Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-31
HARRISON'S NOBLE WORDS.
HIS ADDRESS AT THE DOOR OF NDE-
PENDENCE HALL.

He Feels More of Triumph Than of Sor-
row, and Would Have Flags Fly at the
Peak Instead of at Half Mast-Obedi-
ence to Law.
PHILADELPHIA, May 3o-Although the
weather was cloudy and threatening,
Memorial Day was observed in grand style
in this city. Among the distinguished Wis
itors were President Harrison, Secretarys
Proctor and Tracy, Postmaster General
Wanamaker and Private Secretary Halford.
The ceremonies took place at Independence
Hall, where the President addressed the
people as follows:
Iesteem it great pleasure to stand in this
historic edifice, to take part to-day n COM
rRde of the q. a. r. in these most instructive
and interesting exercises which have been
instituted to keep alive in our hearts the
memories of patriotic devotion and sacri-
fee. 1t is eminently appropriate that we
should stand for a little time, before we go
to,the graves of our dead, in this edifice,
where the foundation of our liberties, the
Declaration of Independence and of Civil
government, were made. have recently,
in an extended trip, been able to see what
was the flower of the seed that was planted
here.
We are here, in Philadelphia, community
instituted upon the principles of peace and
good viii among men; and yet, in n COM
Hlun1IN CD9t DNQ given conspicuous
tion of the fact that the fruits of peace may
sometime be made to be defended by the
valor of soldiers, YOU did not at all depart
from the great lessons which were taught
by the founders of this country, when, unit
ing with your comrades from all the States,
you went out into the field to hold up this
banner; to maintain a peace which should
be perpetual and all-pervading in all the
States.
Obedience to law is the first element of
domestic peace and order. You went out to
maintain that, and have established, as I
believe again in the affections of our people
the old flag of our fathers, and have settled
perpetually the question of loyal submission
to the Constitution and the law in all the
States. 1t has been settled to the great con-
tentmeTft and happiness of all our people,
and what no other nation could have
brought-prosperity to every section and
every State.
Appreciate most highly this generous
welcome which you extend to me, and shall
take part in these exercises of the day with
n sense of their fitness and of the great
events which they commemorate. have
never been able to think of the day as one of
mourning: have never quite been able to
feel that halfmasted flags were appropriate
on Decoration Day. have rather felt that
the flag should be at the peak, because those
whose diving we commemorate rejoiced see
ing it where their valor placed it. We honor
them i'll q joyous. thankful, triumphant COM
memoration of what they did. We mourn
for them as comrades from whom we have
parted; but we feel the glory of their dying,
and the glory of their achievements covers
all our grief, and has set them in an imper-
ishable roll of honor.
At the close of the exercises at Tndepend-
ence Hall, the procession took up its line of
march to Laurel Hill Cemetery. Here
President Harrison delivered another ad-
dress appropriate to the occasion, dwelling
upon the necessity of obedience to the law.