The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-05-30
SEATTLE, MONDAY. NAY 30.
N EMORIAL DAY.

Why, it may be asked, when the din of
material conflict has long since died away.
do we still continue to dwell on the story
of the soldiership of the dead armies of the
Union. Not to stir bustling maturity
least of all cynical old age-but as part of
the education of the growing generation
that saw not the war, and yet may thus be
infected with the nobility of its spirit. 1t
is sound civic policy to see that even If the
storms of winter mar the simple story of
these dead soldiers gravestones. the thrill
ing memory of all that they did shall be to
our children's children, like love, the old,
old story, yet ever new; thus feeding their
imagination with that sentiment that saves
a state when all debate is closed, and the
war of written and spoken words dies
away before the realistic speech of cannon.
Our growing children, when, all over the
country, they stand beside these graves,
shall learn that their Wondering tenants
were not governors, nor congressman, nor
great lawyers, nor millionaires, but were
among those who in their days of youth
and beauty, when the blood leaps in the
peals so strongly when the nation needed
not white-livered lawyers, chopping cheap
logic while the fabric of the Union was
burning over their heads. but gallant
hearts; when not merely riches but unset
fish valor were the most precious sinews
of war, these humble men were among
those who gave the country all they had
A. aim h. he,
nation was steaming with the fervent heat
of civil war. they rose above governors and
judges and congressman and all the emol-
uments and prospective prizes of peace
and put themselves calmly into the bloody
whirlpool of war to conquer peace.
What men they were, to be sure, that
made up the first million that answered
Lincoln's CALI They were nearly all in
the vigor of young manhood, the
vast majority ranging from eighteen to
thirty years of age; the most of them had
never known anything beyond their farm
life; most of them had never seen a city
as large as Seattle. The great majority
were healthy. happy, impulsive, inexpe-
rienced, reckless, inquisitive, noisy, en-
thusiastic multitude Of young fellows,
well grown enough to endure hardship
and without experience or imagination
enough to fear it. OF history they knew
little and cared less; they took their pas
sionate sentiment about the flag on trust
from their fathers Just as they did their
politics, and for the purpose for which they
were wanted it was all the better that they
were not old enough to be serious or wise
enough to be reflective.
On both sides these young soldiers did
the most gallant fighting of the war.
How they fell by the wayside. these
splendid youths. from Shiloh to Gettys-
burg, fighting splendidly whether led well
or i'll. After Gettysburg, the farms, the
village stores, the factories, the forge and
the machine shop had been so thoroughly
swept by the Bosom of war that instead of
the ingenious youths of 1861, 1852 and the
first half of 1863 the recruits were older,
less hopeful. less energetic and daring
men, to whom the dag was not flower
of love, beauty and duty; TO whom enlist
ment was either the grim necessity of
lite reduced TO despair, or it was the full
tillment of a mercenary contract to serve
rs n substitute for some drafted man
who had more shekelS than sand"
The enthusiasm of the war that gave
Lincoln million of men without a draft
was largely burnt out by midsummer, 1868,
but up To that time the war was not the
story of the eleventh hour mercenaries or
desperate Adventures out of luck-men of
the tramp temperament turned soldiers; it
was the story of the rank and file of the
Union armies who enlisted before the
draft wheel was put in motion, when the
young, the beautiful, the brave, 1.-The
mothers boys" and the high-souled young
husbands went to the front without wait
ing for draft. without stopping TO bull"
the bounties for soldiers.
The heroic bones of thousands of these
young soldiers still fertilize the South,
while others brought back their bodies so
fearfully shattered by exposure that they
knew that the shadow Of early death was
over them the day they were mustered ont.
The example and the memory of these
men are all We have 20 oppose 10 the
miasma OF petty politics. 10 the foul
smokes of the roaring march of trade and
the angry battle Of rival individual ambi-
tions and corroding enmit;es. 1t is easy
- understand how the living soldier NAV
readily fall into neglect as citizen; he
may by i'll conduct wea- out his welcome
or his active career in everyday life NAV
STIR up the hates and the rivalries
that block the upward way OF
other men in the collisions Of
business and politics; but the dead soldier.
who never lived TO feel the thrilling joy.
of the restoration. who never heard the
woIkin ring with the appIauding shouts of
his grateful countrymen, who never had
his hands affectionately pressed by his
friends and neighbors and eloquent words
Of praise poured into his ears; who per-
ished miserably in hospital. or writhed
away his life in lingering torment upon
the battlefield or ut Andersonyllle un-
cheered, unknelled, uncoffned; whose
vital glowing personality IS no longer
with Us 10 make or mar the ambitions Of
his fellows; who Is counted ont forever n
the warning politics and business compe-
,.aons of this wo.ld-sUrely this dead