The Portland daily press., 1888-05-31

lluou,-ds tilty steep,
They quiet sleep,-seep.
Rain Of the lone spring night
With dews in tear drops weep,
Melting SHOWS mantle white
Ger them that sleep.
In death they sleep-sleep, -sleep,-sleep.
Hon. John ]. Perry then delivered the fol-
lowing address;
GEN. PERRY's ADDRESS.
Mr.. President, ueterans of the Grond A.
my Of the Republic and Feltoao citizens:
The occasion which calls us together is
one OF intense interest to every patriotic cit
lien. IL wakes up the memories of by-pone
years. White visions of the past, upon times
great panorama again pass before our eyes.
IL reminds us OF the terrible realities of
war, of the shock of battle and the crash of
arms, of the field of conflict and the dead
ana dying. 1t carries us back in our
thoughts to the stormy days of the rebellion.
with It's lighted shades, its gloomy defeats
ana Joyous victories. 1t tells us of the pain
darkened by the absence of husbands, broth
ers and sons. and rendered still more dreary
by startling kilograms that the absent loved
ones would no more return to bless
these es homes with their personal presence.
sacred memories, but with significance that
cannot be mistaken-it points to the gallant
heroes who gave their lives a Sacrifice
mo their country and died that it might live
dessn many n0HOas cannot be paidhese gallant
forever be kept green and when their sur
wing comrades have bedecked them with
the choicest flowers of spring, as you have
done today, you have only performed
m mo d duty which but family illustrates
the deep and profound respect, which You.
IN common with y0ur fellow citizens enter
tain for these fallen heroes.
Many OF them fell when making the fear
iui charge, many Of this number were shot
down when bravely defending their pnns
and batteries; others died from wonnds re-.
ceived In the ire and smoke of battle, while
otners. worn out and exhausted by long and
weary marches were carried away to hospi-
tals ana then lad to sleep the last long sleep
which knows no waking.
Upon every Memorial Day there comes
varied TO us upon Southern breeZes the story
OF ''Andersonville," Libby" and other rebel
prisons, where our gallant braves were en-
clrciea by dead lines, and shot down with
out warning for crossing them, where by the
direct orders of rebel commanders approved
and acqulesced in by jeff Davis, they were
Kept without shelter from the cold and the
storms, without clothing, without food or
WAFER until they literally. starved and per-
trenches and buried like dogs.
To-Day and upon every Memorial Day, so
long as we have country and a flag the
blood OF these murdered heroes ''cries to us
from the ground 'nerer forget these Infamous
rebel prisons, which under the light of the
nineteenth century. as COL Ingersoll once
said OF American slavery would disgrace
hell in its palmest days.
1t may be said that at the present day we
are are aylng under higher civilization; that
t th aark ana bloody chasm which divided
the North from the South during the rebel
lion. has been bridged over: that now it is
unity and fraternity. no North, no South. no
East, no West. that under the Stars and
Stripes the blue" and the ''gray" are march,
ing, shoulder to shoulder, together, keeping
with Its barbarous atrocities and abomina-
tions, by the fat of the immortal Lincoln
packed by the Union armies in the field-has
been abolished, and no longer disgraces the
american name; that we are now one ma
ZION, one people, one brotherhood.
wen, thank God; that the light of better
Jays is daWning upon us; that the different
sections OF this great and glorious country
are coming to better understanding as to
what constitutes a nation; that Southern
traitors, after having the heresy of Secession
whipped out OF them by Union soldiers. in
submission to the inevitable, have hauled
down the bars" and put up the Stars and
Stripes, lam am glad that the boys in ''grey''
forced into the rebel service against their
will. are coming to shake hands with the
boys In blue; that many of the leaders in
the great rebellion have, professedly at least
Many g tnc to the
leaders who did the most to sire The Son ndu
ern heart" are. dead, and the land of the
JEFF Davis Confederacy is fast being filiaS
with Northern blood and Northern enter
prise; and, slowly but surely, we are march
ing on 70 tne oay When we Shall have re-
constructed South, not merely in name hnt
fact.
repeat, that rejoice in all this. But
there are some things connected with the
war of the rebellion that should never be
plotted out-and never can be-. When the
honorable warfare recognized among civil
liked nations, and to replete our armies re-
sorted to the internal atrocities practiced by
them upon our boys lin rebel prisons, they
committed the objectionable sin against God
and humanity, and placed themselves be-
meath the most barbarous nation that ever
disgraced the heather world. This atroc-
l0uS Ylila)ny no loyal man will ever forget,
much less forgive. No! Never! Never
II It be asked, could not the war of the re
cSSesslons from the North? l answer, no !.
The declarations of Mr.. Lincoln, Mr.. Sew
ard and other eminent statesmen of that day.
that there was an ''irrepressible conflict" be-
tween freedom and slavery, contained
great prophetic truth which has passed into
history. The two systems of free labor and
save labor were as antagonistic as light and
DARKNESS. as wide apart as the east Is from
the west. The defeat of the late Senator
douglass at the Charleston convention meant
war, The rebels for want of better excuse
made the election of Abraham Lincoln a
plea ior secession. From the moment they
FOUND his election a certainty, they COM
Inenced 70 lay their plans under which they
nangurated the rebellion.
Inc dolngs OF what was known as the
Peace convention" which assembled In
washington, February 4th, 1861, of which /
mad the honor TO be member. cannot fail to
convince every one who read Ii that the ulti-
matum OF the Southern leaders was war If
their attempts at secession and the estab-
lishment OF Southern Confederacy were
resisted WV
An amendment to the constitution virtual
ly establishing slavery, in all that mart az tha
territories of the United States south 'I ~
$50 80 was offered by the North bnt de.
clared by Southern fire eaters not satisfac-
tory. Another constitutional Amendment
forever legalizing slavery, wherever Il then
existed, was declared unsatisfactory. and
Mr.. Ledd0n, an ex-member of Congress- and
member of the convention from virginia
went so far as to insist on an amendment to
the constitution, distinctly recognizing the
right of secession ON the part of the States.
While the members from the border States
We're more conservative, yet their demands
upon the North, as to terms of peace were
such as the people living in that part of the
Union, never would ratify. During the en-
tire session of the seth Congress, commenc-
ing IN December, 1860, and ending March