The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-05-30

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was no peace The conflict was upon Us with all its
dire results. Factories were empfied of their
hands; farms were nearly deserted; trusty clerks
laid down his tools; the professional man left his
business needing the can Of his country land they
Union was preserved and the country saved. Then
followed long years Of bloody strife in which thou
sands Of precious lives were surrendered, ana mil
lions Of treasure wasted before peace was restored
The long dreary march oft.tmes with sore ana |
fresh in our minds where they must live forever: II
Is not possible for 10 forget them. Equally I'M
possible is It for MS to forget those who shared Win
Us these hardships and sacrifices on many hard
i enneny proper and right that thai We re- sh er
nary routine of life and consecrate the day to the
memories Of our fallen heroes There i no better
place, perhaps, study the value OF the liberties
and blessings which we as nation enjoy, than in
the presence of the graves of those by whose blood
recur to the mind that for national existence for
homes and lands in short for ALL that is peculiar to
who gave their fortunes their lives to secure them
for as andfor coming prosperity
our own; and ours win be the basest ingratitude
should forget to cherish with warmest gratitude
the memories OF these men and their deeds.
know it Is said by some that of the hundreds
and thousands who went into the late war, but few
very few, were actnated thereto from motives of
circumstances which did not appeal to the sense of
hot speeches and singing of patriotic songs with
which the land reverberated; and that not few
went from fear There may be something of truth
in all this but it is not all truth and for shall
all occasions and in every place any insn
uation upon the patriotism of the soldiers of the
late war That the singing of patriotic songs and
the making of speeches, fastened the period OF
thosc Went that would have gone ANYHOW, speeches
or no speeches, longs or no songs and 1t Is an
mputation uponthe living TO say that men did not
enlist from motives of pure patriotism. 1t was the
loyal man that found his way into the war, and his
ord nd in nj
and hardshps incident TO. exhibited the highest |
type of loyalty. II was this that proved the purity
of his motives and the honesty of his purposes. |
And the time will come when it better for I
that man that milestone We're hanged about his
neck and cast into the than that he should
asperson upon the rank and file who fought the |
battles of the Union. 1t was not the mere fact of
heroism of these mel; but it was in the cheerful
with which they encountered; the hardships
and faced dangers, and yielded up their lives for
the good of others.
Illinois gave to the one hundred and fifty reg
iments of infantry two regiments of artillery, and
nine independent batteries making in all nearly
quarter Of million of men. do not know and have
sister State-Iowa-sent into the service, but / do
know that you We're not whit behind any State IN
the union in your devotion to the cause of freedom
and the Union Some of the men who went from
these States are here to-day, but how few of the
fought side by side are living to-day the Northwest
who marched into battle Tens OF thousands OF them
Now Sleep their last sleep;
They have fought their last battle,
sound awake them to glory again. !
MANY of them sleep in the Sunny South and many
in your cemeteries. We saw some of them fall by
sides; others die m hospitals We were the bearers
of the last words of some of them, to fathers and
mothers and sisters
The graves you this day strew with flowers contain
the remains of those who few years ago were num-
bered among yonr modest citizens, but when the flag
Union trailed in the dust, and the echoes
of a Bull Run reyerbrated through the land these
persons few their country's call and stood among
the gallant soldiers of the Northwest They became
soldiers not impelled thereto by any desire for mil
hatred of rival people but because they loved their
country ana wers willing to die for the same.
The founders of the Union gave a new form Of
government in which all power flows from the peopeI
but from its foundation they excluded human equal
ity no the soldiers of the Union was given the dis
tincon of making the stone which the builders re-
iecte the head stone of the corner and of compelI-
ing universal recognition of the fact that the Union
is Nation possessed of a government able to en-
respect of the most powerful nations the GLOBE
Though nearly score of years removed
from the scenes then and there enacted, we cannot
OF the war for the Union,
And the blows struck by those whose graves you
this day decorate. viii have their influence upon
each succeeding era of our history. Future genera
tions will turn with admiration TO the noble armies
Of the Union, and their deeds viii be sung by the
poets and recounted by historians even after the
stones of the very foundations of the national cap
than ours controls the word Their names may
pass from history, and their bodies be forgotten,
be stamped the words and acts of the remotest /
of mankind They have been actors
sill come to do him hanor. The principles for
which they fought still live, and are more highly !
'orth in the Declaration of Independence, that
yrandest and bravest document ever penned by n
mortal men, yindicated to all tee world in the
ate war. That document has higher significance
o-day than it ever had before and its truthfRness
will never again be called in question
For one do not believe that the soldiers of the
have received that recognition the hands
led them. But we mnst wait for a liberal
public sentiment among the people, and, so surely
Is time comes on, so surely win that time come
emember that it was said by some that on the dis
banding of the army the whole land would be over
rnes would never return to their former pursuits
n life and the worst sort OF things were predicted
Y these men, And wen 90 we remember hn nov now
aothers and wives received back their sons and
husbands as pure as when they went out from the
ID the work of the shop of the farm, inst where
hey had left off and to this day there are no more
lard working Industrious capable men to be found ;
n all the land than the men who marched with
'hermrn and Grant from Cairo to the Wilderness, | I
nd retired only when the last armed foe expired
al honor to the thousands who sleep in these I
raves; blessed be their memories and sweet their
leep. =
sleep soldier. softly sleep, :
No foe approaches this seqnestered ground;
We come again to visit thee, and weep. l
And mark The spot where the dear dust 10 found
OF the surviving members of those who went
rom this part of the country, who would gladly be
ERE to day, some detained, doubtless, by sick
eSs. others toe far away for Your companion
hip to meet with you in these annual gatherings
nd Others poor: for the misforinues which
lme upon men ia this life have not spare the
oldiers of the Unicn they have marched like q y
ody of foragGrs 10 the music OF broken for .unes
nd desolate homes.
But whcth. you fpd the soldier who fought for
be Union. his orphan chilGren, treat them with
curt. sy aud respect. The fact that they such
hould ever be passport to courteous con-
liberation Let remind You. rem nd all, an
Their such day will never come to us again. We i
re marching to common goal, mans last rest
NJ place. Happy If we march TO 1t Alright; happy
when the sands have through the hour glass, L
reary pilgrimage shall have passed, IL the bow
Rat sweetly epurns the yauited skies, shai be for
q pledge that storms sb all cease.
THE RIVER c
The river business is picking up To- I