Daily Los Angeles herald., 1882-05-31

incarnadine, as with glazing eyes fixed
ON the starry flag, fighting, they died;
and dying, sank beneath the ever-chang-
ing spaces of the deep that curls its
foaming crest above them, while the
ceasless moaning of the breakers chants
their only requiem. And now, comrades
of the Grand Army of the Republic, on
this day, upon this occasion, at this most
fitting time, having just returned with
bended heads and sorrowful hearts from
among the rose crowned graves of our
illustrious dead, let us, as with one
thought, renew our vow of eternal fealty
to their memories, that "we will re-
member, we will be vigilant, we will be
loyal to our country, to the right, to the
truth, to God, and to our flag"
Widows and Orphans of Our Fallen Comrades,
Response by Comrade Rev. J. c. Hutchins.
Song, 'Soldiers' Dirge,"
Miss Major Mamie b. Perry
Decoration Day,
Response by Lieut. Gov Mansfield
Army and Navy. Response by CON-
rade Gen. George Stoneman.
COMRADES: The lexicon defines the
word army to mean collection or body
of men armed for war-a great number,
vast multitude.
There be the army of the Just, and the
great army of martyrs. There be the
army of Uncle Sam, the Grand Army of
the Republic, and the vast multitude
called the Home Guards; those invinci-
bles i'll peace, the invisible in war, and
who never leave their country except in
case of invasion. But the Army of
which | have to treat in response to the
sentiment, is the Army of the Union
In this army are included the regulars
and the volunteers. In reality all are
volunteers, for no man from the highest
officer down to the lowest private is
compelled against his will to enter
either.
The great George, Father of his
country, warned his countrymen against
large standing armies, as being danger
GUS to liberty; and yet with an apparent
and peculiar inconsistency, he told them
in peace to prepare for war.
All civilized nations have found it ex-
pedient or necessary to employ por-
tion of its able bodied men in the mill
tary service. They are armed, accou-
tired and equipped, drilled and discip-
lined and organized into separate body
called an army, the size of the army de-
pending upon the danger to be appre-
hended within or from without its terri
torial limits.
When | entered the army as cadet
it numbered, all told, 5000 men, about
equal in size to Presidential Inaugural
tion body y-guard of recent times. Twenty
years thereafter it numbered SO0,OOO
and was not too large to cope with the
foe with whom it was called upon to
contend
The field of operation and duties of
the army during times of peace should
be confined strictly within its proper
and legitimate limits, that of acting as
coast guard and frontier police, extend
ing them perhaps by executive procla-
nation to include the wayward and fes-
tive cowboy of Texas and Arizona.
The practice, which has obtained in
recent times, of filling the capital of our
country with bristling bayonets, in the
hands of men, who for the time being
are acting the part of armed Janisaries,
should be condemned by every true
American, jealous of the liberties of his
country, or the time will come, ere
long, when the pageant of an inaugura-
tion will be changed and replaced by
that of coronation. What think you
would have been thought and said by
the American people, had either of the
earlier Presidents been guilty of such
unseemly and unrepublican ostentation.
If the time should ever come when
the federal bayonet shall be called into
requisition as factor in our Government,
for the enforcement of the laws, it will
cease to be government founded upon
the affections of the people, and the
door will be opened to any third term
aspirant to regal honors.
We often hear the purse-proud gilded
snob talk fippantly about the danger to
be apprehended from the servile classes,
as he sneeringly and insultingly terms
the greatmasses of the American people,
and advocate the organization of a
large standing army to guard and pro-
tect the property, much of it the i'll got
ten gains of the great monopolists. But
we never hear anything about the pro-
lection of the masses against the exac-
tions and extortions of the great robber
barons of modern times.
What grander sight can be beheld
than grand army with banners engaged
in mortal combat To be realized it
must be seen; to be appreciated it must
be shared.
1t takes all the good qualities of a
man, combined with some the moral
prude would call doubtful, to make
perfect soldier. In the making of
good soldier he necessarily becomes a
good citizen also. Who of us will say
that he is not better citizen and bet
ter man for having been soldier in the
Union army? If such there be, he was
past improvement then, he is past re-
demption now.
1t is saying in every ones mouth
that Republics are ungrateful. Ger
tainly this cannot be said of our Repub-
lie as far as the treatment of its soldiers
and sailors is concerned, when we con-
slider the hundreds of millions of dollars
paid to its defenders in bounties and
pensions and the provisions made for the
needy at asylums scattered over the
land.
The navy is justly termed the right
arm of the Government. 1t has always
been popular with and been petted and
cherished by the people, and never
failed to respond to the demands and to
meet the expectations of the nation.
The gallant tar has no parapets or
trenches or rifie-pits to shelter and pro-
tect them. from the death dealing
missiles. He must fight it out until his
ship is disabled, blown up or sunk in
the ocean. Then, and not till then, is he
permitted to surrender. He cannot fight
and run away and live to fight another
day, but from the commander down to
the powder-monkey it is do or die.
In the army large numbers of officers
come frsm civil life through the portals
of the War Department. In the navy
no officer gets in through the cabin win
dows-all must come up,to very high
standard, intellectual, moral and physi-