New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-06-06
MEMORIAL DAY.
The Soldiers of the Late War Re-
member Their Comrades Who
Have Gone Before.


men who gave their lives to preserve the
nation
The whole country, in the large cities in
the towns, in the villages and even i'll the
country church yard. honor was done to-
the brave soldiers over whose memory
flowers were strewn. At ST. Paul the de-
monstratlcn was like that in other
cities. and an extract from the ora ton OF
Col. z. ID. Kerr will serve as a sample OF
the thousands that were delivered else
where. Col. Kerr said:
Ii indeed there be anything in past asso-
Citations lit to affect the mind OF man, we
need not strive to snbdue the emotions
which press upon us here, for these men,
| Wnom you have met here to honor, pur-
chased our present prosperity and paid for
1t with Their blood, illustrating again and
| attesrlng the truth as old as the world, that
only thus by sacrifice and fiery trial and sor-
row. can either nations or individuals be
purified and made fit to be prosperous and
| happy. Every noble crown is, on earth, and
VIII forever be q crown of thorns. The man
who has lived in this country for the last
thirty years has attained an experience
and reached a full stature of manhood
compared with which the nine hundred
| years OF Methusela's tame pastoral life were
put as the heetlng existence of child. For
we live in thoughts, not years; in heart
beats, not in figures on dial
GAINED AN EMPTY PRIZE.
Il can remember as though it were but yes
terday where was twenty-si yea1s ago to-
| day. l think it was Just about this time of
the day on May so, 1862, that I marched
with my regiment over the abandoned works
and into the deserted streets of Corinth
history of the war. The campaign in the
East had proved total failure Beaure
gard, through the imbecility of Hallock. had
escaped from Corlnth unmolested with his
entire army. and with all his material and
munitions of war. Gloom had settled like
pail upon the hearts of the people, and al
ready the cry was reaching the army that
the war against rebellion had proved q fail
ure. Oh! weak of faith! Trent bling in
doubt and despair when indomitable will
and fearless courage alone could save the
nation. Where would you doubters have
been to-day; on what a tempes5uous sea OF
anarchy would you and all of us be. drifting
now, it these and such as these, the living
and the dead of the Grand Army had shared
| IN your doubts and partaken of Your fears?
in dining that can say OF that this nation
can do will ever express tithe of the graf
itude that should animate every patriotic
heart Tor the men who fought and died TO
retrieve the fortunes that seemed then and
for year thereafter so near the lowest ebb
OF their receding tide.
HONOR TO THE WOMEN
! AS soldier am deeply sensible Of the
Yet at the same time / cannot but think
chat we sometimes forget, or at least under
value the influence of the women of the
North in bringing the war to a successful
conclusion We boast of being the stronger
sex, and SO in point OF mere physical strength
we are But brute force alone never did
ana never Will conquer in a struggle like
chat. Back of every element of this kind
must lie moral courage, mistaken faith and
firm principle No man can overestimate
The share that the wives and mothers and
sisters of our soldiers bore in stimulating
and promoting these qualities throughout
the army, and l would to God that White we
decorate the graves of heroic men we might
also evermore strew flowers on the ground
where lie the herOines of the war-the
women whose self-sacrifcing devotion was
DO less noble and worthy because exhibited
in the silent sorrow OF desolaJed home. I,
tor one, can never forget them when we
meet to do honor to either the living or the
dead of that eventful period. see them
here To-day foremost, as they ever
are, in honoring the memories of those
whose hands they upheld and whose
hearts they cheered when so many OF my
| own sex We're ready to give up in despair is
1t any wonder that nation which can boast
such mothers and daughters as ours has
demonstrated the fact that it can neither be
enslaved nor disrupted? We owe it to our
selves and to posteriLy to ever mark the re-.
turn OF Decoration day with grateful cere..
monies; not alone in commemoration of
those who died, but to perpetuate also the
principles for which they died
THE REBELLION A LoNG-CHERISHED SCHEM E.
For years the rebel leaders had nursed The
project of a separate nation, with slavery as
its corner stone. They may have brought
themselves to believe that their cause was
just. But my friends, it makes all the dit
ference whether we pursue a certain
course because we believe it to be right.
or judge it right because we pursue it
A pretext was the last thing such men were
likely to want, and the election of Abraham
Lincoln served their purpose. And now at
last the rebel leader stood upon his sunny
Pisgah, looking back over savage deserts of
doubt and disappointment and delay and
forward to a Canaan of promised Joy, which
he had only the Jordan OF secession TO cross
in order to possess. None but the hand that
rules above could save the nation then. The
government and ALI resources we've under
the control of Southern mpaLhizars Wash
ington was full of rebels openly proclaimins
| their treason in the very halls OF congress
and the mansion OF the chief executive
Washington was also full of Northern men,
politicians mostly. who We're crying God
save the country. but the cry simply meant
God save my place and my fortune The
! prayer of the South in Washington was let
,, me live upon the fruit Of other mems in
dustry, and the prayer of the Northern poll
| tician at the capital was let me fatten upon
the plumber of the public Fort Sumpter
was attacked and civil war was upon u.s.
Then upTose that mighty host in the North,
| not of politicians. not of seekers for place or
plumber, but OF the honest masses, the main
stay and support of every republic. To
these masses belong the credit and the
honor of that wars success.
| THE WAR NOT HOLIDAY EXCURSION
1t was no holiday excursion over summer
seas as you well know. At last we thought
the end drew near. But the South still hal
corn bread and roasting ears, there was still
lead and gunpowder. and while these means
| of sustaining and destroying life remained
it seemed as though the South was de-
termined to prolong the struggle. The same
bipartisan masses who had fought the bat
ties OF the Union, fought again at the polls,
aad in legislative halls the battle of recon
| struction The result is before you to-day
THE LESSONS TAUGHT.
Now, what are the lessons all this teaches
| to us, TO be taught in turn by us to our chill
dren on occasions such as this Primarily
| that this is a union, and not confederacy
merely. Second, that slavery, in whatso-
| ever form it may rise its hydra head, has
| been banlshed from this land forevernore.
Third, that liberty, our sacred heritage
l from the fOrefat,herS is handed down aoaiy,