Morning journal and courier., 1886-05-31
HONORS TO THE BRAVE.

House-Oratioa by Hon. William
 Edgar SfmOnds of Hartford-A De-
 served Tribute to the COuntry's De-
 fenders-Other Interesting Exercises.
 A very large audience filled all the availa-
 ble space in Carll's Opera House last evening
 on the occasion of the memorial exercises
 which always precede the decoration of sol
 diers graves on Memorial day. On the plat form were Mayor Holcomb and several city and town officials, together with 8 number of prominent citizens. Members of the Board of Education occupied the box at the left of l the stage. The exercises were opened with selection by Thomas orchestra. Com | mander Weidig of Won Steinwehr post No. | 76, G. A. R., presided and introduced Rev. | Samuel Harris of Yale college, who made g
 very appropriate prayer. After another se- | lection by the orchestra Commander Weidig | made 8 brief address in which he thanked | the audience for their presence and the citi-
 zens ot New Haven generally for the inter | est they had always taken in the Me
 morial day exercises. In closing he | introduced Comrade Willis s. Isbell; of | Westville, who recited in very effective l manner poem entitled "Keenan's Charge. l On the conclusion of MT. Isbell's recitation l Comrade Lewis B. Brown, secretary of the | committee read letter from Comrade J. D. ! Plunkett, who stated that circumstances | over which he had no control prevented his I being present. The chairman next announced | the Harugari Leidertafel Singing society, who l sang 8 selection entitled "Das Deutsche l Lied" from Apt. The song was well rendered | and an enthusiastic encore brought them out again when they sang piece en- | titled "Sterne Sindschweigende Siegel" by l Louis Liebe. On the conclusion of the song | Hon. William Edgar Simonds, of Hartford | was introduced by the chairman. When MT. l Slnaonds arose he was received with every manifestation of favor. He spoke ss fol 1 lows:
 MIR. sIMoNDs' ADDRESS.
 | My comrades and my friends:
 Words are but a rude and clumsy contrivance for f expressing the action of the human mind and the
 feelings or 5ne nninan neart "oros so ra 10 m and swell within, when we meet to render this ten
 standing dumb and voiceless in the presence of the day. and feeling shall express themselves in purity and be apprehended in perfecness, unhindered by such
 spiritual personality that will then speak and hear,
 the absence of all speech dwells in each one of us
 bodily conditions and while feebly utter mortas must, some words that are but faint and confusing know that your hearts and minds are speaking each
 to each, filling all the spiritual ether with vast
 
 1 it cannot be heard by mortal ear
 But few days ago and through all the country wealth of beauty and loaded the willing air with l the burden of their perfume. Under the sunnier
 fallen. On the sth day of April, is65 the apple trees of Appomattox were in bloom and under one | of them was enacted drama therecital of which
 will not fail to thrill the hearts of men so long
 history shall have the integrity to toll the tale. It whose memory we bless whose virtues we revere. rho@ thor tJUan In oII
 6 ee this y o chers6ng he memory of their heroic dead; and while you here
 decorate the little mounds where sleep the ashes of
 all hTMg6 Ss brosd he
 great lakes to the Guf and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the same scene holds the stage.
