The Press., 1884-06-05

mourn the dear ueplrCeu ones, that we would give much to see them in full life enter these doors and take their seats as of old, to see life and light flash from their eyes, voice issue from their lips, and to feel again the hearty clasp of their vel coming hands, need not to be said. Yet to deeply mourn them is not, as take it, our mission here to-day.
 We are here to do honor to their mem ories, to heap flowers upon their graves, and to stimulate i'll our hearts the up springing of sacred pride over their hero ism and their sacrifice.
 Our undertow of feeling may be akin to slow moving refrains that breathe of sad ness and of sighlng, but our fuller tides sweep along to strains of swelling pride and righteous exaltation over the high and noble deeds that our own fl sh and blood ,iid for the honor and glory of their coun- try and for the welfare of the unborn mil lions that are to flood the future of this empire of the west.
 It is very far from being day to be solely participated ill by the surviving comrades of the sleeping dead Doubtless it is very fit that those survivors should carry the flowers that are dropped upon their graves, and should be the more active
 workers in the doings of the day, but that day and these ceremonies are ill no sense
 theirs alone. Our dead comrades died for
 our common country, iu whose welfare
 each one is equally interested, be he of
 high or low degree, and whatever his con-
 dition, race or color. In thus coming for
 ward to perform the active duties of the oc-
 casion, the surviving soldiers are but the
 opponents and agents of the whole people, When few more years shall have run their course, the many surviving soldiers
 will have become the few those few will
 have become old and infrm, and, of neces.
 sity, they must be assisted in the duties
 they now gladly perform. Yet few more
 years still, and all of them will be laid
 away to rest, and if the day is to be per-
 petuated-and deem it worthy of unfad-
 ing remembrance-all of its duties will de-
 volve to other hands and to other hearts.
 Some of the young ones who hear me to- day will, in the common course of things,
 live to see the last of the veterans laid
 away to their long rest.
 I trust that when that day shall come,
 the day will not only have grown to ob-
 servances of greater beauty but it will have
 become forever fixed in the affections of all
 our people.
 However deeply and strongly we may
 feel the expenditure of blood and treasure
 that marked the war and gave us victory,
 l am fully persuaded that many years must
 elapse before the real greatness and bravery
 of the struggle, and particularly the ex-
 ceptional heroism of the whole north will
 be rightly appreciated, even by Amereans,
 as it deserves, and rated at its true mag
 nifcence.
 , We stand in the close presence of the stupendous event and lack all advantage of
 perspective. -s1t tsgt
 We read in history of the great wars and
 battles of the past, Greek and Roman,
 French and English, and of our own war of the revolution. At this distance of time they stand out in grand proportions, with :, the central figures of their heroes and lead CTS outlined and illuminated
 These wars of the past have been great
 and their chiefs have been worthy of their renown but it must be remembered that their distance of time from us so far from
 dimming their fame, or belittling their
 achievements, most wonderously magnifies them, obscures and hides all their faults s and pettiness, and makes them seem like I battles of the giants commanded by the l. demi-gods.
 Stories and legends, sayings brave and t bright, born of admiring posterity, grow !, and cluster around the history of these T. wars of the past, till the added adornments O are far more conspicuous than the bare '1 actuality.
 Yet allowing the past all the advantages |, due to these fictitious accretions, our own war, our citizen soldiers, and our military
 chieftains come out of the comparison with g all the higher honors. Cowards there e were in our ranks, incapables there were
 among our commanders, but as compared 8 with the whole body of our defenders they U were so few that the per centage is not |! cOmputable.
 I do not believe that the true history of
 all ages can furnish as fine an example of , patient and enduring bravery under fire l. and hardships as was steadily exhibited by 5 these men who had every reason to avoid Il mutilation, disease and death; not so es- $ pecially for their own sakes as for the sake ! of wives and children whose welfare at 1T home was dependent on their safe return. C When we realize for moment how sel. oI fish we all are, by large part of our na- lures, the spectacle of our fellow citizens 0 exposing not only their own limbs and e lives to bullet and bayonet but also the l. comfort of wives and little ones-dearer to h most of them than life or imb-all for the
 unselfsh sake of our common country and 'i it's free institutions, is a sight not only for It She admiration of men in all future ages, s- but for the admiration of the immortals.
 I speak thus freely of men of whom for e a time was one, because I then had not UuOS0 tloS Ol WIG duu C01lur6Q that now o see must have tugged at the heart strings 's of those who had, with force that can 5. only be known when felt.
 70 While we must appreciate the splendid o dash and daring of our southern brethren, Il who then were our opponents, by com s, parison theIgreater need of praise must be 70 awarded to the north; and now mean % the defenders at home as much as the de- 5, lenders ill the field.
 o Our southern brethren were better pre-
 pared than we for engaging in this war e by their habits and modes of life Labor Ss was, with them, the exception and not the o rule. To ride, to hunt, to shoot, to guar e. ,; rel and fight to talk of war, to read its lit erature, and to be saturated with its spiri 'e was with them the habit and rule of life e. e. while the north was by habit and practice It accustomed to daily toll, earning its daily e. bread, and to all appearances was far sep H. arated from all sentiment and spirit of TO
 nance.
 K What a surprise it was to the gay anG 's dashing south to see the men of the north ie when they fully realized the gravity anG te sternness of the struggle that was before n- them, turn from their peaceful avocationt e. and set themselves like rinyielding rock y against the angry waves of secession ana 6Irol> IT l, k1,