The Washington critic., 1888-05-30
DrCoRATIoN DAY.

Deck reyerently the resting places of
the sleepers here, for even in their mute
repose they are to be revered. With
tender and grateful hearts bestrew your
offerings, for these men died in the eX-
emplifcation of the noblcst Of human
virtues.
1t is not long to those who knew them'
it seems but yesterday that they were
blithely marching TO the front-but yes
te.eve that the ragged and broken rem
nants of their victorious columns were
mustered out
Yet, twenty.thrce years have come and
gone since Grant and Lee stood face to
face at Appomattox, and many who to.
day bring flowers for the graves of our
heroic dead were then unborn.
The saplings that shivered IN the blast
of battle have grown into sturdy giants of
the forest. Time Is rapidly abrading rife
pit and earthworlS of their historic den-
tity. On fields that were scared with fire
and trodden into desolation by contend
ing armies, the plowman ellaces with the
conquests of peace the lingering land
marks of an awful strife.
The lines Of the long trenches in which
the dead who fell aield found rude, but
not unconsecrated, sepulture, are scarcely
discernibe, save that the grass, perhaps,
is greener and the daisies brighter, be-
cause of the sacred dust beneath.
That stream near by, whose waters
were once turbid with march and coun-
termaroh, has resumed its pellucid flow.
Along its untroubled shores no longer
cut and gashed with cannon wheels or
feet of hurrying squadrons grow ferns
and moses; above 1t bend the elders and
willows.
The fording horsemen have ridden out
of sight, The echoes of the rumbling
artillery are lost in the distance.
Even the mighty oaks beyond, that
faced so many storms of shot and SHE'LL
have outgrown their scars.
On every hand the wreckage of war
has disappeared. Ruin has given place
to thrift; the spirit of fratrcidal conten-
ton to the spirit of better brotherhood.
| The blood that was shed in yonder
valley has fertilized the very earth, caus-
ing it to teen with an unwonted beauty.
Out of the powder smoke that crcpt
along the slope in sulphurous wreaths
has been evolved the subtle essence of
new life that makes all nature glad
again, and on every battlefield is read q
r-to-be-forgotten lesson of duty well
| done and valor well spent.
The lengthening years but make the
lesson legacy, and all the more pre-.
cious as the years recede.
II is well that it should be so, for the
Union trembled on the verge of catas-
trophe that would have undone the glori-
GUS work of its builders and made our
shattered liberties the jeer and scorn OF
Old World despotsms,
1t was saved from the Valley of HUI
initiation by the valor and loyalty of the
men whose headstoncs you crown to-day
with immortelleS. Is it not q proud ana
priceless obligation to do them such
simple but such eloquent honor2 They
gave to the old flag, without murmur,
all that God had ever given unto them.
| Therefore, let their graves be deco
rated with the flowers of each returning
spring.
In this simple sign we find the assur
ance of grander future for the Republic
In this tender sentiment we find the
yivifying principle of restored union.
And while we go about these gentle
offices for the dead, may our intuition;
of duty have full scope.
Let it be remembered that the blood
which so enriched the earth that il
brought forth sweeter flowers and ten
derer grasses and statelier forests, was TIL,
blood of foemen who were brothers all
and that out of their common libatior
have also grown those manlier virtue
that shall make them henceforth one anC
undivided.
BE then the lilac blended with the lily
the rose with the magnolia, the laure
with the cypress, the apple blossom will
the orange flower; and Intervening
overclimbing all, the Glory Of the Morn
ing.