Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1890-06-05

through its vast range has never furnish
ed more affecting monument than tina
We are now invited to contemplate. TC
day nation pays glad tribute to he
fallen braves. We come on this brigh
Memorial day to scatter sweet flowers o.
the green graves of our heroic dead
Every man that plays part in the grea
drama of human life leaves at his depar
ture all impress, an influence, more o
less extensive and lasting. The grave o
the peasant and the mauSOleum of tn
prince are alike vocal. The sepulchra
vault in which scion of royalty wa
laid the other day, as well as the cold, we
opening of the earth in which the way
side beggar was buried, utters audibl,
and actuating OratOry. From every ont
of the dead voice is heard in some circle
of the worlds inhabitants which the knel
of their departure does not drown, which
the earth and the green sod do not mutfle
which neither deafness nor distance, MOI
anything that man may devise, can posi-
bly, extinguish. Every church yard Otter
speaks far more thrilling accents than
the senate house of the congregations OF
the living.
Here before me are, doubtless, hearts
| throbbing in sadness and sorrow, as they
fancy they hear yet again the old familiar
tones of the loved husband, father, son OF
brother Oh, the tantalizing phantoms
that appear upon the tablet of the soul
| the real image in all the old time reality
but to be swept away by breath of air
leaving us bewildered and perplexed at
the suddenness of the going of the dear
apparition. How we love to think OF
their manly forms, and to recall their
looks. How familiar their picture looks.
| Treasure your love token, stricken one
We wonder not that you set priceless
value on it, for it is the price of blood
How often the mementOes so jealouSly
guarded are taken from their resting
place to be gaZed upOn-pressed to the
heart and carefully laid away again, be-
cause John sent this from the Potomac,
William that from the James, and Tom
that from the Cumberland; and there is
the precious lock of hair, clipped from
the dark locks of Robert, after his death
upon the battle field, or in the hospital in
the South land, and sent home at his re-
quest to mother, wife, sister, or sweet
heart.
Rest, comrades and brothers. in your
silent chamber. A nation recounts with
pride your noble deeds, and forgets the
excitements of the hour, fOrsakes the
busy marts of trade, and with tender
thoughts and tear-dimmed eye, and gar
lands rich and rare, gather about your
lowly beds, to weave carpets of imnlOT-
telle and cGSsiG upon your graves swear
ing eternal fealty to the land of the free
and home of the brave.
Then, friends and brothers,
"Cover them over with beautiful flowers
Deck them with garlands, these brothers of ours,
Lying SO silently by night and by day
Sleeping the years of their manhood away
Cover them over, yes, cover them over,
Parent, and husband, brother and lover,
Crown in your hearts these dead heroes of ours,
And cover them over with beautiful flowers"
Bessed be their rest, and soft and safe
to them their lowly bed! Sweet be the
opening flowers we plant around; fra
grant the green sprig that here shall
fiOurish-while we their memory cherish,
their virtues initiate, and their death
improve.
We remember that when the heroic
hour struck, all these men, so different in
nature and religion, and so unheroic in
our eyes, answered the command, and
left behind them all that was dear, and
went into a new avocatiOn amid new
dangers We remember also that they
died that the nation might live. So each
of these martyrs gave up his life. So
each teaches us the power of a grand un-
selfishness, which blots out the memory
of mistake and transfigures the poorest
existence. Our heroic dead are gathered
to their long homes. We kneel by their
graves and utter prayer. We plant
above their clay the willow and the laurel,
and we feel that-''BloOd like this, for
liberty shed, so holy is, it would not stain
the purest rill that sparkles among the
bowers of bliss"
"Oh, if there be on this earthly sphere a boon,
An offering heaven holds dear,
'TiS the last libati0n liberty draws
From the heart that bleeds and breaks in her
cause"
Twas for the preservation of our liber-
ties we were called upon to pay mighty
ransom in blood and treasure. The bloody
hand of the assassin was at the throat of
the Genius of Liberty, and with uplifted,
shimmering blade stood ready to strike
the beautiful being to earth, to end her
days in sorrow and sadness, amid the
broken columns. An 100000 men, wild
with frensy, stood ready to dig her grave
and bury forever the sylph-like form of
the Queen of the world and the child of
the skies In our pride and vain wisdom
we had marked out for ourselves the way
to political greatness and glory, Across
the slippery, shaking mOrasses of expedi-
ency, and over the bottOmless bog of
compromise, we built the track, and laid
the rails, and put on the train, and got
up steam, and with rush and roar were
sweeping onward in our self-cOnfidence,
needless of the dark abyss which OppOsi-
tion had dug in our path, and whose
yawning depths lay just before us. But
God put his hand to the brakes and
switched us off ON new track, which He
laid, and not man. There was surprise,
terror, Outcry; and when the plaintive
wailings of the fair Goddess were heard,
as she writhed in the clutch of her would
be murdererS, there was CONSERVATION
and horror. A fearful trembling seized
the North people, as with blanched cheeks
and quivering lips they asked: What does
this mean? Where will it end? What
can we do to rescue the Ark of Liberty,
and drive the demon of Secession from
our land?
While strong men trembled and tender
women wept, the shot at Fort Sumter
was heard ringing around the world. The
spell was broken, the dark clouds lifted,
and grim Mars, on his fiery charger, was
seen scudding athwart the skies, flame
and smoke issuing from his expanded
nostrils, carnage, contiagratiOn, and blood
dripping from his shaggy name. The
die was cast, the rubicon passed, and the
bugle call was heard. To arms! The cry
was heard from Maine to California; the
North was electrified; old men renewed
their youth as they hunted up their rifles,
muskets and swords; boys leaped into
manhood as they caught the sound of the
slogan of war; frail women and timid
girls became heroines, as with flashing
eye and quivering lips they entered upon
the patriotic work of aiding husbands,
sons, brothers and lovers to prepare for
the field of strife, carnage and of death.
Long had the prayers of the pious and
the humane been going up to the Eternal
Throne, that this land beautiful for sit
ution, the joy of the whole EARTH" might
be purified from the guilt of oppression;
that it might be lifted out of the slough
of wickedness into which human slavery
had plunged it, to the high ground of f.
deity to its own principles, and justice
to all and that freedom might grow and
triumph, till not chain should clank, nor
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