Daily Los Angeles herald., 1882-05-31

With rose and violet blue.
Sleep on by peaceful zephyrs famed
Soft hush DER all the slumbrous land,
Ilumed by glorys rays;
Wars wrathful storm of death is DER,
The bugle calls to arms no more,
One banner waves from shore to shore
With clustering stars ablaze.
When Sumter's thunders throbbed and
thrilled,
And nerved each soldier, ron-willed,
For Freedoms holy fight;
When called, the drums deep stirring roll,
True as the needle to the pole
Each noble, ardent, patriot soul
Turned toward its beacon light.
BY every murmuring stream ye Sleep
On every fortressed, frowning steep,
On every battle-plain,
In every vale, in every land
From broad Potomac's silvery strand
To signing, sun-kissed Rio Grande,
Your blood was shed like rain..
Thick, as the fallen Autumn leaves,
Or ripened haryest's golden sheaves,
Beneath the Summer skies;
Ye rest in sunshine, and in shade,
In deadly swamp and everglade,
Upon your country's altar laid
Nor vain the sacrifice
Paled is the camp-fire's boding blaze,
Fled deaths dark, gloomy, bloody days,
Hates battle pennons furled;
The heat of conflict passed away,
And side by side, the blue and gray
Together stand again to-day
Against hostile world.
Still waves our banner broad and bright
Ger every vale, DER every height
Forever Freedoms shield,
And brighter, thicker year by year
Its consolidated stars appear,
And deeper still, the azure clear
Upon its glorious field.
Indissoluble as the sun,
In peace and war; in purpose one,
In Union firm and grand
We stand to-day people free,
United for all time to be,
One flag, one heart from sea to sea
Proud Freedoms peerless land.
o, not till Freedoms sun hath set
Shall patriot hearts and hands forget
Their tribute to renew;
Forever past the toll and heat,
Where storms no more of battle beat,
Meath laurel wreath, and garland sweet,
Rest, Comrades Of the Blue
The reading of the poem was followed
by solo song, by Miss Major Mamie
Perry, in her own inimitable style.
Col. j. +. Godfrey, the orator of the
occasion, was then introduced, and de.
livered the following:
GRAFTON.
Comrades Of the Grand Army of the
Republic:
The day set apart in memoriam of
those whose lives were sacrificed in the
service of the Republic has again re-
turned. Flowers have been gathered
and over the grave of the dead soldier
have heen strewn by kindly hands and
loving hearts: hundred of thousands of
men and women throughout the length
and breadth of this broad land have
attended the service of this memorial
day. Time is passing and every year
the band grows smaller whose duty calls
them to perform the ceremonies of this
National funeral. A few years more and
only few old men with tottering steps
and feeble voice will represent that
which was once the Grand Army of the
Republic. Those Of us who assemble
here to-day are twenty-one years older
than when the drum beat to arms, in
1861, and those of us who then had Just
arrived at mans estate are now past the
meridian and on the downward path of
life: the future will soon be but little
and the past much, where in 1861 the
future was much and the past little. 1t
is thus, that every year growing older,
we grow perhaps imperceptibly graver
and we should hope also wiser and more
thoughtful, Comrades of the Grand
Army, you who so patiently sustained
bilc ulfuSIllpo VI SOiultT 3 lie, WHO,
though often defeated, were
NEVER vANoUIsHED,
Who won at last because ofthe enduring
faith you had that you were right, be-
cause you had the courage that could
overcome defeat, because you had the
staying qualities which have ever char
acterized soldiers of the colder cline, in
the remarks which / make to-day |
have no desire to draw comparisons
where all were brave and do not think it
right or in good taste to boast of our
selves or disparage in any way those
who lost in the great game of war; but
it is my object as l think it is my right,
and as think it is the right of all who
speak ON occasions like this, to review
the past in order that what has happened
may be kept in mind, and being kept in
mind, tend to prevent the recurrence of
like sad events. Every school-boy
knows the history of his country; why
should l repeat it? But all knowing,
differ in regard to the causes and effects
of acts and of laws, agreements and
compromises which formed the founda-
tion ON which our National structure
was erected. If in giving what l be-
lieve to be the facts and in drawing my
conclusions from them should err then
you will believe that it is the fault of
my understanding and not of my heart,
which l think is right as yours is right,
on the main question, that is, to continue
our government forever a free republic.
Let us not in the excitement caused by
political strife, forget that we have a
common country and common interest
in maintaining government which
shall give to its people happy and
comfortable homes, the abodes of intelli-
gence and virtue.
We should not, in the reaction caused
by war, allow ourselves to forget
THE EARLY TEACHINGS OF THE FATHERS
OF this republic, but should keep them
constantly in mind as guides for our own
conduct in controlling the action of those
we elect to serve us. Let us see then
where we started, where we are and
whether there is anything undone, left
to be done, or anything done which as
patriot soldiers we should help to undo;
and, with this object solely in view, and