Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-05-31

CLOSE OF TnE CEREMONIES.


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CLOSE VI 1nE CHh1 "v
Col. Gobin's Grafton In the Court House
An audience Of about three hundred
persons assembled at the court house last
evening to listen to the address Of Col. j.
P. s. Goblin, of Lebanon.
The members of the G. A. Il. were
present in body and occupied the grand
jury seats in the east front of the court
room. '".... ft
Maj. A. c. ReinOehl called the meet
ing to order and Rev. j. B. Shumaker,
D. D., offered a PRAYER.
The choir Of the Duke street NJ. E..
church Sang the Decoration Hymn, with
organ and cOrnet accompaniment.
Maj. Reinoehl introduced the orator as .
gentleman and soldier who had risen from
the ranks to the command of his regiment,
the 47th Pa. Vols. and who had been his
intimate friend and companion during his
term Of service.
Col. Goblin opened with . pleasant re-
ference to his old time association with
Maj. Reinoeha, lin the army, and then re-
ferred to the sad duty which had to-day
engaged the attention of the people all
over tho country. We find year by year
the number of soldiers graves in our Gem
eteries Increasing, and it should be regard
ed as duty BY those who survive them
to render their memory fragrant by plac-
ing upon their graves floral tributes As
recognition of their services and sacrifices.
No matter what sentimentalists may
say to the contrary, the soldier can re-
member the war only as he saw and felt it.
The ex-rebel soldier who fought 50 bravely
and suffered SO much may to-day be .
worthy and respectable citizen, against
whom we entertain NO hard feelings but
We cannot forget that ne was rebel, and
that he fought to destroy the nation We
fought to preserve. we should see,
therefore, that those who are engaged in
writing our history are not permitted to
make 1t appear that thero may be doubt
as to whether the Union soldiers or the
rebels were in tho right or that there
may be doubt as to whether
the Union army was or was not
fighting for government of the people
and by the people. The Righteousness of
our cause must not be called in question
or permitted to pass unchallenged, even
though the historian may be an ex-rebel
general or an cx-rebel president. zap.
plausc.) We cannot forget that the re-
belliOn was utterly wicked and inaugurated
without just cause that it was carried
on with unparalleled malignity; and
that the horrors suffered by our prisoners
at Libby, AndersOnville, Salisbury and
other prison pens can never be cOndOned or
wiped away from memory. These horrors
cannot be eliminated from the pages Of his
tory. No man can doubt the bravery
with which tho soldiers of the COnfederacy
fought, but no man can make hero Of
the assassin Booth. The herOism, the sac
rifices, tho military skill of the Southern
people must be confessed, and we may
give them credit for believing they were
right, but the fact remains that they
fought to destroy the government estab-
lished and bequeathed to us by tho fathers
of the Revolution, while We fought to
maintain and perpetuate it.
The orator briefly recOunted some of the
principal events of the war, paid a tribute
to the memory of the &c, 600 men who had
fallen in battle or died of wounds and
sickness, and to the .OOO, 900 men who
sprang to the rescue of the government in
tho day of peril, and the story of whose
achievements will 1.-Two forever in history ;
but a grander spectacle, even, than their
deeds in battle was to behold this great
army, as soon as victory was won and
peace again dawned upon the nation,
stack their arms and resume their former
avOcations in the arts of industry. These
men cannot, however, wipe away
from their memories recollection of the
scenes through which they passed and
what then SO natural as that their COM
rades should have SGT apart a day upon