The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-07-17

'oiloWlng Is tne tSpeecn In 1ull oil Gen.
Garfield at the dedication of the Sol
diers' monument yesterday;
FeltOW-citizens-I cannot TAIL to res
pond on such an occasion of such a
monument to such a cause sustained
by such men. Applause and cheers.
While have listened to what my
friend has said two questions have
been sweeping through my heart.
One was '',What does the mOnu-
ment mean ?" and the other: "What
will the monument teach ?'' Let me-
try and ask youfor amoment to help
me to answer what does the monn.
ment mean. OH. the monument
means world Of memories, a world
of deeds and a world of tears and a
world ofglories. You know, thous.
ands know, what it is to offer up
your life to the country. and that is
no small thing, as every soldier
Aknows Let nae5 5sslt the. Glsektinn 70
you: For moment suppose your
country, in the awfully embodied
form of majestic law, should stand
above you and say, ~ want your
life; come up here on the platform
and offer it," How MANY would
walk up before that majestic pres
ence and say, "Here am; take this
life and use it for your great needs. {"
Applause. And yet almost 1000, 900
of men made that answer, applause
and monument stands yonder to
commemorate this answer.
That is one of the meanings. But,
my friends, let me try YOU a little
further. To give up life is much for
it is to give up wife al ii hoIne and
child and ambition but let me test
you this way further. SUPPOSE this
awfully majestic form should call out
to you and say: II ask you to give
up HI alth and drag yourself-not
dead, but half alve--thrOugh a mis-
cradle existence 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 patriotism and
self-sacrGce but hundreds Of thous-
ands of you soldiers did that. That
is what the monument means also.
But let me ask you to go one step
further. Suppose your country
should say, "Come here on this plat
form, and in my name and for my
sake consent to be idiots voice,
Hear, hear consent that your very
brain and intellect shall be broker
down into hopeless idiocy for my
sake" how many could he found til
make that venture =? And yet thous-
ands-and that with their eyes wide
open to the horrible Consequences
obeyed that call. And let me tell
how $50, 1000 of our soldiers were pris-
onerS OF war, and many of them
when death was stalking near, wher
! famine was climbing up into theil
hearts and idiocy was threatening
all that was left of their intellects, the
gates of their prison stood open every
day. if they would just desert their
flag and enlist under the flag of the
enemy; and out of the $50, 900 not
per cent. even received the liberation
from death, starvation, idiocy and
all that might come to then !. but
they took all these Horrors and all
these offerings in preference to going
back upon the flag of this country
and the glory of its truth. Applause !
Great God was ever such measures
of patriotism reached by any man on
this earth before? Applause. That
Is what our monument means. BY
the subtitle 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 crystalliZcd itself into
granite, rendered immortal the great
truth for which they died applause
and it stands there to-day, and that
is what your monument means,
Now, what does it teach? What
will it teach +?
Why, 1 remember the story of one
of the old conquerors of Greece, who
when he had travelled in his boys
hood over the Dattle-helds where
Miltiades had won victories and set
up trophies, returning, he said,
''These trophies of Miltiades will
never let me sleep" Why. some
thing had taught him from the chis-
eled stone a lesson that he could
never forget, and, fellow citizens,
that silent sentinel that crowns that
granite column will look down upon
the boys that will walk these streets
for generations to come, and will not
let them sleep when their country
calls them. Applause. More than
the bugler on the field, from his dead
lips will go ont call that the chill
dren of Lake county will hear aftef
the grave has covered us all ana cur
immediate children. That is the
teaching. of your monument. That
is its lesson, and it is the lesson OF
endurance for what we believe, and
it is the lesson Of sacrifices for what
we think. The lesson of heroism for
what we mean to sustaiA, and that
lesson cannot he lost TO a people like
this. 1t is not lesson of revenge ;
it is not lesson of wrath. 1t 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 the republic, from the lakes to the
gulf. Applause.
L once entered a house in old Mas
sachusetts where over the doors were
two crossed swords. One was he
sword carried by the grand
father of its present owner on the
o. 4 - Al n