Daily Republican. [volume] ([Wilmington, Del.]) 1874-1890, 1880-07-08
W HAT 1T ME Ans.
Lessons Tausnt by q soldiers
monument. - Eloquent Address
by General Garfield.

Lessons Tausnt by q soldiers
monument. - Eloquent Address
by General Garfield.
On Saturday July 3rd, "a soldiers mon
ument was dedicated at Painesvills,
Ohio, where General Garfield made the
closing speech, which was listened to
with close attention by as many as
twenty thousand people assembled as
could get near enough to hear. Gener-
al Garfield said
Fellow Citizens: | cannot fail to re-
spond on such an occasion, in sight Of
such o monument to such cause, sus-
tained by such men. applause and
cheers.) While / have listened to
what my friend has said, two questions
have beeu sweeping through nay heart.
One was, "What does the monument
mean!" and the other "What will the
monument teach'"
Let me try and ask you for a moment
to help me to answer what does the
monument mean. Oh, the monument
means q world Of memories, a world Of
deeds, and a world Of tears, and a
world ofglories. You know, thousands
know, what it is to offer up your life To
the country, and that is no small thing,
as every soldier kuows. Let me put
the question to you: For a moment
suppose your country, IN the awfully
embodied form Of majestic law, should
stand above yon and sap, ~ want
your life; come up here on the platform
and offer it."
How many wsuld walk up before
that majestic presence and say, "Here
I am, take this life and use it for your
great needs" (Applause.) And yet,
almost two millions of men made that
answer (applause,) and q monument
stands yonder to commemorate their
answer.
That is one Of its meanings. But
my friends, let me try you little fur
ther. To give up life ia much, for 1t is
to give up wife and home and child
and ambition but let me test you this
way further. Suppose this awfully
maiestic form should call out to you
and say ~ ask you to give up
health and drag yourself, not dead,
but half alive, through miserable ex-
istenoe 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 pa
triotism and self sactifce hut hun
dreds of thousands Of you soldiers did
that. That ia what the monument
means also. But let me ask you TO 60
one step further. Suppose your coun-
try should say, "Come here on this
platform, aud in my name and for my
sake consent to be idiots. (VOice, hear,
heard Consent that your very brain
and intellect shall be broken down into
hopeless idiosy for my sake" How
many could be found to make that ven-
turei And yet thousands, and that
with their eyes wide open to the horri-
BILE consequences, obeyed that call.
And let me tell how 100, 900 Of our
soldiers were prisoners of war, and
many Of them when death was stalking
near, when famine was climbing up
into their breasts and idiocy was
threatening all that was left Of their
intellects. The gates of their prison
stood open every day if they would
quit, desert their hag and enlist under
the Asg Of the enemy, and out Of 1S0,-
900 not two per cent. ever received the
Liberation from death, starvation, ,idioey
and all that might come to them, but
they took all these horrors and all
these sufferings in preference to going
back upon the flag of their country and
the glory of It's truth. (Applause.)
Great God! was ever such measure Of
patriotism reached by aRy 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, rem
dered immortal the great truth for
which they died (applause,) and it
stands their to-day, and that is what
your monument means. Now, what
does 1t teaohi What will it teach 7
Why remember the story Of one of
the old conqderors of Greece, who,
when he had travelled in his boyhood
over the battle-felds where Miltiades
had won victories and set the
trophies, returning, he said, "These
trophies Of Miltiades will never let me
Sleep"
Why, something had taught him
from the chiseled stone lesson that he
could never forget, and, fellow citizens,
that silent sentinel, that crowned gran
ite column, will look down upon the
boys that will walk these streets for
to come, and will not let
them sleep when their country calls
them. (Applause.)
More than the bugler on the field,
from his lips will 60 out call that the
children Of Lake county will hear after
the grave has covered us all and our
children. That is the
teaching Of your monument. That is
its lesson, and it is the lesson OF endur-
ance for what we believe, and 1t is the
lesson of sacrifices for what we think.
The lesson of heroism we mean
to sustain, and that lesson can
not be lost to q people like this. It is
not lesson Of revenge, 1t is not les
SON Of wrath, 1t 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
the lakes to the Gulf. (Applause.)
once entered house in old Massa-
where over its doors were two
crossed swords. One was the sword
,o rriad nv the grandfather of its owner