The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1883-06-08
MEMORIAL GRAFTON.
BY REV. GEORGE H. WILSON.

with the mingled feelings of sadness
and gratitude.
The onroll of time has brought us
again to the anniversary which COM
memorates the deeds of soldierly
host, who from the vicissitudes of
mortal life, and of martial conflict
have crosseds the silent river TO the
viewless realm. The issues they de-
bated by the stern arguments Of war
were settled; and in that "other
country beyond the sum-" ''they do
rest from their labors, and their works
do follow them Gen. Garfield said
in 1880, ''there is nothing in all the
earth that you or ] can do for the
dead. They are past our help and
past our praise. We can add to them
no glory, we can give to them no i'm
mortality. They do not need us, but
forever and forevermore we need
them. +" That is, in marked sense,
true of the soldiers who, died in our
late struggle, which is true of every
generation who have proceeded us
who have wrought for US, who have
struggled to gain that which they
must pass on to the future, that which
they must commit to the keeping of
other hands; GOOD saving provided
some better thing for u.s. that they
without us should not be made per-
feet"
No words of sympathy can mi,i-
gate the grief, or repair the loss sus-
tanned by those whose loved ones fell
in battle. But we enter into their
labors, we reap the results of their
sacrifice, we are heirs to the national
liberty they rescued from the deadly
grip of secession.
Mr.. Chairman, permit me in very
few words to call attention TO a few
facts in the history of our Nation.
The constitution was adopted In
1887. AT that time slavery had a
place in our land. 1t was more of a
luxury than of a necessity. It would
have taken little to be rid of it prob
ably, because it did not make power
full appeals to the avarice of human
nature. 1t came into the union as a
small matter; it kindled a mighty
conhagration. AT that time slave
cleaning green cotton seed could earn
only few cents a day. Vast tracts
of land were fitted to raise cotton on,
but it was not profitable. I7o3-six
years after the adoption of the con-
stitution-Eli Whitney invented the
cotton gin. Cotton became king.
Slavery profitable, the territory all
worked and an extension of slave
labor to other territory demanded.
Then trouble began. 1881, VIM.
Lloyd Garrison began the publication
Of paper called the "I.iberator."
1t was the organ OF sentiment very
unpopular at that time. In the first
issue he said, ~ am in earnest /
will not equivocate, / will not excuse;
| will not retreat a single inch and
l will be heard" The issuance of
that paper marked an epoch in the
struggles that were to come. In the
earliest days of that paper, Bryant
tells us that zone OF Garrison's
staunchest supporters said to him,
MY friend, do try to moderate your
Indignation, and keep more cool, why
you are all on fire. Brother he
answered, q have need to be all on
fire, for have mountains of ice
about me to melt" Shortly the ice
began to melt. He was heard His
sentiments were canvassed. Many
accepted them, some rejected them.
But they were sentiments destined to
revolutionize the Nation.
Mr.. John c. Calhoun, who stood a
firm representative of southern senti-
ment, foresaw the result of the con-
flict then begun. To him it was like
the first tossings of the great deep
which prophesied the oncoming storm.
He felt that when the northern con-
science was aroused, and religious
: convictions brought to bear upon the