The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1892-05-19
M E MORTAL DAY.
A Plea for It's Proper Obseryance-Where
Teachings of Patriotism are Most Needed.


A Plea for It's Proper Observance-where
Teachings of Patriotism Most Needed.
EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: The years
roll so rapidly now for the men who still sur
vive the conflicts of the war that time from
one Memorial Day to another seems but span.
Only few more spans and the last one of
| Us will be numbered with those who already
| sleep, and with this fact constantly pressing
| home upon us, realizing that the time is but
short In which to do our work. Memorial Day,
which the Grand Army made and set apart,
| with all the duties connected Herewith, be-
comes each year more sacred and solemn.
Twenty four years ago, this day, May 30 was
assigned by that comrade of ever-b blessed mem
| ory, John A. Logan, as a day in which we
should render special homage to the memory
of our comrades who answer to roll-call on
earth no more" and the true purpose of the
day was meant to be to teach to all the people,
to the fullest extent, tho great lesson of patriot
ism as exemplifed in the lives and death of
| these comrades.
Each year since that inaugural day the
Commander in Chief of the Grand Army has
issued his General Order, smbodying strong
and earnest appeal for the proper observance of
| the day. Newspapers all over the North have
printed his appeal. preachers in every pulpit
| have preached patriotism. teachers in every
school have taught patriotic principles, COM
| rades and citizens Of every class have gathered
at cemeteries everywhere, and have sought out
| the graves of all who ever wore the blue, and
garlanded those graves with flowers and be-
dewed them with tears. All this has been
| done in the North.
But on this side of the line, In the land
| where the heroes fell. where more than 100000
of them await the call Of the Great Command er;
| in this land where the doctrines Of disloyalty
! and secession were taught for 40 years before
the war, and are taught to-day; where the
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| preached on every Confederate Memorial Day;
| whore school books are prohibited which use the
| word rebellion" az designating the late war,
in this land where teachings in loyalty and in
| patri otism are so much needed, what has been
| done, and what is being done?
What filter field for missionary work was
| ever known than this? What grander illustra-
tions of theme were ever placed at the hand
of artist or poet or orator than are offered by
| the graves of Anderson Vile, where lie 1900
men who preferred suffering, hunger, starva-
ton and death, with honor, rather than life
and liberty with dishonor Florence, Salisbury,
Danville, Richmond Nashville all present,
only in lesser number-thank God for that
illustrations of similar herosm, while from
Virginia to Texas more than 80 of these Gods
| Acres consecrated to heroes are to be found.
| Shall / tell you something of what is being
lone here? Whatever may say concerning
Georgia in the telling applies with equal and
1 IN some instances WIN greater fDTce TO nearly
| every Southern Department. Here we Grand
| Army comrades are about $50 strong, mostly
| poor men, or with mparatively little of this
| worlds goods. Nearly 10000 Union dead are
| within the borders of our Department. Two
of the cemeteries in which they lie are respect.
lively so and SO miles from the nearest Post
| and these Posts contain about 20 members each.
| 1t is impossible for us, alone and unaided, to
| care for these graves on Memorial Day, or to
| properly observe the day at these cemeteries.
| We know that these men were all dear to
| some one in the North; that those who loved
them and still cherish their memory desire
| their last resting place in the faraway South
| to be decked with flowers on this Memorial
| Day. and yet we are, of ourselves powerless.
| With other recourse we place ourselves,
| year after year, in the attitude of beggars, in
| order that we may, at least in some measure,
| do that which should be done. We write to
| comrades and friends in the North, to the noble
women OF the Woman's Relief Corps, to the
| Sons OF Veterans and, God bless them, one and
| ALL the replies come thick and fast.
| AS result we in Georgia were able last year to
| hold appropriate services in each of the four Ma
tional Cemeteries in our Department, and trust
we shall do the same this year AS a further re-
| suit through the loving forethought of Mrs. Au-
| gusta A. Wales. now Past President of the De-
| partment of Massachusetts,, that Department
ordered 1000 flags to be supplied to the Depart
OIL OeorRia Gnlb year, snuB TtiloFinR uo
from begging in that much.
THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE a week since
contained an appeal from Winchester Va,
while the paper Of May asks aid to enable
the little Post Of 13 members, call poor" at
Charlotte to properly care for the graves at
| Salisbury, n. c., some so Or more miles away.
| letter before me from Department officer
of Tennessee refers to the immense burden
resting upon them to care for the $4,000 graves
in that State. One cemetery there, Fort DON
| elson, is, If / mistake not nearly $50 miles
| from the nearest Post, and yet every year since
the Grand Army was organized there dele.
CATION has gone from Nashville to that ceme-
| terry, and tried to do fitting honor to those
| who rest there.
With all this effort on the part of our little
| Southern Departments, with all this begging
from Northern friends, the work of observing
Memorial Day in the South as 1t was intended to
be observed is not half-no, not one tenth ofhalf
DONE In THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE read
only last June that at the National Cemetery at
! think, Culpeper. but 20 miles south of Wash
ington, the only service performed over the
graves there was by the keeper Of the cemetery,
and, if / remember rightly, his family were
the only white persons present.
Every reader of The NATIONAL TRIBUNE
will say that it is not right for Memorial Day
to be thus observed, or unobsecved, in the
South; but, they will say, What can be done?
will tell you. and it is time, high time, that
the Grand Army proved by its efforts in this
direction that the browning principle of our
Order" really is " Loyalty"
These 900 dead in these more than so
cemeteries the dead of the whole North.
Their brothers are in the Grand Army, their
widows and sisters and daughters are in the
Womans Relief Corps and kindred organizes
tions; their sons are in the Sons of Veterans.
These auxiliary bodies stand ready to aid the
Grand Army in every work which advances
the principles of our Order.
Let the Grand Army, then, at Its next Ma
tional Encampnent, assume the duty of pro-
viding for the proper observance of Memorial
Day at every National Cemetery in the South.
Let small per capita tax be levied to provide
needed funds, and these auxiliaries of the
Grand Army be invited to do the same thing
among their members. From the evidences
which we in the South have had, we know
how gladly they would accept the invitation.
Then let the performance of the duty be placed
under the supervision Of one of our at present
useless National officers, the Senior or Junior
Vice COMMANDMENTS Chief, he, If necessary, to
be aided by a committee.
This plan has, in part been presented to the
National Encampment in the admirable reso-
lutions Of Comrade fainter at Boston. Those
resolutions were referred to the Council of Adj
minstration and by them sidetracked. They
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