Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1880-06-02
wEDNEsD MoRN1NG R2ao NO
NO 13O.

guide locomotives, manage tclegraphs, print
a newspaper and cut canal Who has for
gotten that memorable event, when Elias
Howe. inventor of the sewing machine,
stepped from the ranks. a private soldier, and
drew his check To give the regiment 4 quar-
tcr's pay. Labor was beginning TO redeem
itself The war has wrought radical change.
To-day in America labor is King. The greasy
hand of the mechanic is the mark of manhood.
The jewelled fingers of some shoddy aristo-
,rat who would starve if not supported by
the brains of some honest laboring ancestor
may shun him. but the hopes Of America to-
day are center, 4 upon her hardy lahorers. the
bone and sinew of this grand continent.
Strong and sclf-rcliant America knows she
can trust them in the hour of danger.
How will you pay the debt of gratitude you
owe? Pay 1t: You never can YOU can make
| installments on the debt. The nation is car
ing for the maimed and the helpless. But
monuments are needed to tell the story OF
| hcroism to future generations. To you, clti-
zens of Augusta, the question GENES with pc
cular force. All over the North. in modest
| cemeteries and noble parks, shafts of granite
point upward, telling the generations yet to
| come of the heroic deeds Of I'll. Some have
been built by subscription. some by corporate
vote. Taxes are a grievous burden, but who can
1 >dN udN NIahi WoutN ~. wv WSS w
such a mcmorialy
When they went forth To die, they sacrificed
| business, wealth. and all their bright hopes of
a prosperous future.
/ Taxation means less food. But think of the
wan. pinched faces of Andcrsonville, picking
over the very ofial of the camp to keep soul
and body together. II means poorer clothing.
Did they think of that. when hatlcss, coatless
and shoeless, they wandered in Southern
swamps and listened to the distant having of
the boodhounds sent 10 track them in their
| escape from the prison pen! II means poor
or house. Have we forgotten that during
those dark days many poor fellows lived in
holes in the ground, chattcring with malarial
chills, and dying aloney Wealth? DO you
begrudge ii? To whom do you owe the coun-
try, by the protection of whose laws you have
the privilege of amassing wealth? Imagine
the country divided, harasscd by constant
border warfare. Mexcanizcd and torn from
centre to circumference by constant revolu-
tions, as it would have been without their
sacrifice. and the wealth of to-day would be
swept away in the revolution of tomorrow.
Every dollar you have you owe to the unfiinch-
ing devotion of the men that threw their bod
les between you and anarchy. Can you re-
fuse paltry portion!
Economy? Is il economy to forget deeds
u
of life to live, to merely vcgctatc. Parsimony
is not economy. A generous liberality in
feeding the flames Of patriotism is the truest
economy. God pity the man whose soul 10
so small that he weighs wealth in the balance
against the memory Of men that died that
even such as he might live. But they need
them not. They can say with Horace,
II have built for myself n monument enduring
thnn brass"
The manaclcs of four million slaves rust
ing from dsusc speak in volumes Of elo-
guence more weighty than piles Of lofty gran
ite or costly bronze. In colossal edifce at
London, built bv Christopher Wren, lie his
remains upon the walls is tablet with this
inscription, 'WCuld you see his monument,
look around"
Would you see their monument, look
around. Behold Union, not of "belligerent,
discordant States, but firm, enduring Union,
upon whose escutcheon is cmblazoned "Esfo
peypetua."