Omaha daily bee., 1891-04-28
GENERAL GRANTS MONUMENT
Ground Broken at Riverside Park with
Appropriate Ceremonies.
AN ELOQUENT TRIBUTE TO THE DEAD.
Banquets Commemorative Of His
SIXTY cvcnth Birthday Gwen
In New York, Harlem
and Pittsburg.

NEW YoRK, April 27.-With appropriate
ceremonies ground was today broken for the
monument to be raised at General Grants
TOMB ut Riverside PARK Members of tho
Grand Army and other societies participated
and tho war ship Yantic, anchored ne ar by
In the Hudson, fired n salute of seventv.ono
guns The ceremonies consisted of singing
oy chorus of 800 children, music
by the Marine band and addresses.
General Horace Porter. orator of the day,
delivered an eloquent address. He said In
part: "Sixty-nine years ago today there
was ushered into the world being who was
aesuned TO stand prominent In the history of
his country, and whose fame was to reach
INTO the uttcrmost parts of the earth Most
OF tho conspicuous characters in history have
risen to prominence by gradual advances.
out ulysses >. Grant came before the people
with sudden bound Almost the first sigbt
caught of him was in the blaze of his camp
nres and the flashes of his guns those wiutry
days ana nights in front of Donneson From
that time until the crowning triumph AT An
polnattoX he was leader whose name was
the harbinger of victory. From the final
sheathng of his sword till his ashes were
lald to rest in yonder tomb he was the chief
cltllen of the republic and th5 great central
figure of the world
"The history OF his life savors more of
romance than reality; it seems more like a
faoed tale of ancient days than the story of
an American citizen of the nineteenth CON
tury. AS light and shade produce the most
attractive effects in picture, so tho singular
contrasts, the strange vicissltudes of his
eVentlul career surround him with an in
terest which attaches to few characters in
history
His rise from an obscure lieutenant to tho
command of the veteran armies of the great
republic; his transition from frontier post
OF the untrodden west to the executive
mansion of the nation; his sitting
at one time in little store
III Galena, not even known to the
congressman from his district: at another
time striding through the palaces OF the old
world with the descendants of a line or kings
rising and standing uncovered III his pres
ence: his humble birth in an obscure town
scarcely known to the geographer: his
agonizing illness and courageous death in the
chef city of the country he had saved with
nations prayers breathed in his behalf
from every pulpit and tircsde in the land
Those are some of the features of his mar
Velous career which appeal to the imagina-
ton. excite mems wonder and fascinate all
who make a study of his life" ...,
Commander Freeman, who turned the first
spadeful of sod, said: 1--WE gather TODAY
not simply as the hundreds of thousands of
living and dead whom he led to victory, but
men who wore the gray as well as men who
wore the blue. Now, in the presence of AL
mighty God and these witnesses, We repre-
sentatives Of the Grand Army of the ReDub-
lie, break the sod preparatory to laying the
foundation Of monument which shall OK.
press the love of this nation for its great
cheftian and shall tell all tho world that tho
United States of America does not forget her
heroic deadn 7.''
At the close of his remarks Commander
Freeman broke the ground. This ended the
ceremonies