The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1884-06-13
CORVALLIS OREGON JUNE l3, 1884

won, Gn0Se pr1nclpleS grew IN value III UHe
estimation of all loyal men, and urged the
hearts of veterans to seek some means Of
keeping green the comradeship born OF
strife and sealed in blood. And so they
band together in various Posts throughout
the land, cultivating ties of brotherhood by
an uniformity of discipline and fellowship,
the power of which they learned to know
in camp and field. Though your brother
hood varies little but in form from Odd
Fellowship or Masonry. except from causes
whence it rose in the hallowed recent past,
while theirs are many spread and multiply,
your posts, alas! must sink with time till
all are closed by deaths fascinating hand,
for none can join the G.. A. r. but those
who served, on land or sea, in our late re-
bellion, and the time is not far distant, as
time is reck oned in a nations life, when the
last post shall cease. to be, when its sacred
rites will be book that's sealed, and the
last comrade gone to join the roll of honor.
Unity of heart and mind prevail to-day
throughout the land. All crafts and trades
ICSpSCO IIIilS, GIL Pdi ~ s1LO
from sight. We meet to-day, to rejoice
with pomp and splendor, such as BELTS the
day of our nation:s birth; nor yet to stir the
harsher memories of long buried passions
viving thoughts of pain and bloodshed in
field or camp; but like the fading scars
which mark once CHASTITY assures in the
flesh long since healed, so advancing time
traced on memory scroll, till friend and
foe all blend in one.
To-day our country mourns the untimely
death of four hundred thousand of her brave
sons, the precious sanguinary price of accu-
mulated discord and passions hasty flow
On this, the 3Oth day of May, the duties Of
your brotherhood, in which all comrades
wish to join, require public floral decora-
tion of all soldiers's caves. While some
may mourn the loss of father, brother,
friend. we bear in mind that some comrades
left no earthly ties, and as all are friends
where they are gone, we crown alike both
Blue and Gray, without betraying partial
hand. From Puget Sound to Florida Keyes,
from Penobscot Bay to Los Angeles, to-day
the breezes watt the funeral dirge, and
comrades march with Grape bound arms to
muified drums, and with forgiving, reverent
thoughts of by-gone strife, gather at the
graves alike of blue and gray. whose blood
baptIsed our nations woe, and the gentle
fragrant flowers are yielding up their lives
to do them honor-ft semblance of the
price they nobly paid without regret, each
for the side he thought was right.
Here on the western verge of Columbia's
soil we meet to-day on common plain to do
our homage with the rest, ami with enlarg-
ing sympathy extend those rites to COM
prayer and requiem in unison throughout
the Nation; and upon every high sea, and
in every foreign land, permeating the veins
OF commerce of the great round world, from
| the frozen regions of the North, through
thesweltering tropics to the frigid wastes
of Southern seas; and from Columbia East
to Columbia West, around the globe where
ere Americans soiourn to-day, our gallant
flag droops mournfully at half-mast, pro-
claiming to all kind our grief, though
softened, not forgot.
The shrill piping fife ever stirs the vete
lan's heart with vivial scenes of soldier life
the camp, the drill, the march, the picket
guard on stormy nights, the forage squad
the scout and skirmish, and surmountins
all, the thrilling clash on battle field. But
to-day those thoughts give place to saddel
ones-to lingering pain in hospital, the
prisons starving discipline, the battle.
close the burial day. Yet soon quarter
century will have passed since that fata
guantlet toss on Sumpters Fort in sixty
one, which called you from Office, store
farm, school and workshop, to join in fra
tricidal contest. Some of you who the.
were beardless youths, now wear wrinklet
brows and grizzled locks, not al due t.
times changing hand; but some plainl,
traced to life-melting campaigns; to prison
fare and hospital, to cankered wounds ant
wasting plague, each marking serious rebat,
from mans allotted span in unmistaker
lines, while many more whose names nov
grace your roll of honor, though surviving
tragedy of battlefield and prison life, hav'
since paid full price to natures law, ant
gone to join the silent, ever multiplying
ranks with never ending furlougs. So yea
by year your ranks must thin while theirs
increase, till the Grand Army of the Re
public shall be no more, and none can say
''We served together!'' But when that TIM
shall come, fear not that Memorial Day will
cease to be, for an ever grateful nation
marks it well, and reveres it more at eaci
return; and the wreaths and flowers yol
bestow to- day on comrades gone, shall re
vive again to grace your brows, when on
by one you, too, have joined that roll
And now, since blood and gold and socia
bliss were freely paid for victory won, lie
us hope to profit by it while we may; aul
while we forget the bitter thoughts 0
formar 6aus NOV ba ,r;,,oirlo. ,,,I;al -.