Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1880-07-16
4 Lesson Of Eeroism,
GEN. GAErIELD's SPEECH At THE DEDICATION
or THE SOLDIERS MONUMENT AT PAISRS-
VILE, ONO, JUIY 81, 1880.

GEN. GAErIrTD's SPEECH At THE DEDICATION
! or THE SOLDIERS MONUMENT AT PAISRs-
| VILE, ONO. IUIY 81, 1850.
| F,}o.r "H.-snS-I cannot fail to respond
on such an occasion, in sight of such a monu-
mcnt to such a cause, sustained by such men.
/ Applause and cheers. While have listen
ell u what my friend has said, two questions
/ have been sweeping Though my heart. One
! was, Nv hat does the monument mcani" and
the other, Nv hat does the monument teach!"
| Let me Try and asl, you for moment to help
me To answer, What does the monument
mean: Oh, the monument means world of
memories, and world of deeds, and world
Of tears and world of glories You know,
thousands know, what it is to offer up your
| life to the country, and this is no small
/ thing, us every soldier knows. Let me put
| the question To YOU for n moment.
/ suppose your country, in the awfully en-
| bodied 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, ''lIere | am; take this life
and Use it for your great necds?" Ap-
plausc. And yet almost two million of
men made that answer-[applausel- and a
monument stands yondcr TO commemorate
their answer. This is one of its meanings.
But. my friends let me try YOU little
further. To give up life is much, for it is to
rive up wife and home and child and ambi-
lion i.ui L.. t,st ou tnls way further.
suppose this awfully majestic form should
call out to You and say =: Il ask you to
give up health and drag yourself, not dead,
bat half alive, through miserable exist
cTcc for long years, until you perish and
die in your crippled and helpless condition.
| ask you to volunteer to do that. 1t calls
for high reach Of patriotism and self
sacrifice, but hundreds of thousands of
you soldiers did that. That is what the
monument means also. But let me ask you
10 20 on one step further. Suppose your
country should say, Come here on this
platform and in my name and for my sake
consent to he idiots. "a vo:ce-''Hear,"
hear Consent that your very brain
and intellect shall be broken down into hope
less idiocy for my sake How many could
he found 10 make that venture: And yet
thousands, and that with their eyes wide
open to the horrible consequences, obeyed
that call
And let me tell how 100, 600 of our soldiers
were prisoners of war, and many Of them,
VIXEN death was stalking near, when famine
was climbing up into their hearts, and
/ idincy was threatening all that was left of
their intellect, the gates of their prison stood
open every day if they would quit-desert
their ia" and enlist under the flag of the
/ enemy and out of $50, 900 not two per cent
! ever received tic liberation from death,
starvation, i,iiocy. All that might come to
them; but they took all these horrors and
nil these suiicrings i'll preference to going
! back upon the ilas of their country and the
glory of its truth. Applause. Great God
was ever such measure of patriotism reached
| ~ any man on this earth before? Ap-
| rlIHs,. That Is what your monument
mcaas. l.N H., subtle chemistry that no
man knows. all the blood that was shed by
| or brethren. all the lives that were devoted.
all the .pirf that was felt, at last crystalized
| itself into .ranitc, rendered immortal the
great truth Tor which they died applause
and il stands there to-day ard that is what
| your monument means.
No~ what does il teach? What will it
| teach Why, | remember the story OF one
uf the old conqucrcrs of Greece who, when
he had travelled in his boyhood over the
| hairlrliclhs where Aitiadcs had won victories
and sci up trophies returning, he said
''Thesctrophics Of Miliades will never let me
sleep" Why Something had taught him
| from the ci-clcd stone Il 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, AMI
! will nrj 1T them Sleep when the country
| calls them. Applause. From the dead
| lips ut the huslrr on the field will 30 out a
call that the children of Lake county will
hear after the grave has covered us all and
our immediate children. That is the teach
inr OF vour monument. That is its lesson,
and is the lesson Of endurance for what we
! believe and il is the lesson Of sacrifices for
| what We think. the lesson of hcroism for
| what We mean To sustain, and that lesson
cannpt hc lost To a people like this. II is
n,i 8, lesson OF revenge; it is not lesson OF
wrath. il is the grlnd sweet, broad lesson
Of the Immortality of the truth that we hope
nill s,pn cover rs with the grand Sheknah
OF li,lt and slury all parts OF this Republic
from The lakes 10 the gulf. Applause.
| once entered Il house in old Massachu-
sctis. where over its doors were two crossed
swor,is. onr WAS the sword carried by the
! grandfather OF its owner on the field OF
! Bunker Hill ami the other WIS the sword
carried hy the English grandsire of the wife
on the same field and on the other side OF
The conflict tmlcr those crossed swords,
! in the restored harmony of domestic peace,
| lived u happy and contcntcd and free family
under the ll.ht Of our Republican liberties.
/ Applause. | trust the time is not far dis
rani when under the crossed swords and
I locked shuidS Of Americans, North and
South our people sl,all sleep in peace and rise
! in liberty. lpvc and harmony under the union
of one Ia. ui the Stars and Stripes. APP
pause
CrNsJs SnIt-- Bradford reports pOpu-
/ lalinn ut 1918, AGAINST ll92 in 1870 n gain
81 9G Enuirrr, 1850 a-ainst 1866 in 1870;
! q loss of ~ torinth, 1913 against li1O in