Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1886-06-03


sembly of the thousands in country, town and
city who meet to pay this simple tribute to the
dead.
This day is national holiday, and is an
established feature of our national life and
obseryances. But it is not that we nav praise
the dead and add somewhat to their deserved
honor. They are beyond the reach of our cere-
monies; the silent dust is not affected by any
thing we say or do. 1t is for the return in
fuence upon our own hearts and lives.
Nations become sOrdid and the eras of peace
and plenty often plant the germs of corruption
and death so securely that in times of public
peril, nation is suddenly found to be without
life or patriotism. The strife of business, the
rush for gold, the corruptions which foster in
the midst of wealth, must be corrected and
lcounteracted by outside influence. There must
be fountains of inspiration opened elsewhere
and made to flow yearly and perennially in
order to perserve a healthy and robust national
life. The rising generation must have their
attention turned to those events. They must
be educated and inspired with the spirit ofl
those days. So we observe this national day
that the patriotic impulses, created by the day,
may flood our hearts and rrigate them This
might be accomplished directly or indirectly
For instance there is the direct method of slim
ulating the love of country and perpetuating it.
History relates how Hamilcar, the great Car
| thaginian leader swore his son Hannibal, when
nine years of age, to everlasting enmity against
Rome and the Roman power. | fancy he took
his gifted son to the altar and turned his face
to the blue waters of the Mediterranean and
pointed to the far off fertile plains and slopes
of favored Italy, and then caused the lad to lay
his hands upon the sacrifice and take the solemn
oath that he never would be the friend of Rome.
We might turn our faces on each recurring
thirtieth day of May toward the sunny south
and swear ourselves and our children to ever
lasting hatred of the south, of those eleven
erring sisters; we might thus perpetuate an in
veterate animosity. But we chose a better and
wiser way. We will do nothing to stir up the
animosities of those years OF agitation and
strife; We will not fan with the breath of critic
ism and reprOach those feelings which found
place during the civil war and so often since.
| We will not even draw a comparison between
the valor of the north and the south. We leave
such work for those who live on strife and Bit
terness of feeling. They were ioemen worthy
OF our steel and worthy of far better cause
than that of destroying representative govern
ment i'll this western world and the hope of
popular government throughout earth.
! We prefer tine indirect method of cultivating
patriotic inspiration in hearts of the people.
| What every people needs in the midst of peace
with its selfish and eneryatng tendencies, is
that they may be moved by high and patriotic
purposes. 1t is not necessary that national or
civil animosites be kept alive, nor is this wise
But it is wise and necessary that the hearts of
the people be recalled from business and gain
to the noble and patriotic deeds which immor-
talize the pages Of the past history, We wish
to perpetuate the lofty purposes OF those heroic
years from 1861 to 1865; they must not be
allowed to perish.
The veteran who still lives, each decoration
day, lives his life over agan-its scenes and
memories of camp and field. The rising gener-
alton, who knew nothing of those dark and
bloody years, except what they read or chance
to hear, must be taught in yearly object-Jesson,
those grand events and the precious price of a
happy and united nation of freemen. Ours is
heritage bought with blood and valor on hun
dreds Of battle-felds.
| The hundreds of thousands and millions of
motley emigrants who come to our shores, must
see that we love our country, and that we pre-
serve in imperishable honor and affection the
names and deeds of our patriotic dead. We
must maintain pure and fervent political lite
in order that we may receive and digest and
assimilate to our ideas and institutions those
alien masses. Millions have thus been received
and incorporated among our people, and they
are found in our cities and villages, our mines
and manufactures, and on our farms and the
praiIies of the far west. have been told by
iron men that the toughest and best iron and
steel are made from ores from different and dis
tant mines. These various ores are brought
and placed in the same mighty furnace aud
smelted into a homogeneous mass. Such is
our civilization. We maintain a fervent poiti-
cal life and receive these alien peoples from
various and distant nations and melt them over
again into tough and loyal mass OF citizens.
This must be done, and is only hope. Be-
sides, we propose that our patriotism shall be
manifest to every one. Our safety is not in
standing armies; they are fraught with name
less dangers; but in a manifest love of country
which is patent warning to every enemy that
we will maintain our existence and our integri-
ty. You will recall the story of the Roman
senator, who, in the darkest hour of Rome's
history, bought the site of Hannibal's camp as
proving his indestructible faith in the ultimate
SAFETY and supremacy of his country. He be-
lieved that the Roman eagles would drive the
Carthaginian hordes out of the peninsula, and
was ready to stake everything upon the result.
jeremiah the weeping prophet, predicting the
fearful overthrow and desOlations of his beloved
land, and weeping over her ruin and dishonor-l
redeemed his kinsman's land, paid the money
and drew the writings in due form and provided
for their safe and sure preservatiOn-as proofI
of his untaltering faith, that after the 10 years
of captivity and pagan domination, the shatter-
ed fortunes Of his country would be restored.
We propose to cultivate like faith and LOYALTY
You remember that when the members of the
Continental Congress came to sign the "Declar-
alton OF Independence, John Hancock propos-
ed to write his name in bold hand, so that King
:, al
spectacles. King George might read without
spectacles that Hancock was ready to take the
chances of being hung as a traitor, because he
loved his native land and had boundless faith
in the security of her struggling fortunes. We
have like purpose. The G. A. R. and the
great mass of our people propose to maintain
an undying love of country, and that all men,
lords and princes and crowned heads and plot |
ting enemies may read this fact without their |
glasses. This has prevention in it: to be so
strong, so full of filth and love of country that
no power on earth, alien or domestic, will dare |
to assail us. 1t will prevent strife at home
and defend us against violence from abroad
But there is another phase of this, which we
must not pass by without, at least, briefI
notice The Grand Army has ritual service
for memorial day, and for various public coca
siOns. | have observed and these citizens will |
observe. as ceremonies proceed, that the rites |
are theistic; the name OF God is in the ritual, |
and the name of his son Jesus Christ The |
richest part of the ritual is CLEANED from the |
Bible. What shall we infer from this factP
Just this, that American patriotism has God in |
it; has Che Bible in it; has the Gospel in it. 1t |
says to our children, to the old world ard the
coming emigrants, to everyone, that the men
who fought the civil war believed that above
the thunder and storm and woes of battle there |
is God.
Yesterday, by direction of the Grand Army
and by orders from headquarters, you were as
sembled in the house Of God to hear his word.
The patriotism of the western world, that
patriotism which lives and thrives in republic,
has reverence and worship in it. 1t looks for
ward to that world where war and violence and
sin shall never enter.
But we are here not on the Both of May, but
on the 3lst Of May; and why is this, ard what