Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1884-06-05
Helena, Montana, Thursday, June 5, 1884.

world that simple manhood, boast.ess of
ancient lineage, accustomed only to ways
of peace, could, inspired by nOblest pur-
poses, achieve in this our century, deeds of
valor unsurpassed in all the ages, the
recital of which shall encourage all who
in ages vet to come, shall dare for country
and for freedom.
Yes, this is Memorial Day,-the saddest
of the year, and it is as ennObling as it is
tit and beautiful for us annually to meet
and pay this mOurnful tribute to our dead,
and to deposit on their graves the first and
choicest flowers of spring as tokens of our
remembrance of their virtues, and their
heroic deeds-leading us as it does into a
contemplation of that great and final day
toward which we are all Fastening, and
tending as it does to subdue the little
asperities of life and to calm the heated,
bitter passions which so often sway us.
And to-day, as we stand in the dread pres
ence of those sad remnants Of mortality,
deposited in these vviceless tOmbs, and
mOuldering in the parent dust, we may
we'll pause to reflect ON the fatality of
many of our present strifes and jealousies
and heart burnings On the merits of that
great internal controversy which so recently
gave us many, many of our dead, we are
not called upon to-day to express an opin-
ion, for were such the case, justice would
not be done to conviction did we express
ourselves otherwise than a life of faith and
practice would indicate; but, as we stand
here to-day beside the graves of the dead,
by the side of those who fell under the
folds of the Stars and the Stripes, and those
who went down beneath the Stars and
Ba-s, let US not forget that they all sleep
under one common sod and over them
floats one common flag.
While they once fought as adversaries
they are foes no longer, tor they sleep on
Americas SOIL over them floats Americas
flag, and they are all Americas dead. Their
courage and their skill no nation on the
face of the earth, but America, can claim
and their bravery and valOr and sincerity
have been attested ON every field OF battle,
from Mobile Bay to Gettysburg.
To-day the golden sun has painted with
radiant cOlors, a armament OF garlands laid
by loving hands upon the soldiers graves
that consecrate our land. Three hundred
thousand gIaves-veteran sentiments of lib
erty-scattered from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, upon fields OF battle where they
y
cemetery, to-day comrades and friends have
met around each hallowed spot that holds
a hero's resting place, and laid their flow
cry offerings there.
Hither we are come; in this sacred
presence. and in that friendship only born
amid dangers and death-we bring our
gifts-symbol of purity and emblem of the
love we bear the dead
How fitting that we should do so, that
the living should stand beside the dead,
and under the influence of the sad but
earnest thoughts awakened here should
pledge anew our devotion to our common
country and the principles for which our
comrades died.
Sleep on, We fallen ones ! no alarm can
call you from your rest, no foe, can drive
you from your lonely bivouac.
Sleep on, until that assembly shall be
sounded calling you forth to answer to
your names upon the rolls of the Grand
Army of the Great Commander above, to
form, eternally, the lines that sever justice
and truth from hate and fear.
After the song The sleep of the Brave"
by the Apollo Club, and benedictiOn by
the chaplain, Rev. R. B. Tobey, the process
sion reformed and countermarched to the
head of Main street, where the exercises
of the day closed and the column dis
missed
1t was fitting occasion gloriously cele-
brated, and one that inaugurates the ami
versary of Memorial Day in the Rocky
Mountains.