The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1890-05-17
MEMORIAL DAY.
HEADQUARTERS GRAND ARMY OF
THE REPUBLIC

| HEADQUARTERS GRAND ARMY OF
THE REPUBLIC.
| DETROIT, Mich, April 81, 1890
General Order No Is
Again Memorial day will call us to
assemble TO pay our tribute of respect,
love and veneration for the heroic
dead. No sight So quickens the hearts
of the veterans as to see the children
with their baskets of flowers at the
graves of their comrades. WHY is it
we observe Memorial day after the
lapse OF these many years? No legiS-
lature ordered tho governor directed
1t, Yet in every state in the Union it is
religiously and reverently observed.
1t is a custom no other nation ever fol-
lowed. All nations have honored
their soldiers; they have welcomed
home their victorious armies with
many demonstrations Of love and af
lection; monuments have been raised
to perpetuate their memories. 1t has
been left to the American volunteer
soldiery to lnaugurate the Memorial
day
Better than monuments, better than
all trlumphal arches, better than all
statutes Is this beautiful tribute.
Better by far that the country have
no granite shafts than to forget this
sacred day. 1t is a living, breathing
patriotism renewed each year. l is a
monument rebuilt annually to the
hearts of the people. Granite or
bronze monuments are erected bat
once. 1t is by far the best lesson of
loyalty that could be taught to the
children who are 50 soon to be the men
and women Of the nation.
(A- =
rem and youth remember this day than
that it have armies as large as all Eu
rope.
No war of disunion will come 10 this
country so long as it observes Memoir
al day, which, securely intrenched in
the hearts of the people, Will make the
government safer than Il myriad OF
forts and cannons.
1t matters little how large or small
be our standing army if we give to the
people the education this day teaches.
1t is a day which the people them
selves created. 1t is founded upon the
best and hottest sentiment Of our ma
ton
At Gettysburg, Lincoln said: I'VE
have come To dedicate a portion OF
that field as a final resting place for
those who gave up their lives that the
nation might live 1t is altogether
fitting and proper that we should do
this. But in Il large sense we cannot
dedicate, we cannot cOnSecrate, we
cannot hallow this ground. And SO
each year on the 30th of May, as we
gother to dedicate anew the halloWed
ground where rest the brave-we, in Il
higher sense, cannot dedicate, We can
not conSecrate, we cannot hallJW the
grOund-the brave men who ;, on q
hundred battle fields gave their lives
that the nation might survive, have
consecrated it beyond our power to
add or detract.
1t is for us to dedicate ourselves to
the work of perpetuating the union
they preserved, the country they saved
TO the end that the devotion which
ended with their lives, shall not have
been in vain.
1t is earnestly recommended that
such posts as dann0t jointly attend
Memorial services at the cemeteries or
other appropriate places, hold such
services at their posts, halls or other
convenient places, and invite all natri
otic citizens to join them.
BY order Of Il. y. ALGER,
Com. III Chief.
GEO. II. HOPKINS, Adj't On.