 If from some high point your eye and your ear could sweep this empire of freedom from lake to
 9 trsins of men and Woen Tendinp their Wa%s to
 the cemeteries where lie the soldier dead, who are flowers descending as in one vast shower of fra grance and beauty; you should hear the music from choirs in great number accompanied by the
 organs solemn pealing; not rarely you should hear the blare of trumpet and the roll of drums. At Arlington and Antietam, at Manassas and Freder- Icksburg, at Lookout Mountain and Shiloh at Malvern Hill and Gettysburg, and at all the great see the little grave mounds, rank on rank and file on file in well nigh boundless reach,-and in their
 midst the groups of faithful souls holding the same service that we hold here to-day. Who shall dare
 say that this age and this people is the equal
 sentiment, and in it's veneraton for heroic sacrifce when the whole nation as one man calls halt to commerce and trade. and bends in loving remem- brance over poor and To o~ly graves, whose one merit it is that they cover the ashes of coun- The war of the rebellion was heroic chapter in heroic age. From my boyhood I have always heard the present decried in favor of the good old times, and so have you. Greater untruth was never uttered. know not to what stature the flu ture may reach, but this do know, that in com
 parison with all the ages of the past this present | age rears its figure giant of majestic propor-
 The world has agreed that the Americans of the
 history for devotion to principle for bravery in the
 field and for heroic endurance. Let us not soil one
 hs na
 about to do; but let nevertheless for the
 of those ph souls for Th9 the ,mparison of this age with that In 1863, the
 was the | and half millions; about one-fifth of these, or four and half millions, had been under arms the | total of the Grand Army of the Union would have been less than a million men. This average was
 point and from that on the numbers still incre .sed
 unl at the end of the war, in 1885, there more than one in every five of those who were able to fight was actually engaged in the struggle
 The middle year of that war was i77s; the white population of the United States was then two thousand were of the fighting age Had one in every five of that four hundred and thirty five been eighty seven thousand. The largest number in the regular army of the War of the Revolu-
 ton was less than thirty five thousand men; adding to this the entire militia temporarily in the field the | number was never more than sixty-nine thousand In the war of the revolution the numbers of the patriot army grew steadily less with the flight of
 years In the Union army S Of the war of the rebel close, and make no doubt whatever that if it had | North would have shouldered the musket and fought for the Union.
 1 The Alpine glacier crushes all obstructions be-
 fore it in it's sturdy march spends it's substance to the last grain in the relentless effort So this
 face tSward conquest for the sake Of peace, knew no halt till all opposing standards fell before it. The alternative was its own destruction.
 | The steady increa in the numbers of the army of the Union from 1861 to 1865 in the teeth of weapons of war of g, deadly eficency, unknown fought with fnt-lock musket and smooth bore can-
 rifles. The Killed and wounded of our battles were
 in ghastly of the killed and wounded of the
 to cheap heroics in this struggle of the giants All honor to the men who buiIded so wisely and so
 cemented the structure with their blood and tears
 but let superficial pessimistc souls mutter that
 their have not well defended the fortress and kept it's proud banners streaming high in air have said that the war of the rebellion was a Character of the age First, however wish to say word about the State of Connecticut; in saying it
 shall follow closely the track of what good Governor so well said at the department banquet.
 This State and colony has always been ready to and it's doing be forgotten. It may be well doubted whether our sister State upon the north has so
 proud record as the State of Connecticut, but the sayings and the doings of her sons have been so l garnered, so treasured, and made known that upon the published record her star outshnes the
 shining of her sister This not as it should be. Noble deeds and noble words in themselves immortal and should not be lost mortal sight and sound The history of our State is studded more
 thickly with glowing gems of deed and speech than
 is the sky of cloudess night with glittering stars am proud with decent pride of this honorable past of my native State, and grieve that no one
 of her sons has yet been moved to write this hsto
 " it deserves to be written It was for this req son that aided so far I could in procurine, from the fast General Assembly appropriatio1 for the making of a new and better catalogue of
 our soldiers. And let hope that some gifted son
 of Connecticut soil will ere long produce the printed
 page which shall glow with the recital of the
 deeds which we, the people of the State, may be htly proud
 No sooner had the first settlers of the colony cleared off bits of the primeval forest and built themselves rude cabins in the cearings than they were called to savage warfare with the Indians. They closed in with the issue and with tremendous ruthlessness conquered peace which. so far as this colony concerned, lasted for almost cen tury and half New York and Massachusetts were not so fortunate; Again and again Connecu- cut promptly responded to their appeals for help.
 In single year Connecticut sent little army to
 defend Deered and the river towns, another little army to defend Albany, and third little army for the invasion of Canada How many of the chil- dren of Connecticut know anything about these | facts z
 '