Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-06-01

air-procesSions of the HScended pro
cessions of the martyred, professions o
the sainted-and they heard the an
thens of the churches an the salvo oI
the batteries and they stopped down
to breathe the incense of the flowers.
These august throngs gathered this
morning in these pews ind aisles and
corridors and galleries are insignificant
compared with the might;er throngs OF
heaven who mingle i'm this service which
we render to God and our country
while we twist the two garlands Hail,
spirits mutitudinous Hail, spirits blest
Hail, martyred ones come down from
the Kings palacesl How glad we are
! that you have come back again. Take
this kiss of welcome and these garlands
of Renaissance, we who languished in
hospitals or went down under the thun
ders and the lightnings of Fredericks-
burg and Cold Harbor and Murfrees
boro and Corinth and Yorktown and
above the clouds of Lookout Mountain.
Among the thousands of gatherings
at the north and at the south for Dec
grafton Days am conscious that this
service is unique, and that it is the only
one in which there has been twisted
two garlands, one for the grave of the
northern dead and the other for the
grave of the southern dead. o, Lord
God OF the American Union, is it time
that we bury forever our old grudges2
My! Ny Can we not be at peace on
earth when this moment in heaven
dwell in perfect love, Ulysses S. Grant
and Robert L. Lee, William T. Sher
man and Stonewall Jackson, and tens
of thousands of northern and southern
men who, though they once looked
askance at each other from the oppo-
site banks of the Potomac and the
Chickahominy and the James and the
Tennessee, now are on the same side
of the river, keeping jubilee with some
of those old angels who near nineteen
centuries ago came down one Christ
mas night to chant over Bethlehem,
"Glory to God in the highest; on
earth peace, good will to menm
THERE SHOULD BE NO sECTIONALIsM.
have been waiting for some years
for some one else to twist the two gar
lands that l today twist, but, no one
doing it, in the love of God and my
country put now my hand to the work,
and next spring about this time, if !
am living and well, will twist two
more garlands for northern and south
ern graves, and every springtime, until
some man or woman whom may have
cheerCd a little in the struggle of this
life, shall come out and put a pansy OF
two on my own grave. But if the time
should ever come when this land shall
be given over to sectional rancor and
demagogism, and north and south or
east and west shall forget what the
good God built this nation for, and it
shall halt on its high career of right
BUSINESS and liberty and peace, and be
come the agent of tyranny and wrong
and oppression, then let some young
man whom have baptized in infancy
at these altars go out to Greenwood
hhb SSOOP up dilOl oCdllGI IL 10
the four winds of heaven, for do not
want to sleep, and will not sleep in
land nccursed with sectionalism or op
preston.
And now hand over the two gar
lands both of which are wet with many
tears-tears of widowhood and orphan
age and childlessness, tears of suffering
and tears of gratitude, and as the cere-
mony must be performed in symbol
there not being enough flowers to cover
all the graves, take the one garland to
the tomb of some northern soldier who
may yesterday have been omitted in the
distribution of the sacrament of flowers,
and the other garland to the tomb of
some southern soldier who may amonth
ago have been omitted in the distribu
ton of the sacrament of the flowers
and put both the wreaths gently down
over the hearts that have ceased to
beat God bless the two garlands!
God save the United States of America