The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1891-07-16
DECORATION DAY ADDRESS.
delivered at Westfield, Wis, by Myron E.
Baker.

on battle plain. in prison pen
Lie dead for me and you!
-four hundred thousand of the brave
Have made our ransomed soil their grave,
For me and youn
This hour, friends, is dedicated ana SET
apart to the memory of those VINO gave
their lives that this beautiful land-the
freest and best government under heaven
should live TO bless the race,-to those
who, though they survived the hour OF
fratricidal strife, are now fallen asleep.
This hour is dedicated to the sacred
memory Of the sleeping soldiers OF the
Union and we would tell in simple
words lust who they were and what they
did. We would pay them our tribute OF
gratitude and voice for them the natlon
affection and admiration We would re-
call in these simple services the memory
of the time when first freedom came 10
those in bondage and real liberty TO the
land now destined to be the light OF the
world.
The desire to be remembered is no more
universal than the Willingness OF human
kind to remember its brave and worthy
The decoration of graves IS a practce
common to all ages and all countries. IL
is a custom as ancient as grief ana love.
But at all other times and IN all other
lands the practice has been limited to the
great general or leading hero. PYRAMIDS
and columns and triumphal arches are
for kings and generals. Inc common
soldier,-he who endured the trial ana
neri1-was forgotten. 1t has been left to
ns 10 honor the soldier of the rank and
file. and for him is Decoration Day main
ly intended. Our memorial IS lor tne
common soldier.
Memorial services in this country orig
mated among the women Of the south
before the close of the war. shorty al
terward they were practiced in villages
and county districts, north and south.
But the establishment OF Decoration day
as great national holiday is wholly due
to the Grand Army of the Republic.
On Nav 5, 1868, Gen. John A. Logan,
then commander of the order, invited the
different posts, on the last day but one OF
that month, 10 visit the graves OF their
comrades and deck them with flowers.
His call was needed, and in II states and
at 1873 burying places the graves OF the
soldiers were honored. On that birthday
of this. our decoration festival, the future
President Hayes was speaking at Clncln-
natl. the future President Garfield at the
National Cemetery at Arlington Heights
with Grant among his auditors.
Until 1979.-eleven years, the custom
was observed in Wisconsin without legal
ization. Memorial or Decoration day is
now a legal holiday here and in at least
twelve other states: and to-day, as we
stand in this sacred place thinking OF our
soldier dead and giving in their memory
our annual tribute, we may feel that all
over this land in cemeteries and burylng
places. under the same blue heaven and
on the same ransomed soil, veterans ana
their wives and sons and daughters are
engaged in the same beautiful service OF
remembrance and love. This feeling is
as electric in our hearts as Lincoln's sum-
mons or the fall of Sumter. By thous-
ands people are assembled to-day IN
spired to a common work of peace by
common feeling of love.
We come not in sorrOw-not to weep,
but to reioice,-to rejoice that so many
were found willing and glad to give their
lives for their countrys security. we
grieve not, but rather rejoice that Wis
consin gave 81, 379 of her MODEST ana
bravest.-one in nine of her entire popu-
lation-one in five of her male population
to the service of our country to the ran
som of our land, to the emancipation OF
the slave We rejoice that so many brave
and noble women were found IN Held ana
hospital and at home not less than nus
bands and sons and brothers deserving OF
our gratitude and remembrance for their
work of sympathy and mlnlstratIon.
Though your sacrifice was silent ana Is
unseen, Northern women, your works are
not, YOUR works shall not be forgotten.
Our memorial services came from the
Grand Army, but whence came the
Grand Army ? The records show that
on June 8, 1866, eleven comrades enrolled
their names on the roster OF the first post
AFT Madison. Wisconsin. Wisconsin was
first to respond to the call, was foremost
in the sacrifice, is to-day first in honorlng
her dead.
shall not attempt adulatiOn. | know
our soldiers had faults,-for they were
men They were men, and men placed
in peculiar vicissitudes and environments.
The work they did reacted too often upon
themselves But shall we value their
service the less that they gave the more,
that they risked for the sake OF their
country not alone life and limb, but even
their more sacred honor and private char-
acter and future usefulness; age and their
souls Yet | believe, after the smoke
and din of the four years strife had passed
away. UIlcEG was icy QASo0AAS'SN' go -
my more peaceful and law-abiding, more
wonderfully self-controlled than the sol
diers of the Union
And why Because they were the ar
nv of sacrifice Because they were the
army of publication. Because they were
citizens and volunteers. Very few like
armies have ever been raised. The ar
mics of the ancient world, of Persia and
Greece and Rome were soldiers who made
war their profession and JOY or plumber
their object France once and England
three times raised volunteer army.
When France, during the French revolu-
ton. was menaced by the greater part OF
Europe. an army of a million sprang to
arms. To repelthe Spanish Armada, and
again when Napoleon threatened invasion.
and last when the third Bonaparte made
the same attempt, England raised vol
unteer army. But these were to repel IN
vasion or to save the very life OF the ma
ton. for self-6efense, for fact and not a
principle. Oar volunteers went to battle
moved by purposes purely patriotic, for
the sake of HUMANITY for principle and