St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-04-02
The Grand Army.
It's Origin and It's Purposes.

will for time direct your attention to
an order, society or association exist
ing among us and called the Grand
Army of the Republic, and will try and
explain its origin, its purposes, its in
iuences, and its guiding principles.
The older ones among you wildly re-
member, and the younger have read
and heard, of that terrible time in our
nations history, where the war cloud
which had been gathering many years
As the natural and inevitable out
growth of the sin of slavery so long
tolerated in our land, burst in its fury
upon us rs people, and the life of our
nation was assaulted by traitoreus
hands, and members of this proud UNI
ion of sovereign states sought self-de-
structiOn by disunion and secession.
When treason in high places had put
MS almost at the mercy of our traitor
Gus cOuntrymen, and from fancied Sc
curity we were awakened by the roar
of Sumter's cannon to know that grim
war with all his terrors had come up
tiOn and defenccleSs. OF that time
when the hosts of treason and rebellion
threatened our national capital and our
chosen chief executive was forced to
secure his safety by stratagcm and dis
guse while iourneying to our capital ;
when with blanched cheeks and anX-
ions hearts men looked to see who
were To defend Us and preserve to flu
ture ages the liberty purchased by the
blood and suffering of patriots from
Lexington to Yorktown when the
world abroad looked upon our internal
strife and declared the pages of our
history closed, aud the United States
of America but another instance to
prove that men are not capable of self
government. and that political liberty
cannot he safely trusted in the hands
of the people when the air of heav-
en- was laden with the mutterings of
the strife and bloodshed to come, and
the hearts of the thoughtful were
heavy with forebodings of the terrible
punishment to be inflicted upon our
land when the highest qualities of
manhood were invoked for our defense
and the bravery and patriotism of the
northmen were so bOastingly challeng
ed by our naughty southern country
men.
1t was then that the material of the
G.. A. Il. was created in the glorious
multitude 2,50O,0O0 strong, who in that
crisis, under divine blessing, in the
strength of iustice and right stood to
he the saviours of our cOuntry's unity
and honor and to pay the penalty of
our national sins with their lives if
need be. Gathered from every hill and
valley in the land coming from village,
hamlet and city, inspired by loyalty
and faith in the right, in the strength
of their young manhood they went
forth to write the fairest pages of
American history that speak of
manly courage, of devotion to princi-
pie. of sacrifice upon the shrine of duty,
of love of home and country, of pa
thence in difficulty and suffering, of
humanity and Christianity even in
wars dread and awful duties, and of
mercy and magnanimity in the house
of victory and triumph, such as shall
bring a glow of pride and JOY to the
heart of every American who reads the
record in coming ages, and thanks that
his countrymen have displayed such
noble attributes; pages that shall
brighten with the lapse of time until
around them and the actors in the
deeds they record shall shine a halo of
undimmed lustre forever.
BY men who lived and acted in those
grand and historic events the G. A. r.
is composed; their service is too recent
and our acquaintance with them too
intimate to allow us justly to appre-
ciate the merit of these acts or to give
them due place in our regard and es-
TEEN. The enchantment lent by time
and distance attaches not to them, but
as time shall give them their place in
the worlds history it shall surely be
second to none in any attribute of no
bility or greatness. We of quiet, rural
Vermont. untouched at home by the
ravages of this dreadful strife. seeing
and knowing only what we saw and
knew 10y those who went from our
midst TO never return, and by those
who did returnstO us, little appreciate
the stupendOus magnitude of the ter
rible war our country sustained or of
the terrible suffering and dangers at
tendant upon it. We read mechani-
cally the numbers of men called to the
field it strikes our minds that they
are large but we dismiss the subject
without further thought.
We read of battles fought and of
losses in killed and wounded but there
Is little force in the statement for we
look upon the aggregate at once, and
men in the vast NUM- ers lose their in
and we fail to consider
that each and every one of the multi
tude expressed so easily in figures
was an dependent, separate individual /
brother, with home association and I
memories, with hopes and aspirations
like unto our own perhaps the object |
of "A waiting mothers love mr. tho hona
and dependence of an affectionate wife /
and loving children-looking forward !