The National tribune., 1885-06-18
It THE:. ANTIETAp,
Gen. Geo. B, MeClellan'S Grafton on
Memorial Day.
COMRADES, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:

| the harsh sounds of strife, and the ground was
all too thickly strewn with the forms of the
quiet dead, and of these still writhing in agony.
| Two great armies had met in deadly strife,
the fate of Nation and the future of genera
| tions yet unborn hanging upon the result
| Within the walls of this vast cemetery-peO-
pied almost in single day-repose the mortal
remains of the brave men who fell here under
one of two rival banners; those who met death
beneath the other, sleep their last sleep within
sound of tho guns that wrought such havoc
After their long and desperate struggle. these
men, who laid down their own and sought each
others lives in fierce but loyal battle, have been
| placed almost side by side, awaiting that last
dread trumpet sound that shall call them to
life again. There are here to-day those who
| fought on either side; men who, clad in gray,
! followed the noble Lee, and we who wore the
blue.
| We are here with a common purpose-tO
| testify our reverence for the valiant dead. In
| these too numerous graves, stretching so far
and wide around us, let us bury all animosity,
all bitter recollections of the past, remember
| ing only that on Antietam's hills brave men
gave their lives for what they thought the right,
and proved that the herois!n of our ancestors
| still reigned in the hearts of the Americans of
that day.
! 1t is not my purpose on such day as this,
or i'll presence of such an assembly, to rehearse
the various acts of the great tragedy enacted
| Of contests, for it was of the grandest epi-
sodes in the greatest Of fratricidal wars, waged
| by men of mighty Nation, favored beyond all
| others by Providence.
RETROSPECTIVE.
| On this very field, brothers-men born of the
| same mother-met in mortal conflict. Had
| that war occurred in heathen times it would
| have been thought that the most implacable of
| the Gods-even of the Norsemen or the AZ
| tecs-had been satiated by the hecatombs of
| heroes offered up On this single field.
| AS it is pray that this fair land of ours may
never again be the scene Of such carnage as
| some of us beheld long years ago on these
| blood-stained nights. / shall not touch upon
| the causes of that war, of which Antietam was
one of the greatest battles, further than to say
that our children should never forget that it
was brought about, and even made necessary,
| by the extremists of the two sides. If the mod
crate men, North and South, could have con-
| trolled events, the dread arbitrament of arms
| might have been avoided
l and my fellow Democrats of the North
| fought for the Union, because we believed that
it contained within itself the power of insuring
| all possible good things to this people, and of
| securing us against uunumbcred evils, and
chiefly because we believed, as we traced the
| history of America from its faint beginnings,
! that we could see the hand of God guiding cur
| fathers in the creation of a Nation destined to
| become the greatest of which history bears
record, and having as its mission the fulfillment
| of some great design of His.
| We felt that il was our sacred duty to offer
| our lives as His feeble instruments in the pre-
| servation of the magnificent edifice His hands
| had reared. Men smarting at the time under
| actual or apprehended evils honestly differed
from this view-l dare not Judge them, for their
perfect honesty was proved by the magnitude
of the sacrifices they made for the cause they
i1ct pf,f md fboSa h,E fol Y
believed that all other questions of the time
were contained in and subordinate to the vital,
the immense question of the preservation of
the Union
believed. and still believe, that it is impos-
sible for two Governments to co-exist in this
land of ours without soon coming into collision
on some secondary question, and that 1t was
better to fight at once for the main issue-an
issue, it seemed to me, directly in harmony
with the designs of the overruling Providence.
My countrymen, 1t is well worth our while
to look back again, as trust we all often do,
with awe and reverence upon the long course
of events which led us where these people stand
to-day. Long, long before Columbus sailed
westward upon his daring search for the new
world beyond the sea, the Norsemen-storm-
driven in their frail barks happened upon our
New England coast. But their discovery re-
manned unused, and was preserved only in
the rude Sagas, which seemed to those whose
tales of the tabled Atlantis, or the mythical
wanderings of the Niebelungen.
EVOLUTION OF OUR NATION.
As the centuries rolled on, Europe awoke
from the lethargy and barbarism of the dark
ages; the crusades threw the various nations
together in a seething mass; men learned to
understand each other better; something of the
arts, sciences and civilization of the ancients,
happily preserved in the orient, was brought
back to the west; serfdOm gradually disappeared,
tho great middle class of burghers sprang into
existence; commerce and the arts civilized
mankind; the rough robber knight. the burly
baron, whose personal prowess turned the scale
of battles, gave way to the intellectual soldier;
that state of affairs was fast approaching so
happily characterized by the English historian
when he said: 1t is probable that among the
10000 soldiers who were marshaled around
Neerwinder under all the standards of Western
Europe, the two feeblest in body were the hunch-
backed dwarf who urged forward the fiery onset
of France, and the asthmatic skeleton who COW
cred the slow retreat of England"
Imaginations were kindled, the love of ad-
venture inspired vast multitudes. The Euro
pean merchants engaged in far reaching ven
lures, and their sailors, trained to buffet the
angry waves of their western coasts, acquired
the skill and confidence which impeIled them
to seek fame and fortune upon the remotest
shores Of unknown seas.
The termination OF the wars against the
MoOrs left free large bands of the best soldiers
of Europe, men Injured to danger, and valuing
life less than the excitement which alone made
life endurable to them men who for greed of
gold and the mere pleasure of combat were
willing to confront any peril, endure any IA
tigue privation.
In their own fanatcal way they were reli-
gious, too, and not seldom concerned them
selves that their struggle for gold and glory
was really crusade for the spread of Christi
anity.
The fullness Of time had now arrived the
nations of Europe were ready to avail them
selves of the discovery Of America, and the
immortal Genoese fulfilled his mission Eager
traders and ruthless soldiers were the leaders
in the settlement and conquest of America
Providential{y, with the march of events,
new causes came into play, bringing new
actors OH the scene.3 The spirit of civil and
religious liberty had at last awakened from its
long slumber, and happily for us, could not at
once find freeand untrammeled scope for its
glorious course among the Nations of the Old
World. For often worsted in their gallant con-
test with the strong forces of reaction, the most
ardent and most earnest champions of freedom |
abandoned all othe ties of home and turning
their backs upon their native lands, sought |
among the boundless forests OF the New World |
that political and religious liberty which the |
Old World denied them.
Such gallant souls, actuated by such high |
motives, could not fail.
Their arduous struggle against the forces of