Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-05-31

| sleep in these sacred cities OF the dead in
| our great American Republic What
I Thought, gathered from the great store
/ house of memory's recollections, as with
! trumpe; tone proclsiniing. as with pursu.
| ing eicauence pleading worthiiy express
| nations, gratitude and reverence for her
! heroic uead, her fsilen comrades, sealiug
their devotion to fisg and country. by that
! noblest of all sacrifce-the sacrifice OF sell.
| Nav, rather, standing as we do on this me
| of our dead" surrounded, met by fearful
bastion and tower, met by VI.
dette and picket line, hack to fort and gal
rison, guarded by iron lines OF defence TO
death or victory sworn; but by these old
| hills of the Western Virginia resting In
their proud majesty upon the strength Oh
| Deity, with the weeping skies OF heaven
| above us, our brows famed by the sweetest
breath of tie spring time, and The maJes-
tic Ohio rolling IT'S placid waters by our
| side May / not ask, comrades, with De.
coming modesty what "Pierpoint Post,
| competent with tenderness and love 70
garland these passionleSs mounds" What
| history of patriotism sufficient to chroni-
Gle the suffering, the heroism, the supreme
fidelity in camp, in prison pen, on battle
field, in hospital of those sleeping here, or
| what speaker of Demosthenian or Cicero
MAN eloquence possessed, able TO break
the potency of that mighty charm, God
and nature combining have thrown around
the sacredness of the day and occasion
calling US together. And yet this Is the
requirement of the hour, This. the sacri-
fetal offering demanded at your hands and
mine on behalf Of those who
Like patriotic sires mot only stru OK
| for their affairs and their fires for God aad
IL tie rty," but are now, as you sing, in con-
secrated memory, Sleeping to waken in
this weary world no more; sleeping for
their true loved country-sleeping for the
flag they bore"
In approving the occasion calling us to.
gether to-day, the question presents itself
| what mean we by this service? / instance,
first, the fact of these memorial services.
| We honor beauty and wisdom Of national
approval and recommendation. The right
| arm of their execution las We take it prac-
tically) the Grand Army Of the Republic,
constitutionally expressed. Every Ameri-
can citizen is guaranteed the right to
life, liberty and the pursuit of happi-
ness" and when he dies the rights OF
common humanity will grant him q re-
spectful burial. More than this, every
| heart and home can bury its own dead,
and honor them in memory and recollec-
| ton: as accords with their own pleasure,
and shall it be said that this nation grants
| to her most humble civilian, what she will
deny her dead soliiery. The very
| SPIRIT OF HER INTELLIGENCE
to say nothing at all of her gratitude for
| bids such q deliyerance. Moreover the
record of the nations is against such a
conclusion.
If we go back in thought for the moment
las We may to Grecian history and read
up the records Of the Acropolis, as founded
| by Cercrops; Athenian law and history tell
| us in substance that the dead soldiery OF
| the nation, in their funeral rites and GER
emonies, were TO be honorably performed
at the public expense, and with becoming
demonstration on the part of the nation.
| The honored remains, in the words Of
Lord Byron:
"Before decays etfactng fingers
| Have swept the lines where beauty lingerst
Were not only to be gathered, as from
Marathon height and Salamian rock. but
laid in state for three days, that they
might receive the nations offering, the
last tribute Of affection from a people,
"Whose land from plain TO mountain cave,
Was freedoms home, or glorys grave
In order to do this, history tells us that
secured-ten to represent the tribal diyis-
ions of the city Of Athens in her ten de-
partments, the eleventh to represent like
| their altar to the unknown God in their
| idolatry) the lost; the not-to-be. accounted
for on the high places of the battlefield.
Into these were cast the donations OF
wreath and flower, Of weapon glittering,
ornament and vase, so honored with the
memories and trophies OF the past. On the
4th day by mothers, brothers, daughters,
sisters, friends, by surviving comrades, by
citizens and strangers they moved in
solemn procession to the beautiful Cera-
micus, a part of the city, enriched by all
the untold wealth, arr and bene6cence OF
Simon, the son OF Miltiades. Here, amid
| graves, filled their thousand deities and
shrines; here, amid gardens clad in
eternal spring. time and beauty scattering
their fragrance of bud and flower as with
| LAVISH hand; here, under the shade OF
stately trees, as old as the city and sacred
| to the gods; here, as the poet has it,
"In the grave OF Academia,
| Plata's retirement, where the attic bird
Trilled his thick warbled note
The summer long
Amid such surroundings as these Athens,
in her glory and magnificence; in her
funeral sergio and oratory; celebrated in
deed and glory. the honor Of a perishable
name, and awarded honors OF rightful
birth and bestowment upon the neurology
| OF her soldiery. II the land OF Homer,
| Scion and Lycurgus, hushed to-day into
the sleep OF the nations by the calm MUIR
murings OF the deep blue sea; II the homes
| of the Eukmenide and Pelasgi can teach
such lessons as these, what shall be said OF
these States in their unity, lone and in
separable." Their proud banner motto,
Virtue, Liberty and Independence" and
| whose sweetest charity and broadest philan-
thropy is only limited by "this land of the
free and these homes of the brave" Shall
we be less loyal to q nations behests less
respectful to governmental authority and
wisdom; less grateful in our devotion 10
country and defender than these nations
now sleeping on the bosom OF the
ages! If Greece, in lifting up q stand
ard against an Asiatic despotism
that would fasten itself upon her
soil, would honor her brave soldiery,
with all the pomp and pageantry Of
public sepulture or burial. II an undying
fame in its recollections would inscribe
the name OF the hero in the strife, the pa
| triot in his death, upon the marble shafts
and monuments Of the Beautiful City"
shall our American civilization, our Chris
tan citizenship, either by law or act, for.
get the noble defenders OF our country and
its liberties? Shall it be said that the
gratitude and respect Of Christian people
for its soldIery, is less than that OF the
|
nations offerings in these memorial scenes
reverse such q sentiment. let the flags OF
our country, riddled and torn upon many
a hard-fought battle field, Gt may be- in
the hands of consecrated and sorrowing
comrades, signal it from one end OF the
land to the other. 1t must not. it shall not
be. Perish first in our hands, this emblem
Of our liberty and independence Let
drum corps in the reveille, ire val a-the
revelee. as We used TO say awaking the
soldier to duty. sound it forth as in the
jubilee of the people. Let charg.
ing cayalryman, with boot and
SPUR, on prancing steed. and
laundering battalions encased in ribs
OF steel and girt about with sheets OF flame.
Write it, as their truth in defense, ON the
dark crest OF the war cloud. Aye, let
salvos of artillery on sea and land com bin
ing proclaim it in echoes and reechoes,
making our land to shake
| FROM ONE END TO THE OTHER,
| from the pine OF the North to the palmetto