Sturgis advertiser. (Sturgis, Dakota [S.D.]) 1887-1???, 1889-05-29

And it is well. It has been objected
that this association, necessarily, keeps
alive those memories which, in the in.
terest of reunited republic, it should
be the interest of all soon to forget.
We cannot be Indifferent to the facts
Of history nor to the sentiments of pa
triotism which animate the breasts of oul
people. That our people should be dis
tinguished by love OF country, love ol
liberty and love for the Union which has
been preserved at such cost of blood
and treasure, can surely not be matter
of Indifference to our people. While
then the Union lasts, that which these
| soldiers have done, their hardships, cour-
age, bravery, will be the heritage of our
children who will tread reverently round
their graves and pause to speak of them
as we now speak of the patriots and
tsages whose deeds have just been cele-
brated in the grand pageant Of the cen-
tennial of the constitution.
Nor are they less worthy. If the war
of the revolution had Washington, a
Green and Putnam, the war for the
Union had Grant, Sherman and a
Sheridan, and the country is not more
the debtor of the former than the latter.
Each and all were faithful and true and
great in their deeds and in their spheres.
Nor were the soldiers of the revolution
more brave and heroic, more intent in se-
curing the liberty which the soldiers of
the Union died to save.
Alas. that these surviving veterans
should have SO many physical reminders
of the sanguinary strife. These MANNED
and battered warriors will have these
reminders" while life endures. But
these veterans do not retain feelings of
hatred towards those, their enemies,
whom they met and vanquished. The
war, with them, has ended. Others, non
combatants, can now seek to enkindle
the burned out embers of sectional strife,
but these, never. They acknowledge
the courage, the bravery of their foes and
only regret that men so brave and heroic
should have SO singularly and mistaken
ly sought to destroy, even for themselves,
the last hope of free, constitutional gov
ernment. The members of the G. A. r.
hail with rejoicing all signs of returning
prosperity to the section and people with
whom they were SO recently engaged in
relentless strife.
Whatever may betide this government
in the years to come, those whose hearts
will beat truest towards it are the men
who now look back to the days when it
was even doubtful, more than doubtful,
that the Union should be preserved.
No. The soldiers of the Grand Army
are like all truly brave men, ever mag
unanimous to their vanquished enemies.
They can wish them no harm. Nay,
they are no longer, respectively, "John-
MES" and "Yanks," but sfellow citizens"
having equal rights and privileges; priv
ileges which we hope all will prize more
and more. And this, we believe, is the
growing sentiment of the people in every
section of our beloved land. Oh, surely,
now, if not before the war, before this
national baptism of blood and fire, we
can all truly exclaim;
Lives there man with sonl so dead
Who never to himself hath said:''
The Grand Army is patriotic associ-
alton. 1t was organizeds principally, TO
nourish and cherish that love OF country
which is its surest protection; Ito ekhalt
and honor those virtues for which our
sages and heroes were distinguished and
to teach their children to revere their
memories and to emulate their virtues;
to annually light the camp fires of free
dom on every hill and in every valley of
our beloved land.
It is sad to know that the ranks of
these battle SCARED veterans are becom-
ing thinner and smaller every year.
Times remorseless sickle mows them
down. They are falling as they never
fell when the belching, believing cannon
moved them down. And ''there is no
discharge in this war"
When few more years shall come all
will have been gathered to their COM
rades who are now asleep on their dream
less couches. How they fought and
whom and where the historians pen will
tell. But there will be none surviving
like Goldsmith's old soldier, to
Shoulder his crutch to show how fields
were won."
But as flowers spring up DER hill and
vale; in woods and hard by forest streams
so their deeds and valor will live, like
the sweet scented blooms of Thousand
hills, in the grateful recollections of gen
erations yet unborn.
Soldiers, heroes, citizens, commend
to you this holy day the consultations Of
that religion without whose benefcient
power and blessings valor, patriotism,
heroism, are unmeaning things. For,
with all these, without the personal ex-
perience of its divine consultations, we
have lived and labored in vain. s.For If
the dead rise notn surely there is no
meaning in the flowers which we scatter
on their graves.
sHow sleep the brave who sink TO rest
By all their country's wishes blnst,
When Slsriug with tlews hngers cold.