Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1883-05-30
A Day Of Reflection.


fought to maintain the Union, will be re-
peated the beautiful ceremonial which pat
riotism devised for Furnishing up the mem
cries of the great war and for recalling, as
the sods which cover the vast army Of sleep
ing patriots are decked with flowers, the cost
ut which was preserved the heritage OF free
dom. The voice Of the orator will be heard
recountng how, in every city and hamlet in
the north, in the blithe spring days of 1861,
was heard the roll Of the drum and the bugle
call how were witnessed fearful fsrewells
and partings whose agony was deeper than
tears how these scenes were re-enacted as
the storm of war thickened and mastering
squadrons of volunteers responded to the
oft renewed call for troops; how the iron of
that contest day by day entered into the soul
of the Nation how the bullet made desc
late hearths in many household, and how
at length, joy and gratitude rang out from
every belfry, and the cannon to the heav-
ems and the heavens to the earth an
nounced the glorious end and the grand tri-
umph at Appomattox. The lesson Of the
war will be highly enforced by the iudicious
orator. Much moral and patriotic seed will
be sown, which will be subject to the vicissi-
tudes of the truth scattered in the ancient
Scriptural times. Here and there an ambi.
tious son of Boanerges, with an eye on the
political future, will let loose his soaring
eagles. Buncombe will improve the shin
ing hour" not possibly, to prove the truth
of the grabbed and cynical Johnson's saying,
that "Patriotism is the last refuge of
scoundrel," but very likely to show that it
may be made the disguise of demagogue.
In proportion as the speaker is candid and
unainching, not in exposing the wrong of
slavery and the infamy of the rebellion, for
those are settled issues, but in unfolding the
true principles Of government, in intoxicating
the common, everyday duties of good citi-
zenship; in 30 far as he is instructive and
himself thoughtful, and brings forth things
which shall cause the " needless, rambling
impulse of selfish men to stop and think,
which shall teach them that the individual
purity and honesty and holiness Of its citi-
zens is the strength of the Nation, so far he
will have served the high practical purpose
Of the day. The duty of the day is not dis
charged by gush Of sentiment. The indi-
vidusl citizen will not have performed his
full duty by laying chaplet of flowers upon
the grave of soldier. He may " sing the
song and raise the strain of patriotism, but
if he carry not away from the exercises and
the reflections of the day something that
will stay his feet from sliding back to the
same old ways again." memorial day is q
solemn and hackneyed farce.
On a great memorial occasion, twenty years
ago, Abraham Lincoln, in language that
thrilled the world, and which in a few brief
sentences of natural elcquence threw the pail
of oblivion over the studied phrases of the
great orator on that memorable day at
Gettysburg, foreshadowed the duty of citi-
zens and the spirit which should animate
them on this, the great National Sabbath.
1t should be read at the exercises on every
memorial day, just as the Declaration of In.
dependence is read at Fourth of July OBJ
servances. "Fourscore and seven years
ago." said the great president, " our fathers
brought forth upon this continent new Ma
ton, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to
the proposition that all men are created
equal. Now we are engaged in a great
civil war, testing whether that Nation, or
any nation 80 conceived and so dedicated,
can long endure. We are met on great
battlefield of that war. We have come to
dedicate portion of that field as a final
resting-place for those who here gave their
lives that that Nation might live. 1t is alto
gether fitting and proper that we should do
this. But in larger sense we cannot dedi-
cate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hal.
low this ground. The brave men, living
and dead, who struggled here, have conse-
Grated far above our power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remem-
Der, what we say here, but it can never for
get what they did here. 1t is for us, the
living, rather 10 be dedicated here to the
unfinished work which they who fought
here have thus far so nobly advanced. 1t is
rather for US to be here dedicated to the
great task remaining before us, that from
these honored dead we take increased devo-
ton to that cause for which they gave the
last full measure of devotion; that we here
highly resolve that these dead shall not
have died in vain that this Nation, under
God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and
that government of the people, by the peo-
pie, and for the people, shall not perish from
the earth"