The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1892-06-02
NUMBER "a.

reward Of a nations gratitude. All
over this broad land to-day, the patriot
is receiving his reward. The nation is
thanking him from the lips Of thou
sands of chosen speakers. The brave
deeds he accomplished for the Union
are being told once more, amid the
tears and cheers Of multitudes. The
battles he has fought, the valor he dis
played, the privations he endured, the
wounds he bore, all, all are remem-
bered by grateful nation.
There is another duty which this
government owes to its brave defend
ers, and that is the duty of seeing to it
that their declining years are notspent
in helpless poverty It would be an
everlasting disgrace to the cause of
freedom if a single veteran were to be
allowed to want for bread. Then in
deed it might with justice be charged
that the republic was ungrateful.
Should the nation neglect this sacred
duty, Memorial Day would be hollow
mockery, a reproach to the nation.
But rejoice in the knowledge that
in this more important respect, as well
as in others, this republic is not un-
grateful. The course of legislation
upon the subject of pensions has been
severely criticised in some
quarters, and it has beer
complained that the ''soldier element''
was asking too much, and was in fact
getting too much from the public treas
ury. Who are the men who hold and
express such sentiments? They are
the men who skulked out of sight when
Abraham Lincoln called, for volunteers.
The men who moved to Canada to es-
cape the draft. The men who, while
living in the north and claiming on all
occasions the protection of the flag.
secretly aided and abetted it's enemies.
The men who without good excuse
stayed at home while their neighbors
went forth to battle, and devoted their
selfish energies to depriving the absent
soldiers wives and children of their
hard-earned savings. These are the
men who seem to cry out the loudest
against the expenditure of few mil
lions of dollars yearly from the
national treasury for the relief and
comfort Of zneedyyeterans rs
"
In eight-two national cemeteries,
where 1927, 900 soldiers OF the republic
lie at rest, the government has pre-
served the repose of those, many of
whom, like the Athenians who persisted
at Marathon, lie beneath the sod of the
historic field on which they fell. He
who can stand unmoved upon that hal
lowed ground, where, under the old
flag they followed so bravely, the silent
hosts are bivouacked beneath the stars,
the serried columns of their simple
headstones telling in eloquent words of
the fight they fought, the course they
finished and the faith they kept, is I'M
worthy of his birthright, and an alien
in his fatherland. -.
Soldiers of the grand army of the re-
public, your ranks are moving from US
with unfaltering step. This day our
garlands rest upon new made graves.
Your comrades and your great leaders
are daily being mustered out, and their
places must remain vacant in your
ranks. It will not be very long until
there will be none of you left to partic-
ipate in the ceremonies of Memorial
Day. But in the name of the society
OF Sons OF Veterans, pledge you here
that SO long as that society exists, and
so long as a Son of a Veteran survives,
the soldiers graves shall still be dec
GRATED, their deeds of heroism remem~
bered, and their memory revered. The
bond that unites our society to yours is
closer than any tie of brotherhood, and
,, our greatest ambition is to prove our
selves worthy of your approval and re-
gard. Encourage the order of Sons of
Veterans.
But one word more. Need Isay that
the lesson of this day is one of duty and
self-sacrifice? These patriots, from
their flower-decked graves, though
voiceless, speak it in our ears. These
| war SCARED survivors, daily growing
fewer in number, in silence teach us
our duty. Their comrades who fell we
say are dead, and, measuring by that
little span between life's morning and
sunset, we speak Of their untimely fate;
but in a larger, finer sense, their death
was the full fruition of noble life.
Had they left unheeded the call of
duty, they might have spent in peace
and comfort the allotted three score
years and ten, and then have died, for
gotten and unsung; but now, in all the
beauty of unfading youth, they live in
the boundless empire of immortal fame,
sso take them, heroes of the songful past,
I Open ycnr ranks, let every shining troop
It's phantom banners droop,
| To hail earth's noblest martyrs, and her last.
! Take them, o father9nd,
/ Who, tlyinp conquered in thy name: