The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1886-06-04
DECORATION DAY.
Address of Grant Herring, Esq,
Delivered in ROsemOnt
Cemetery May ao.

LADIEs AND GENTLEMEN; These ceremo-
nies are now drawing to a close. With
love and tenderness we have strewn deli
cate flowers-'the day stars Of earth"-
ovef the graves OF these Union soldiers.
Emblematc Of the flag they loved and
honorcd even unto death, we have placed
miniature stars and stripes over their last
resting places.
Such tribute as we had we have brought.
And so, by these outward signs, have en-
deavored to express, In some measure at
least, our gratitude TO these dead heroes for
the sacrifices made by them In our behalf
In so far we have done well. But as we
stand here In this beautiful God's-acre feel
ings which ca nnot be suppressed, wei up
In our hearts. Here in the pres
ence of these soldier -. dead and
all over this broad land, faithful hearts
have this day been filed with emotions half
of pleasure, half of pain. Everywhere and
among all, joy and grief-pleasure and
pain gladness and sadness, have been min
gled in one harmonious feeling of gratitude
and thanksgiving to kind Providence, in
whose hands these glorious dead were in.
struments in preserving this Union.
That "God rules in the affairs of men,"
is as certain as that night follows day.
Eternal wisdom marshals the procession of
/ the nations.
Kings are lifted up or thrown down-na-
tions come and go,-dynasties pass away
like tale that is told, but nothing is by
chance, though men, in their ignorance of
causes may think so.
When the hour strikes for a people to
pass into new form of being, unseen
hands draw the bolts from the gates Of fu-
turty, and an all-subduing influence pre-
pares the minds of men for the coming
revolution.
In the fullness Of time, republic rose
up in the wilderness of America. Thou
| sands OF years had passed away before this
child of the ages could he born. From
whatever there was of good in the systems
of former centuries she drew her nonrish-
ment, She washed the gold of political
| wisdom from the sands, wherever it was
found.
Republics had heretofore been limited to
small cantons or cities. America, doing
that the like of which had not before been
known upon the earth, or rbelleved by kings
and statesmen to be possible, extended her
republic across continent.
But wise as our forefathers were in many
respects they allowed one deadly serpent
to fasten itself on the nations vitals.
Nature works IN sincerity, and is ever
true to its law. The bee hives honey.
The viper distis poison. In like manner a
just idea gives life and progress and glory;
false conception portends disaster, shame
and death.
Conforming his conduct to these coavic-
| tons, Jefferson, in Virginia, branded the
slave trade, as piracy; and fixed in the
Declaration of Independence, as the cor
ner stone of America, Gan men are created
equal, with an inalenable right to liberty"
Washington and Madison, Franklin and
Pendleton all strove, but in vain, to rid the
nation of this unlawful traffic.
The men of the Revolution passed away.
A new generation sprang up, who by a
certain curious logic proved slavery to be
a blessing.
In the throes of discomfort which fol-
lowed were born the beginnings of the
bloodiest war the world has ever known.
While the nation was in this volcanic
state, the subterranean currents of public
opinion secthing and boiling in their narrow
caverns, ready to burst forth on the slight
est provocation, the presidential election
drew on.
The choice fell on man born west of
pie of Harden county, Kentucky.
A man who at twenty -one, of Asiatic lit
erature knew only The Bible, of English,
John Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress. Other
wise his education was entirely American.
The Declaration of Independence was his
only compendium of political wisdom; the
life of Washington his constant study
And so he was in every way, child of ma.
ture,-a child of the West,-a child OF
America.
In 1861, with no experience as an eXecu-
tive officer, when states were madly flying
from their orbit, and wise men knew not
where to look to find counsel, this pupil of
Bunyan, this offspring of the great West,
Abraham Lincoln was elected President of
America.
In little more than a month the volcano
burst. The old flag on Sumptcr was fired
on, and the echoes of those cannon, rever-
berated from ocean to ocean, and from the
Lakes to the Gulf. At this day, twenty
five years distant from that memorable
time, we fail to realize what an upturning
and outpouring there was.
AS the yeomanry in 1875 ilocked to Lex
ington and Boston, at the sound of British
guns, to establish freedom throughout the
colonies, so those guns on Sumpter called
forth the men Of the North, from their
quiet homes to save the Union from dis
memberment. The halls of theological
seminaries and colleges sent forth their
young men and striplngs from the class
room to the camp. The lumbermeu from
TIC iOItsl-Luc ulcCHdulCS lIUul tHClT
benches, farmers and farmers sons left
the ground but half plowed, the grain but
half sown, and shouldering their muskets
learned to face death without fear.
TO us, especially of the present genera
ton it is as a tale that is told. 1t comes
down to us as an historical fact that two
millions Of men went into the field.
That, in six hundred aud twenty-five
battles and skirmishes, blood flowed like
water-it streamed over the grassy plain
it stained the rocks-the underground of
| the forest was red with it.
By the utmost stretch of our imagina-
ton, we cannot bring ourselves fully to
realize the awful truth contained in these
statements.
You who have shouldered your muskets
and formed part of this moving mass of
humanity; who have stood in the thickest
Of the fight, the deafening din of battle
clanpinp in your ears Crane and cannister