St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1886-06-03
GEO. w. CABLES ADDRESS AT
PITTSFIELD.

1t is the twenty first year since the
close of that great war to whose dead
this day is made sacred. The infant
born in the first ecstasy of the tidings
of peace may this year cast his vote as
an adult citizen of the saved union.
The veterans of that contest are among
us still, but their ranks are thinned
more by time than they were once by
fire and lead, and ting youngest is turn
ing gray. They stand with their wives
waist deep among their children, and
hear those children ask why still, year
after year, flowers are laid upon grave
stones instead upon their brOws, and
the fairest day of the year is given to
funeral celebrities where there is no
unburied dead. / know your hearts
reply. You will say it is thus you
feed the light of your common graft
tude with the beaten oil of memory,
and that it is meet to pour the fairest
day of the year as libatiOn upon the
graves of those who died for the safe
ty, unity, freedom and peace of our
land. But the children ask how long :?
When shall there be an end? And
you can only tell them not until all
the wars lessons are learned and all
ton. That time has not come. The
dead of both hosts have somewhat yet
to teach us, charges to lay upon still.
If guess Alright, it is in recognition of
this fact that you have chosen to-day
to rekindle your memories a man from
the ranks who sought to multiply the
graves you keep green. Thus, L take
it, you confess there is still something
l. IL, H. I'D
when those who survived the strife
join hands, once lifted against each
others lives, and exchange cOunsels in
an hour and place where animOsities
are impossible. | say the dead of both
opposing hosts, why not, for [ know
you believe now that those whom once
you fought, strove sincerely as they
fought calamity for what they esteem
ed their cOuntry's welfare and their
right. They, though dead: yet cry to
us, "Prove all things, hold fast that
which is good" They charge us in
the better light of this latter day and
of each others counsels, "Sift right
from wrong at any cost. Count that
and the cOuntry's welfare as did we in
our less retulgent day, dearer than
fortune and more priceless than life"
l. HIS " US lIOIH
the sod from both grand armies, that
are all the grander because they are
dead and buried.
The conclusion of the address was as
follows: This is the last day of spring.
The year passes from maidenhOOd to
the wedding altar. Nature yields to
the wooing of the husbandman and is
his for better or worse. All is beauty
and peace, joy, hope and gentle be-
nignant life. charge you by this day
with all it means in nature and in
memory, by all it's promises of a fruit
full future, by all the beauty and boun-
ty and bOundliness of our great land,
by the precepts of our revolutionary
fathers, northern and southern, and by
the death of every man that died, and
the blood of all whose blood has been
shed, by southern hand or northern,
that you give your minds, your hearts,
your hands to the establishment
throughout all our borders of one gov
eminent, one law, one citizenship for
all. When that is done you need come
no more to the patriots grave, for then
shall his rest be perfect and the per-
lection of the nations honor and
strength be his enduring monument.