Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1882-06-01

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| taught that heroism is an old-fashioned
notion that has no commercial value
when the dollar sign is the only recog-
nized standard of value-when effemin-
acy has sippianted the stalwart man
hood of the past. This touching cere-
mony is an annual rebuke to this fatal
tendency. The observance should be
a connecting link between the practical
present and the heroic past, To use
the language of the electrician, it is
once year to connect the nation with
its own historic past by means OF the
sympathetic chords that reach out from
these grass-covered graves.
A nation cannot afford TO forget for
Memory is the nurse of hope
So let the busy wheels stand still for
one half day. Let us leave the crowded
street and commune with these brave
spirits who at such cost rescued our
flag, our families, our homes.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a
man lay down his life for his friends
Recall the dark panorama of that
wicked rebellion. Who can forget the
depression caused by disaster or defeat
Foreign nations frowned. Fortune was
|
cline the enemy. Then it was that those
stalwart men, entrained to war, left
farm, office and workshop and marched
to the front. They went not rs hirelings,
not as adventurers dazzled by military
lustre whom Bryon calls Ambition S
honored fools but as reSolute men i'm
PEELED by stern sense of duty They
had nothing to gain as soldiers save only
to vindicate their honor as citizens. They
went to throw themselves into the
breach anywhere to save the republic
What perils they encountered, what pri-
vations they suffered, what staunch SER
vice they did is evidenced by the length
of the struggle and its glorious termina-
ton. Here stand living witnesses who
might attest their fortitudc and prowess.
| Comrades! you would not blush to have
them meet the heroes of Thermeopylae
The little band of Leonidas have be-
came immortal. Their exploit is still
fresh in the recollections. Here lie men
who had arms as strong, hearts as brave
and purposes as pure as any of the spar
tans. But we need only point to the old
flag! Through all its vicissitudes it has
not lost a star; though riddled with shot
it has never been furnished with dis
honor. God bless the boys, who, unable
to return themselves, sent the colors
home to be raised up, like the brazen SER
pent in the land of Moses, for the heal
ing of the oppressed in Ill lands! Stones
have risen up from their rocky beds to
commensurate their deeds. The histor-
ian will chronicle theirvalor, and genera
| tons vet unborn will applaud their
| timely heroism.
For you, surviving soldiers, this day
| has another office You may have Il
personal communion with the comrade
who fell beside you in the ranks. Mem
Dry, the kind magician, presents them
to you now! The familiar eyes, long
since dissolved, resume their wanted
brilliancy. Intelligence again sits on
their manly brow Consciousness like
a pursuing angel has overtaken them in
the trackless desert of forgetfulness, this
wierd battalion of seven hundred is in
line again! Waited back on the swift
wings of recollection you stand where
you enlisted. The tears of wives and
mothers are flowing again. You ex-
perence that exquisite enthusiasm that
nerved YOU at the hour of parting. The
farewells have beensaid You have i'm
printed the last kiss on the tear stained
| cheeks. The ranks are formed. That
imperative word attention. rings out
loud and clear. Amid waving hand
kerchiefs, flying flags and hearty shouts
the phantom army has taken up its
march. In the transition of a moment
you are following the drum in the ever
glades of the South. Now you join in
the exciting charge. You see your COM
them in their death agonies. You catch
from dying lips the blessings left as an
heritance for dear ones far away. You
see them on the surgeons table. You
minister TO them in the sweltering hoSpi-
tai. Now you keep step to the slow
cadence of the dead march, and again
the lively quick step brings you back to
duty. You experience again that non
chalance that only the veteran feels.
Again you lanquish in the prison pen.
You breathe again the sitting air of the
southern dungeon. Here starvation
holds its grim carnival of want. Here
brave men drew their famished bodies
TO the dead line where they welcomed
death as practical rescue.
So YOU retrace each step, dwelling on
thrilling scenes until the decimated ranks
are formed for the last roll-call Here
the service must end for as you hear the
command ''break ranks" every one of
these seven hundred braves have drop
ped back into the self same grave where
for years he has been peacefully sleep
ing under the alternate covering of the
grass and snow.
All honor to gallant Grant County for
her just solicitude to preserve the names
of her soldier dead. Other communities
have sadly neglected these patriotic lu-
ties. Thousands of our boys lie in graves
unmarked by slab or mound.
Through glade and glen, from deep to deep.
The silent hosts Of heroes sleep"
Who will decorate the unknown graves?
He who notes the fall of the sparrow has
not o'er-looked the graves of these brave
men. We may safely confide the sacred
trust to the fairy hand of nature. She
will not neglect the solitary spot,
But immortelle and myrtle weave
dewy wreath for them at eve.''
There is new made grave that de-
serves wreath CLEANED from the con-
/ seryatories of the whole nation. 1t holds
a distinguished soldier who had also
gained renown rs orator and statesman.
! he had raised himself to the highest en-
| inence by his unaided talent and indus
try He stood forth as the great Amer
lean commoner He was not SO much
distinguished for any one power as for
the symmetry and uniformity of his de-
velopcment.
In him we found massive manhood
linked with tender sympathies; the gem
Jus Of the statesman the tastes of the
scholar; the culture of the patrician and
the simple habits of the plebians. lie
was president but hone the less faith
er and a husband. He was always more
than IA president; less than a partisan.
4 genial man, without an enemy in the
world He was cut down in the prime
Of life. rs much a martyr as though
slain upon the field of battle where he
so often fought. He died victim to the
spoils system, which is the bane of Am.
ericaa politics. A purely political life
is coming to resemble very closely the
excursions of boys TO the MAY woods.
The jist IF the whole business is to rob
| a nest.
The political hummer and crank are
at liberty to harass the President be-
cause, forsooth, this is a free country
and he the servant of the people. Quit
eau is the legitimate offspring of such a