, 1886-06-03
D.soraE.ga DsY Address

nv " 1AN'-l III CSaNNiANLf- f-iAt ~
the front aad died there.
This day is sacred to their memory.
This day we stop TO honor them; TO
cover their graves with the fairest
flowers OF earth, to live with them
again-in memory; to love them and
to re affirm our gratitude to them.
The gratitude Of an entire nation.
Yes, this day nation nOurns. 1t
Is set apart for love and gratitude;
for tenderness and tears! And it is
good for rs all to be here. 1t is a
grand and an ennobling sight. Sol
emnity is here, and dignity. A proud
and powerful people pay tribute to
their dead.
This hour inyokes tender memories
and tender memories are good for
people Who are business or nothing,
Constant strife and competition
nourishes and develops IN Us, stern,
cold and material characters, and
with as dead certainty as that the
constant exercise of certain muscles
Will increase their density and
strength.
The rush and clash of business
schemes is not adapted TO furnish
inspiration to tender thoughts.
Rest and recreation arouse mem
DRY. Memory involves the past and
from the shadoWy past spring tender
ness and love.
Tenderness and love are factors in
life which none of us would consent
to being deprived of.
There is not a heart that throbs
that is not made lighter, day by day
by the sympathy and love which it
know sOfae one, some where feels and
gives 10 it; and every heart clings to
It's own little morsel OF comfort with
fond intensity which the great
Needless world knows nothing of.
In loves embrace the crying babe
finds quick rcpOse. Love straightens
the crooked bent OF youth. Manhood
would dump at loves feet the treas
ures of the earth; and wrinkled age
slips smoother from the world in
loves atmosphere
Even the yoiceless grave mutely
appeals for its measuLe of love.
It is not difficult thing to trace
The trail where love has moved along
in its contact with the worlds affairs;
nor is it difficult to see the Shiny
track of force and fear. The course
of each is blazed all along the line OF
humanity's march, by result which
no man need mistake.
Love gave US light, peace, hope
and joy while force and fear contri-
buted ignorance, war, despair and
gloom.
Even our dumb kindred-the
brutes, are affected by kindness.
Love and gratitude are to be cher
ished as the refining and elevating
side OF man.
Nobility of character will be found
where these predominant.
They are striking characteristics
of 4 free and brave people
'Ah! Soldiers, 10 your honored rest
Your truth and valor bearing,
The bEtve5;, are the tenderest,
The loving, are the daring
A race that is devoid of love or
gratitude, can scarcely be said to have
developed above the social plane OF
the savage.
! Such q race would be race OF
towards, and the fato of towards is
subiection, IS surely as: He who
will not reason viii be ruled"
Gratitude is the meet reward for a
service done, and is applauded every
where.
Ingratitude is only found in the
debascd, or in low order OF intel
lects, and is despised everywhere.
1t is the companion of cowardice
aud treachery, and these signify dis
grace and ruin.
When, therefore, this nation shall
forget those who gave their lives as a
sacrifice that it might live, OF when
it forgets thosein distress who offered
themselves as a sacrifice, that day will
mark the decline of its power. That
day will bear witness against the
moral purity of its people, and against
the political rectitude of its rulers.
That day will the sun of its glory
begin 10 set. Then justice shall strip
from the hitherto proud banner, the
words, Home OF the free, land of
the braver'
Oh! no! Fellows citizens and com
rades, that day shall never come So
long as the flag shelters US will we
pay homage to those who defended
it, or who shall hereafter defend it.
The whole civilized world knows
OF this days demonstration through
out the Union aud from over the seas
looks or in silent admiration. We
are not the first among the nations
| to honor heroes dead, but We are,
perhaps, the first to honor them all,
from Gen. Grant, down to the hum
blest man IN ranks.
Prlyates were of the people and the
people do not forget them.
Generals may plan a battle but it
Is foug 1t and won by priyates. All
honor to them all! They may not
hear on heed the tender tribute of our
love but the living Will turn from
these sad rites with tho sense of duty
done.
Oh! Holy Office!
This moment is profound with
recollections consecrated to other
days. Just now memory's tears are
softly stealing down the aged face of
million mothers-North and South
thinking of darling boy. Her boy.
Who went to war but VINO never has
returned. In her wrinkled, trembling
fingers she holds the faded ambro-
type, whose glass betrays the kiss of
love. Somewhere IS q nameless grave
and over it let us hope the hand OF
charity is this day scattering flowers
At this moment the silvered veteran
sits, lost in reveries of the past.
Memory is unlocked and the panora-
ma Of events, before, during and
since the war rolls rapidly in review
before him. He sees a nation of free
men, whose prowess on land and
sea had wrested Independence from
the proudest and most powerful mon
arch ofSearth. Their domain is SO
broad that from it they see the sun
rise in one ocean and set in another
Every morning dawns upon new