The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1884-05-30

ELOQUENT GRAFTON BY REY. W. n.
0ALT0N, RECTOR or CHRIST
CHURCH, 0WOSS0.
TWO FINELY READ POEMS !
An Earnest Prayer by Rev. ]. N. Gordon,
Of the N. E. Church, 0WOSSO.

tnlS AFTERNOON. Inc procession, uuuer
the charge of Adj. j. w. Angel, with
Geo. F. Robinson as Orderly, formed in
front of the City Hall at p. M, led by
Decker's X T., and the G. A. r. CON-
Eades about 100 strong, followed by about
40 young ladies, dressed in uniform, rep
Tesenting the different states, under the
supervision of Rev. Wilson, hundreds of
the people of the county in carriages and
on foot proceeded to Oak Hill cemetery,
where the graves of the patriotic dead
were strewn with beautiful flowers, token
of Nations love and gratitude.
The services at the cemetery were par
rticularly appropriate and exceedingly in
teresting; the music fine, the singing be.
ing by Messrs. G c. Duff and T.. j.
Horsman, and Mrs. c. G. Duff, Mrs.
Nettie Allen, Mrs. c. E. Thorn and Miss
Eta French.
Space forbids an extended notice, suffice
it to say that programme was carried out
as follows. The recitation of the poems
good, and the Grafton eloquent.
1st. Offering of Flowers to Thee we
Bring" Quartettc and Band.
I'd. Prayer by Chaplain ]. M. Gordon.
Sd. Music, 1--WE Forget not the Day.
4th. Poem, 1.-THE Battle of Lookout
Mountain, Miss Carrie Patterson.
9TH. Music by Band.
9TH. Grafton by Rev. W. w. Walton,
as follows:
ON the 14th of this month, just 81
years ago, the delegates of the then indie
pendent State governments met in Phila-
delphia to construct and adopt such
bond of Federal Union as should adequate
ly meet the necessities of the Republic.
In the constitution then adopted there
were two defects, One, it omitted to
provide means for the ultimate extiDc-
zion of slavery, to which at that time
there was considerable opposition not
only in the North but also in the South
in which opposition that redoubted states
man Of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, was a
leader. The other error, and the less
grave of the two, was, that it failed to
state in positire, emphatic, undenia6le terms
chat the Confederation of Independent
States previously existing was abolished
and centralized Federal Republic SUBJ
stituted in its stead. This later omission
at once gave rise to the two great political
parties which have inclined to different
views of this question. LIST, The Jeffer.
-sonian Democratic party. advocating the
theory of simple confederation. end,
The party first known as the Federal,
now as the Republican, whose principles
finally triumphed and were permanently
established during the reorganization, re-
construction and constitutional amend.
ment attending and Immediately fol.
lowing the war between the States
But this latter question might have
been bone of merely amicable polit-
ical contention for centuries had it not
been for the issue of slavery Both for
political and philanthropic reasons take
it as an undeniable fact that in this 10Th
century slavery and freedom cannot exist
tremendously side by side in any civiliza
tion, especially Protestant, of the globe
'Consequentlythis dark question ranked and
disturbed the heart of the Nation, creating
disunion in heart long before the disunion
in State, until it eliminated in that dark
and bloody conflict which shook the West
ern Continent for four long years, while
the world looked on and wonderedl A
nnOHint In, xyl,iol, tha LoI
heroically stood shoulder to shoulder dur.
ing the revolutionary struggle for national
independence were foot to foot and bayo-
net to bayonet, while the children of the
Washingtons, jefferson, Patrick Henry
and Lighthouse Harry Lee were striving
to sever the unified nationality to es
tablish which their ancestral blood and
life had been given. In this the darkest
hour of her history since the period of
the Revolution, the patriotism of the
American people was neither sleeping nor
dead. Throughout the length and breadth
of the North from the cline" to the Lakes
and the Atlantic to the Pacific the masses
were true and loyal to their hereditary
principle and opinion and the heart of the
Nation throbbed high with the resolution
that come what might the States of this
Union should remain nationality, one,
Sndicis5le, united .foreyr! 1t became evil
dent that the God of battles had relega.
ted the great question which had agita-
ted and severed the Nation to the field of
war for decision-a tribunal whatever may
be said of its law or logic possesses the
merit of settling forever differences which
law and justice are powerless to adjust.
III was the will of God that the jealousies
and heartburnings should cease-that the
curse of difference of institution,
habit and life and the political antaeonism
which slavery produced in our then un.