism
means something. While am Wiling TO let by
cones be bygones, and willing to forgive the peni
tent who comes in sackclOth and repentant, am
not willing to forget the great principles for
which we sacrificed so much, nor yet the men
living or dead who were true to the country when
she neeQeu ueIeLutfS.
While | am ready to forgive our enemies, do
not think we are called upon either directly or In
directly to recognize or honor the cause for which
they fought IL is enough that we ere ready TO ex-
tend the hand of friendship. and to cover with
the mantle ofcharity and forgetfulness the crimes
of the past.
To me, the boy in blue will ever be dearer than
the boy in gray. can not forget that the one was
battling for the lib rty of nation, and that his
blood preserved ii; and that the other was seek
ing to tear down and destroy that nation and rob
Of its liberies that the one gave his life that
great nation might live and its liberty be trans
mitted to generations unborn that the other died
seeking to rivet the chains of human bondage,
| and to blot from the face of the earth nation
dedicated to human liberty. You may strew your
roses where you will, but as for me; shall plant
| no roses upon the graves OF dead REBEL Will
nut mine only upon the grave of the boy in blue.
But while we eet here this day let us not for
get that silent army whose tents are tolded whose
arms are stacked; whose battles are over, and
| ''who fought where they fell ana fell where they
fought" who have answered the challenge oil
death with the password of eternity and who ever
quietly sleep on those fsr-off battlefelds
"In that low, green tent
Whose curtain never outward swings"
| The quiet sleeper in the Virginias or the Caro-.
linas is marshsling host OF tears at many fire
side to-day and you who have no sons or brothers
here, or whose absent dead lie on the far-of bat.
tlefields of the Nation, perchance some kind hand
and some tender heart Is bedecking with flowers
and strewing with wrcaths and roses the unknown
grave of your patriotic son.
A beautiful Decoration Ode by Mrs. Enoch Tay
lor read by Mr.. H. j. Wetherell, byirequest, as fol
| lows: