Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1883-06-02
ReautitnI Sentiments.

Vne hnOAFlue CnrOnlclc, delivered
the Grafton Of the day at the national
cemetery near his city on the Both of
May and concluded as follows:
Since the unfurling of the white flag
Of peace eighteen years have come ana
gone. They have mercifully covered
with greenest grass the graves of the
warriors who fell in the battle; they
have adorned with clambering vines
the rough fortresses of war; they have
taught the innocent timid bird 10
build in the mouths of the death
belching artillery; they have sown the
grain OF peaceful husbandry over the
fields which the kings Of battle had
sown with human corpses; and in the
iOrts OF war have built temples for
religion and affairs for wisdom.
And the Republic is one. Every day
are her parts being bound more and
more strongly together, bound by tel
egraph wire and by railroad iron,
bound by the ties of commerce, kin
ship and literature, bound by one
language, one religion, one history and
one destiny.
We lind ourselves to>day the fore
most nation in all the world: not
foremost in royal pageants, not fore
most in standing armies or floating
navies, not foremost in display of titled
pride and monarchial splendors; but
foremost in the diffusion of wealth,
foremost in prefsrring the welfare of
the many to the glory OF the few, fore
most in fleeing the mind from tie
thralldom of ancient creeds and the
enslavement of petriiying usages,
foremost in proclaiming the political
equality of all and in striving to
secure the greatest good for the
greatest number, foremost in freeing
the press from the clutches of power
and making speeches as free as the
wind, foremost in proclaiming the
Brotherhood of man and the Father
hood of God and foremost in fastening
that millennial day when
"The. war drum throbs no longer, and the
b title flags are fprled,
la the Parliament Of man, the Federation Of
the world"
And all these blessings we largely
owe to the men who lie buried here.
They died that we might live. They
gave up their home and wife and
children that we might enjoy ours in
peace. They paid the price, but we
have received the benefit Of the pur.
chase.
Great nations grow out of the blood
and bones and deeds and thoughts of
great men. The half million Of men
whose ashes and whose actions have
fortified the battlehelds of America
cannot do otherwise than any the sun
has ever seen sipee''the morning stars
sang together and all the sons Of God
shouted for JOY"
Some Of these half millions fell
fighting on the other side. They we're
heroes, too, sprung from the loins of
the sane fathers whose blood courses
in our veins, and ngrsed blythe same
mothers whose arms Of love have
sheltered US.
Had they triumphed, they would
have been the glory gilded demi. gods
of new nation. But "tlie stars Ia
their courses fought against" them.
If late had been conagerablg they
would bage preYailedu But the decree
was written and could not be changed
There was no appeal. To die was all
they could do, and they too sleep
beneath the sodlbeneatA the sod Of
our country that is also their country.
Their descendants are our brothers
and eur countFymen. Their dust has
long ago cOmmIngled on the battle
field with the dgstFof those against
whom shey fought otaY1'3 +''''
AS AmeriesnG, va oanuat do other.
wise, than honor their valor, and re-
spect their selfsacrifcing devotion.
We cannot do otherwise than rejoice
that we have the descendants Of such
men to aid US in making Am erica
land the nations will bow down 10, a
laEd ahgels will love TO honor, a land
God Will delight m blesa