Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-06-05
DECORATION DAY.
Two Notable Addresses.

never more general and careful than it
| has been this year. In most of the
larger cities, the gatherings of citizens
were imposing, including many prominent
men in the professions and in busi-
! ness and the day called out the efforts of
| the best orators of the land. At New York
Senator Evarts spoke to an immense CON
/ course at the Academy of Music, and had
President Cleveland among his hearers
| He spoke of the Significance and growing
Importance of Memorial Day He said
that even the President of the
United States, burdened as he was by
pressing duties aud grave responsibilities
felt that he had no higher duty than to
join with the surviving veterans in paying
II tribute to the memories of the Nations
dead. The passionate bitterness which
at first characterized this annual COM
memoration of the deeds and fame of the
dead soldiers of the North was steadily
| giving way to Il sentiment of broader pa
triotism. The Senator alluded to Memo
| rial Day as the vernal festival of the Uni
ted States of America. AS May festival
it was much happier in its motive and in
its calendar than the May day of England
The policy of the United States in having
no large standing army was commended
1t was perfectly safe, he said, to trust to
the spontaneous patriotism of private
citizens to take the implements of war in
their hands whenever the honor or safety
of the Government needed to be protected
speaking OF the payment of pensions to
war veterans, Senator Evarts said that the
peculiar circumstances under which the
| soldiers of the Union Army were called
from their families and their private vOca-
tions to battle for the country left the
country under extraordinary obligations
to them. The surviving veterans should
| be treated tenderly and literally and new
er for a moment should the question be
raised that their acceptance of a pension
placed them under obligations to the gov
ernment. Recognition of the veterans in
any way by the government should not
be regarded as a mark of favorltsm, but
as feeble justice to the old soldiers.
1t might be true that this nation was
growing more and more sentimental, but
it was not growing any the less free or any
| the less dangerous to any other nation
that threatened its rights or its honor
l"We still have the same brave spirit
among our countrymen that caused the
people of the North to so promptly resent
the firing upon the old flag at Fort Sum
ter" said the speaker. I'VE still have
good soldiers with us. We have one of
our great soldiers with us to night, turn
ing to Gen. Hancock, one whom we love
to honor
This allusion to Gen. Hancock elected
much and the General rose and bowed
his acknowledgements with courtly grace.
Senator Eyarts then closed his ad-
dress with the following words spo-
ken with marked fervency 1--WE
miss from this stage another great
Genera. One who as a distin-
gushed American, as a afellow-townsman,
ana as our great captain we have loved to
honor. He was spared during the great
conflict in all his perils which were our
perils and now that he is sore with his
distresses his distresses shall be our dis
, tresses. No solicitude shall darken and
. disturb that household with any fear or
doubt whether the dignity and comfort
of that household shall be cherished by
and comfort to be found in
this prosperous Nation they shall
, be shared with that household
to the last hour of its needs" Applause
and cheers followed this allusion to Gen.
} Grant
= Gen. Mcclellan was the orator at An
tietam. He said among other things
"In the ages of future generations,
| how strange, how romantic, and how STIR
ring will always seem the history of these
two armies, pitted against each other
through long years of battle from the be-
ginning to AppomattOX, where the scanty
) and mangled remains of the great army of
Northern Virginia laid down its.arms, but
, not its honor. Thanks to the maSnanim-
ity of the great soldier who led the Union
army-now, alas, Il prey to disease-there
was nothing said or done tocreate person.
al hate or to cause the blush of shame.
When we look back upon that day,
and that other army, which made its
advance from yonder heights across the
, Antietam-that grand army of the Poto-
mac-what more can say of it than |
have often said in the past 1t was ever
worthy of its fame, whether in adversely
or III success, and never more so than in
| thntinll | "a trlu1t hat hnNA h.ap narpoit f.
ted to live until the fame and exploits of
those magnanimOus rivals, until the abii-
ty and virtue of Robert f.. Lee and the
achievements of the Army of Northern
:. Virginia 5 well as the heroism and re
nown of the Grand Army of the Potomac
have already become part of common
heritage of glory of all our people"