The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1883-05-31
DALzELL'S GRAFTON.
The speech Del rered AT Capitol square
VanfA.1Ry

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The speech Del vered al Capitol squar
Yesterday.
Following is the full text Of the oratiol
delivered yesterday by Hon. ]. N. Dalzel
SOLDIERS AND CIrIzESs:-Being invite,
by DR.. ]. Z. Smith, on behalf Of tn
committee having in charge the al
rangements for the dedication Of thi
monument, am here to. day to speak sucl
words as may seem to beft the occasion
This monument to the memory OF the deaf
soldiers Of West Virginia is an eloquen
witness OF the veneration in which yol
hold them every one. 1t is credit t
Wheeling. II Is credit 10 West Virginia
It speaks well for your patriotic gratitude
To suffer the speechless dead to lie forgot
ten Of those who have 50 largely benefited
as you have by their services on the field
Of mortal combat, in defense Of your homes
and fresides, and in defense Of your coun
try, as well as theirs, would be base ingrati
tude indeed This monument Is not reared
for them. 1t rises up Us testimonial Of
yours to their children and yours, to bear
witness that you are not unmindful Of their
heroiclives aad deaths, and that those who
died for the perpetuation Of the American
Union are Of "the few OF the immortal
namest that cannot die"
They sleep the dreamleas sleep. Unmnd-
ful OF these august ceremonies, deaf TO your
words OF praise. they rest dreamless and
alone, each in bis sepulchre Of glory. On
fields OF war where they fell; lin the quietude
OF the country churcbyard at home; in the
crowded cemeteries OF your cities; by the
wayside; in the depths Of mountain soil.
tudes, In the rivers and in the sounding
seas; hard by prison pens that realized an
earthly hell; In swamps and fens and ever
glades, and some, alas! unburied still,
whose uncotfned bones lie bleaching in
the sun, your heroes rest, peacefully and
still. Your songs OF praise, your eulogies,
they shall never hear. 1t ia all one TO
them whether you uncover your heads and
glory. Your flowers shall fall, your words
Of praise shall sound UNDECIDED; they are
dead TO you and dead 10 me, aud nothing
shall awaken them from their dreamless
and eternal sleep; nothing shall raise them
from these slumbers in the dust, this dumb
resting after days and nights OF toll and
labor and daring, nothing ever but the
thunder call Of God
You pause in abstract contemplation
to-day attentive by their grayes, expectant
almost, as the flowers drop upon their
graves, from the hands OF Beauty and Love,
TO hear response OF gratitude that shall
never come. Little children, in the auro.
raj blush and bloom OF childish innocence
and glee gambol about these sacred shrines.
The old soldiers heart is cold and his eye
Is blind, and his ear is deaf. Their merry
footsteps he cannot hear; their warm and
open hands he cannot clasp. Mother aud
father, sister and brother, laden these
sacred graves with tears, and lament the
loss no time can wholly heal; and yet the
soldier heeds IL not. he is welded 10 the
dust The worms are his father and his
mother and his sister. In vain, all in vain,
you call bis cherished name, lie shall never
answer back, and his footsteps, once SC
familiar to your ear, shall nevermore sound
upon this planet. IL is hard to realize, even
yet, they are gone, and gone forever
Somehow they were
SC. YOUNG, so BEAUTIFUL AND BRAVE AND
4. TRUE,
that We thought them only sleeping and
that they would soon be back.
But they come again TO us only in our
DRAINS and vanish IRON our sight the mo,
ment we awake. We shall all go to them,
but they shall never come again TO us.
Never. Then why build these monuments
or strew these memorial flowers and speak
these words Of praise? II they to whom
we dedicate this day cannot with US enjoy
the solemn rites why observe them still
from year to year? God knows We would
reach them II we could. God knows With
what fervor and gratitude we should kiss
their lips and embrace their forms, and
with what lavish gratitude We should pour
" ords OF praise into their ears il we could.
We strain every nerve, every living power
and emotion we have and it is hard to rea-
lizethat they who did so much for us can
never know how grateful we are to them
for their unselfshness, their devotion. The
Christian believer addresses Christ in
thanksgiving and praise for what he did
for him by his life and death. Calvary is
on his lips. He falls at the foot of the
cross. He addresses not dead but.living
Christ, conscious that Christ hears every
word OF praise, and that though dead he
still lives. The devoted Christian sings
the praises. The praises not Of dead but
OF a risen and living Christ.
But these saviours OF us, Of our homes,
Of our country, have had no resurrection
yet. They cannot hear us, they cannot
know but that they are forgotten OF US all.
This to me Is the saddest OF it all. This
calamity Of the war might be borne with
out much pain or regret, II at the shrines
we have we might find living and intelli.
gent still the loving objects OF our devo.
ton. II when We weep they could only
smile back to us; II VIXEN we sing their
praises a voice could only rise from the
tomb to tell US that its occupant had heard
the songs, il when the words oil praise and
eulogy were pronounced an answering
voice from the eternal shadows could only
come, these solemn rites and ceremonies
would have other potency and significance
than now they have. But they are dead
and silent In their graves. We may speak,
they will not reply. We may call, they can.
not hear. Decoration Day may come and
20 and in due time be pretermitted and
observed no longer, and yet these heroes
OF ours shall never complain.
Selfish and cold as 1t seems, and as 1t
appears ought not to be, in justice 10 these
noble, heroic dead Of ours, this Decoration
Day Is not for them, it 10 for us and for our
4 childrenia children forever and forever
more. Not for the dead but Tor the living
are come here today. This grand column
OF remem brance and gratitude does not