Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-07-22
A LESSON OF HERoIsM.

The following is the speech of General
Garfield at the dedication of the Soldiers
Monument on the Sd instant at gainesville,
Ohio:
Fellow-citizens l cannot fail to respond
on sdch an occasion, in sight OF such
monument to such cause, sustained by
such men. While have listened to what
my friend has said, two questions have
been sweeping through my heart. One
was, "What does the monument mean
and the other, "What will the monument
teach ," Let me try and ask you Tor
moment to help me to answer what does
the monument mean? On, the monument
means world of memories, and world OF
deeds, and world of tears and world OF
elories. 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. Suppose your country, In
the awfully embodied form OF majestic
law, should stand above you and say, Il
want your life, come up here on the platform
and offer it." how many would walk up
before that majestic presence and say
60 Here am; take this life and use it for
your great needs ?" And yet almost two
million of men made that answer and
monument stands yonder to commemorate
their answer. That is one of its meanings.
But, my friends, let me try you a little
further. To give up life is much, Tor 1t is
to give ND wife and home and child and
ambition. But let me test you this way
further. Suppose this awfully majestic
form should call out to you and say :: Il
ask YOU to give up health and drag your
self. not dead, but half alive, through
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 a higher reach of
patriotism and self-sacrifce, but hundreds
of thousands of you soldiers did that.
That is what the monument meant also.
But let me ask you to go one step further.
Suppose your country should say, come
here on this platform and in my name and
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 tosmake that venture?
And vet thousands, and that with their
ewes wide open to the horrible conse-
ouences obeyed that call And let me tell
how 100, 600 of our soldiers were prisoners
of war, and many of them, when death
was stalking near, when famine was climb
ing up into their hearts, and idiocy was
threatening all that was left of their intel
lect, the gates of their prison stood open
every day if they would quit-desert their
flag and enlist under the flag of the enemy
and out of 1901 900 not two per cent.
ever received the liberation from death,
starvation and idiocy. All that might
come to them but they took all these
horrors and all these sufferings, in prefer
ence to ing back upon the flag OF their
country and the glory OF its truth. Great
God was ever such measure OF patriot
ism reached by any man on this earth be-
fore? 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 crystallized itself into
granite, rendered immortal the great truth
for which they died, and it stands there to-
day, and that is what your monument
means. Now what does it teach? What
will it teach Why, remember the story
of one of the old conquerors of Greece, who,
when he travelled in his boyhood over the
battlefelds where Miltiades had won vic
tories and set up trophies returning, he
said +: g These trophies of Miltiades will
never let me sleep" Why? Something
has taught him from the chiseled stone a
lesson that he could never forget; and,
fellow-citizens, that silent sentinel, that
crowned granite column will look down
upon the boys that will walk these streets
for generations to come, and will not let
them sleep when the country calls them.
From the dead lips of the bugler on the
field will go out call that the children of
Lake county will hear after the grave has
covered us all and our immediate children.
That is the teaching of your monument.
| That is its lesson, and it is the lesson of en-
durance for what we believe, and it Is the
lesson of sacrifices for what we think, the
lesson of heroism for what we mean to
sustain, and that lesson cannot be lost to
people like this. 1t is not a lesson of re-
venge it is not lesson of wrath it is
the grand, sweet, broad lesson of the i'm
mortality 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. | once en-
tered house in old Massachusetts,, where
over its doors were two crossed swords.
| One was the sword carried by the grand
| father of its owner on the field of Bunker
| Hill, and the other was the sword carried
| by the English grandsirc OF the wife on the
same field and on the other side OF the con-
| fict. Under those crossed swords, In the
restored harmony of domestic peace, lived
q happy and contented and free family
under the light of our republican liberties.
/ I trust the time is not Tar distant when
under the crossed swords and locked shields
of Americans, North and South, our peo-
pie shall sleep in peace and rise in liberty,
love and harmony under the union of one
| flag of the Stars and Stripes.