Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-08-09
The Decoration Day Address of Colonel
r. G, EDpeysolI,

The past rises before nc like dream
Again VIC are in the great struggle for ma
tiOnal life We hear the sounds OF prcpa-
ration-the music Of the boistcrous drums,
the silver voices of heroic bugles. We sec
thousands of assemhlages and hear the ap-
pcal5 Of orators we see the pale cheeks OF
the women and the flushed faces of the
men. and in those aSscmblagcs we see all
the dead whose dust we have covered with
flowers. We lose sight of them no more!
We are with them when they enlist in the
great army of freedom. We see them part
from those they love. Some are walking
| for the last time i'll quiet woody places
with the maidens they adore. We hear
their whisperings and the sweet vows Of
eternal love rs they lingcringiy part for
ever. Others are bending over cradles,
| kissing babies that arc asleep. Some are
receiving the blessings of old men. Some
arc parting who hold them and press them
to their hearts again and again, and say
nothing; some are talking with wives, and
are endeIv0riug with brave words spoken
! in the old tones to drive from their hearts
| the awful fear. We see them part. We
sec thc'wife standing in the door with the
babe III her arms-standing in the sunlight
| sObbng-at the turn of the road hand
waves she answers by holding high in her
| loving arms the child. He is gone. and
| forever. We see them all rs they march
proudly away under the Haunting flags,
| keeping time to the wild, grand music Of
| the war, marching down the streets of the
great cities, through the towns and across
| the prairics down TO the fields Of glory to
do aud to die for the eternal light We go
with them one and all. We arc by their
| side on all the glory feds, in all the hos
pitfalls Of pain, on all the weary marches
We stand guard with them in the wild
storm and under the quiet stars. We are
with them III raYincS running with blood
in the burrows of old fields. We arc with
them between contending hosts, unable to
| move, Wild with thirst, the life ebbing
slowly away among the withcred leaves.
We see them pierced by balls and torn
with shells in the trenches by forts, and in
| the whiriwind of the charge where men be-
I come iron with nerves of steel We are
with them in the prisons Of hatred and
| famine; but human speech can never T. II
what they endured. We are ct home when
the news comes that they are dead. We
| see the maiden in the shadow of her first
| sorrow. We sec the silver head of the old
man bowed with the last grief The past
| rises before us and we sec 4, 600 900 of hu-
| man beings governed by the lash VIC see
them bound hand and foot; we hear the
| strokes of cruel whips; we see the hounds
| tracking women through the tangled
swamps We see babes sold from the
breasts Of mothers. Cruelty unspeakable
Outrage infinitei -Four million bodies in
chains 100000 souls in letters All the
sacred relations of wife, mother, father,
child, trampled beneath the brutal foot of
might. And all this was done under our
own beautiful banner OF the free. The
past rises before us. We hear the roar and
Shrek Of the bursting shell. The broken
letters fall; these heroes died. We look.
| Instead Of slaves we see men, women and
| children. The wand of progress touches
the auction-block, the slave-pen, the whip
| ping post, and we see homes and fire-sidcs
and school-houses and books, and where
all was want, and crime, and cruelty, and
letters. We see the faces of the free. These
| heroes are head. They died for liberty
| they died for us They are at rest. They
sleep in the land that they made free, I'M
| der the flag they rendered stainless under
the solemn pines, the sad hemlocks, the
fearful willows and the embracing vines.
| They sleep beneath the shadows of the
clouds, careless alike of the sunshine or of
storm, each in the windowless palace of
rest. Earth may run red with other wars
they are at peace. In the midst of battle,
in the roar Of conflict, they found the Sc
renity OF death. a voice" Glory."l