Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-05-31


less and wicked rebellion against
the grandest freest, purest, most just and
most generous Government that the world
ever saw. We believed that the rights of
The States were amply secured to them I'M
der the Constitution We believed that the
interests of all parts of the country were
mutually interdependent We believed
that the territory of the Union had been
purchased by the common treasure, and
cemented by the blood of ali our fathers,
and that it was the joint possession and
patrimony of their children.
Dissolve the UnionT was the traitor
cry. Snap its silver cord; loose its golden
band. Let it lie in fragments at the feet of
kings. Let its shattered pillars be the play.
things for princes.
Yes, tear the starry ensign down,
That long has waved on high,
Though dying eyes have cleaned TO see
Its banner on the sky.
Let traitor hands put out the stars on the
old flag or trail it in the dust. But the
shot fired on Sumter lit the fires on thou
sand loyal affairs, and round those affairs
million freemen registered a solemn oath.
that the Union must and shall be pre-
served, that our country should remain
unbroken on the map of the world, and our
flag floating freely in heaven The arms of
our heroes bore that flag through four years
of blood, till all over the Southland, where
had bloomed the blood-red blossom of
war, with its heart of fire, there bloomed
once more the white lilies of peace" and
now
The sweet birds of the South
Build their nests in many lannon's mouth,
And the only sound from its rusty throat
Is robin sor wren's bluebird's note
Yes, the war that treason commenced,
low rtaFl
cause were furled at Appomatox forever,
and the old flag, with no star dimmed no
stripe erased, lends its light to North and
South alike, the protector of liberty and
union, the guardian of beneficent law
Our heroes fought and fell there that this
land might be dedicated to freedom, and
that no traitrous hand might ever be out
stretched to touch our ark of the covenant,
the ballot-box, or dispute the will of the
majority.
Butthe God who willed this republic to be,
willed II to be free, and the nation yielded
at last to the logic of events; and to-day,
as General Grant says in the second vol
ume of his memoirs, both North and South
unite in thanking God that slavery, with
all its possibilities of barbarism, has forever
passed away, and that result alone was
worth all the outlay of blood and treasure
on both sides.
The war has been ended for twentv-one
years. The babe that was not vet born
when Lee sur1 end6red is a voter now. For
twenty-one years no sound of conflict has
been heard from the Potomac to the Rio
C Inde. The fair face of the South is no
longer trampled by the iron hoof of war
and kind nature has well nigh
HIDDEN ALL HER SCARS WITH vERDURE.
The entertainments of the old forts are COW
cred with fruit trees, and birds are singing
i'll the grassy embrasures where the cannon
blazed. Spring waves her peaceful pinion
over the shot-plowed soil, the harvests
wave over the old battlefields, and daisies
cover the ground once soaked IN blood.
What now OF those who fought against
us? 1t will be impossible when we 90 to
the cemeteries tomorrow to strew flowers
on those passionless mounds, those " low
green tents whose curtains never outward
swing, where our Union dead are
holding their last long bivouac SEN
tineled only by the silent stars,
for us to forget who was that wrough. up
to the pitch of hatred, of set purpose red
dened their hands with the blood OF your
kinsfolk and mine. If we were or &c more
With Grant in the Wilderness or Sherman
by the sea, l know what we would do
shoot them on the spot. Bul now, says
says one, eve must forgive and forget"
Yes; we must we do forgive as We hope
to be forgiven The Union soldier was the
first to Snite, the first 10 spare, when once
the hostile ensigns fell. trust as Chris
tians we not only forgive but love them
But, forget? Never forget? Can l forget
my comrade, in tie presence of your empty
sleeve, your sightless eve, your stiff and
famed limb! Go, my comrades, and bring
your tattered battle flags all torn by shot
and shell, lest base, ungrateful hearts for
get at what price you bought their free
dom. Forget the men who stood between
our homes and the war desolation Men
who lay
UNDER THE KNIFE IN THE HOSPITALS,
Where SO many of the surgeons We're so
fresh from the schools that their practice
was more dangerous than the enemy's
guns? Forget the unreturning dead, who
sleep at Fort Donelsun, Shiloh, Mission
Ridge and AndersOnville? Forget the
desolate homes to which fathers, husbands
and sons return no more, and where
widows and mothers depend on a mere
Government pittance for their bread? No,
we cannot forget, though we a thou
sand times forgive. Brothers, if an
ungrateful republic should ever
forget, and by weak concession and
compromise put treason and loyalty on a
common level and put the gray above the
blue, the Grand Army cannot. Be it
ours never TO concede nor permit that any
of our comrades shall have died in vain
They have halted in life's march and lain
down in that bivouac no reveille can dis
turb. They committed their work, their
memory, to our keeping, and if we prove
recreant to our sacred trust we are I'M
worthy to wear the blue again as we do to-
night. 1t is not enough that, at the recur-
renee of the soldiers Sabbath, we strew
their graves with flowers and embalm their
deeds in glowing words Our words and
our ceremonies will be hollow and empty
unless we hold the principles for which
they died sacred and solemn trust. From
every grave, from Gettysburg to the Gulf,
from the Potomac to the Rio Grande, there
comes this voice: Hear us, We living
comrades. We died while in life's prime,
while the young blood was leaping through
our veins. We leave it to you to make 10y
atty honorable and treason odious. Let
your steps never falter in the path of duty
TOR you must do your work and aims for
God and country. Oh let our ears be ever
open to the voice of our brothers blood
that crieth unto us from the ground"
Let the words of Lincoln, spoken in the
presence of the dead at Gettysburg, ring in
our ears: 1t remains for us who survive
to dedicate ourselves to the unfinished
work of our fallen heroes, that the dead
shall not have died in VAIN
AT the close of Mr.. Dille's address, a
quartet sang, Tread Lightly Over Their
Graves" Rev. O. B. Somers, a colored
minister of Marysville, who was emanci-
pated from slavery by the war, and who
served in the Union army, delivered
short address. The Star-Spangled Ban
ner' was then sang as solo, the audience
joining in the chorus, after which services
closed with the benedicton
To-DAYs PROGRAMME
Memorial services will be held at the
City Cemetery to-day, as there will be in
every city and town of the loyal States,
in honor of the country's dead. A pro-
cession will be formed on X street be-
tween Ninth and Tenth consisting of the
various military organizations of the city,
the various Posts of the Grand Army,
Women's Relief Corps Mexican Veterans,
ex-soldiers and sailors, State, county and
city officials and citizens generally, and
the route OF march will commence at 10 A.
NJ. down X street to Second, to J, to zenith
and the cemetery, where appropriate exer-
cises will be held and the graves of the de-
ceased soldiers and sailors decorated. Citi-
zens having flowers to donate are requested
to send them as early in the morning as
possible to Changers Hall.