The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1884-07-04

S won, Huu Ill tuc Hills iCoouuu Will
Union shouts of victory:
Life's race well run,
LIES work we'll done,
Life's crown we'll won;
Then comes rest.
cannot pause to name the gallant Off
GERS who freely rendered their lives to
their country on that day of doom; much
less, the uncatalogued heroes of the ranks;
with associations linked to every part of
the empire of the republic, with wives, or
or children, ut home, whose faces
would sadden with tears, or brighten with
Joy, as the day might go.
Look, now, once more! These ridges
no longer belch forth volcanic fires. The
beaten intervale, furrowed with shot and
torn with bursting shell, is smoothed by
he rolling years. The trees have drawn
their coats of bark over their wounds
The sharp volleys of musketry have ceased.
No parks of artillery awake their thun-
ders. No hooves of rushing squadrons
strike into the bosoms of the dying. The
shrieks of the wounded are hushed. No
anxious comrade searches for friend; no
father for son; no sister for brother; no
maiden for her lover. The actors have
disappeared The dead are mingled with
the dust, and the survivors are scattered.
Their bones are dust,
Their swords are rust;
Their souls are with the saints we trust.
The two great chieftains have fallen asleep.
Horse and rider, baton and epaulette, plume
and rifle, flashing sword and cleaning bay
onet, cannon and cannonier, trumpet and
banner, have all vanished; and the sun, as
he rises from his purple bed, crowns the
battlefield with the jewels of the morning,
and mantles the warriors grave with ten.
der grass and nodding flower.
So may there come, through this great
war, perennial peace. May time assuage
all the sorrows, and heal all the wounds.
May the blood of the sacrifice cement and
sanctify the Union; the causes of estrange-
ment disappear; the principles settled by
it, stand like these hills. May North and
South, and East and Wcst-our whole
country-reformed, regenerated, redeem
ed,-unite to perpetuate the nation over
which the star of empire having no far
Their west to 60 will pause and shine and
shine forever.
And after these epitomies of praise to
our great thinkers and our great workers
we come back with holy awe to pay our
vows of patriotism and reverence and love
to him who was a prince among men, q
leader among leaders; TO him who, as
Daniel Webster says, Stands at the COM
mencement of a new era as we'll as at the
head of the New World" A century
from the birth of Washington has changed
the world. The country of Washington
has been the theatre on which great part
of that change has been wrought and
Washington himself principal agent by
which it has been accomplished. His age
and his country are equally full of won
ders. HE belongs not alone to America
he is the common property of the world.
With him were no mean jealousies, no
little ambitions, no unjust angers. no
strifes for place. Like the old Roman
Cincinnatis of whom he was type, he
preferred the pillow to the purple, the SOW
ing of the seed to the senate's applause;
preferred to be patriot rather than a
president. He never had 10000 troops
under his own command upon any battle
field. With an army i'll paid, i'll equipped,
i'll provisioned. he was greater in defeat
than in victory.
He never risked all upon any one move.
ment. He was grander at Valley Forge
than he was when CORVALLIS surrendred
grander amidst the floating ice of the
Delaware than when he sat, the man Of the
age in Independence Hall. He was sym.
metrical man, sometimes slow and heavy
in thought and in act. What he said, and
what he did had in them germs of great
courage a. well as great wisdom. He was
greater in his retirecy upon the banks of
the beautiful river that he loved as his an
cestrial home, Mount Vernon, than he was
as chief of the army or head of the state.
Listen to the words of the pure heart of
our common father as he babe adieu to
the people of the United States in his i'm.
mortal farewell address,
II shall carry with me the hope that
my country will never cease to view my
errors with indulgence; and after forty.
five years Of my life dedicated to its ser.
vices, with an upright zeal, the faults of
incompetent abilities will be consigned TO
as myself must soon be to the
mansions Of rest