The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1886-06-23
A UNITED PEOPLE.

Whtch PervaueS postmaster - General
Villas Grand Grafton on Decoration
Day-Honor to the Forgivlng, Brave
Conquerors and Honor to the Brave
Conquered-Tender Tributes to Grant,
Mcclellan and Hancock.
President Cleveland and his Cabinet
attended the meeting at the Academy
of Music, New York, which was held
upon Decoration Day, Postmaster
General Villas delivering an affecting,
broad-minded and brilliant grafton,
from which the following extracts are
selected:
''Mr President, Comrades of the War, La
dies and Gentlemen: The day has been taken
from our eager labors for the future to testi-
fy our reverence for the past. In decorous
solemn pomp and show, amid every circum-
stance of honor. the people of the Nation
have repaired to hallowed graves and cele-
DRAFTED with the tender rite of flowers the
memory of the Nations saviOrs. And now
that we are gathered by prayer, by song and
speech to tittingy finish our share in the hon.
ored ceremonial, tie spirit Of the day rules
the thought and points the theme A quarter
since the dread alarm of civil war rang
through our land. A new era has begun, q
new generation is upon the stage of lite You
see now everywhere, in all your daily walks,
active men, whose hands are on the levers of
affairs, VIII carry no useless memory Of the
events OF those dreful years. By many a
fireside, amid circles of blooming children,
sit happy mothers who can tell of the great
war but as a troublous affrghtment of their
childhood. OF our present population more
by millions, were in that period not existent
here or possess no remembrance of its scenes,
than all, of every class and age, then within
the compass of the Union. History has fore
closed upon your great achievements. COM
rades' and to the Nation of to-day they are as
q tale to be told; Swiftly, oh! how swiftly, do
the actors OF that mighty drama now fall
from the column of living men. Yet few
years more, and none shall be to bear person
81 witness to the children of the great Repub-
lie Of the trying hours Of her deliverance
1T is duty and a privilege of two-fold
value to recount and emphasize the features
OF the patriotism. purposes and grand results
by which our Union soldiers gained their
and the world; first, to them, in the keeping of
their rightful glory bright and pure; and then
TO ilvlng men and to our children, by emulous
fuickening and better understanding of the
love ana duty due our country.
1T Is not from their oldiership alone that
the sheen OF their renown is SO bright; their
labors, privatiOns and dreadful sufferings,
their Valorous courage and gallant deeds in
arms, Tor these were not distinctive in their
ennobement. These they shared with their
adversaries, whose sodiership, approved on
many hard-fought and bloody field, worth
ny completes for it's equal place on the page
OF military fame. Beyond the soldiers quail
ties, though unsurpassed in them, the men
who wrought by arms the salvation of this
Government raise nobler claim to gratitude
and remembrance In the unselash chivalric
spirit of their sacrifice for the liberty and
progress OF man, and in the vast, far-reach.
ing benefits bestowed by them on their
countrymcn Their need of praise rests on
their acceptance of conditions never before
lmOOSp0 human M
OF more generous, self-forgetting national
and personal sacrifice-for fruits to be gath
cred Chiefly by other mon in after times
than liberty or philanthropy over demanded,
Or it had entered into the heart of man to
conceive could be offered by any numerous,
wide spread people to such cause alone In
the calm OF history, now that the clouds of
contemporaneous turmoil have disappeared,
we may distinguish. in clear view, the
height of the great argument to which their
souls responded
~, 1T was a noble study, asurpassing spectacle,
customed to quiet freedom, confronted
with such Hateful war. The Overwhelming
magnitude of the interests, involving every
man in person, engaged and concentrated the
tntensest attention, thought and passion.
and public opinion, usually slow to form and
show expression, became quick of decision
and lmpatiently incisive in declaration. But
partially reused and still sluggish with lin
gerng confidence at the first call to arms,
the initial disaster effected what mere threat
ening failed to produce. Then, in colossal
form and feature, majestically rising in clear
lines, the spirit of the freemen of the Repub.
lie came out to view, towering in the North.
ern sky like an apparition from above. Upon
its aspect, amaZement had given way to I'm.
aerStanding, sorrow and pain were Overlaid
ment kindlng with inward fire. told Of stern
and unrelenting resolution, while the rising
murmur of united voices broke into shrill and
clear responses to the grand challenge Of their
patriotism and courage
by God s providence our fathers delivered
this land from bonds and dedicated it to be
the homestead of liberty forever. They
established under Divine guidance the consti.
all mankind an example and proof how men
| may live in self-government with the highest
happiness land the noblest development.
They left it to US a blessed legacy and sac
divisions, will follow, and liberty disappear
in anarchy. Kings and their courtiers al
ready smile at our threatened catastrophe,
While fear fear casts gqom and horror on them
every Iyeo base appeal to ease, to interest Or
| cloud our clear perception of manly duty.
we WV ~ hear no argument, put nothing to the
NO king shall exalt, no phanthropist mourn
over the downfall of this Government The
union of these States shall not fail; not a
State shall be lost to the great family of the
azure field of the flag OF our country. We
seek no conquest, we will invade no right
But rocking no cost. no sacrifice, no peril,
wherever treason and rebellion raise their
heads against this government. there we will
| strike them down, till the last foe bends his
knee in duty and allegiance.
This was the plain and simple issue ten.
| dered to the arbtrament of arms; this the
! call to battle to which the Union soldier an
| swered. He went out to no campaign of dip.
| lomatlc policy, by the events of VIII oh
| peace might be better or worse negotiated;
he went to desperate war. to do battle to the
| death, until the peace of exhaustion came
| He went on this awful errand to shed blood
in the cause of humanity, by war to maintain
| the dominion of brotherly love among men.
| When before In all the past of earth did pa.
| triotism, did liberty. did love Of man or God
| stir up vast, widespread people, free OF
| choice and will, unbound to any sovereign but
| the impulses OF their hearts, to such a strug
| gle, to such sacrifices. for such ends, since
| Christ and bis apostles strove for mans re.
| demption? Whatever the whrls and gusts OF
| individual passion rising on the flames OF
| war, that fire was kindled and sustained by
| the nobtest breath of patriotism the mostgen
| erous philanthropy. that ever animated q
| great people to heroic undertaking.
q have spoken of these facts in the Ma
tion,s history as peculiar titles of honor to the
soldiers of the Union. But, comrades j,
would be false as vain-glorious to arrogate as
| theirs alone any feature of these honors, They
| are the property of the Nation Patriotism
| high purpose, and great sacrifices in the time
| of war were shared by all, however varying
| in degree. And for more than twenty years
| the outcome of results has been incumbent
| wholly on the patriotism and conduct OF
! Americans as citizens and not as soldiers. No,
those of the faithful States alone, let it be
| justly remembered, but of the South as well
| Vanquished as well as vctors had to bend
| passions knee to duty; and to accept, not les!
| than to bestow, forgiveness and magnanimity
| requires the generous mind. The trial of tenn
| per, wisdom and character has been unex