Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1893-06-01

day, pressed by the cavalry of Sheridan in
| front, by the infantry Of General Grant
III the rear, surrounded BY the Union
| army the 10000 half starved Confederates,
who had eaten little or nothing since the
morning of April LIST, saw General Lee ride
! out OF the Confederate camp in his best
uniform, begirt with his sword To ask for
mercy at the hands Of cpnqucring Grant.
As he came back again from the interview
with the terms of surrender, an eye witness
says whole lines of battle rushed
MP to their beloved old chief, and
choking with emotion, broke ranks
| and struggled with each other TO wiring
| HIM once more by the hand. Men
who had fought through the war,
and knew what the agony and humiliation
OF that moment must be to him, strove
with refinement OF unseliishness and
tenderness, which lie alone could fully APP
/ preciate, to tighten his burden and to mti.
| gate his pain. With tears pouring down
his cheeks, General Lee at length com
i manded voice enough to say Men, we
have fought throughout the war together;
! have done the best could for YOU Not
an eye that looked on that scene was dry"
and yet they were trough and rugged men,
| familiar with hardships, dangerous aud
death III Il thousand shapes" II is said
there is no passage in the history of this
/ war, which for wears TO come will be more
| honorably mentioned and gratefully, re.
/ iHtlllHCltN Nlluu lHt itUltuIDT on tllt iHU
day of April, 1865, of General Grant to
General Lee" His bearing and that of
the officers about him, was the perfection
| of delicate courtesy and real greatness to a
fallen foe. Some of you veterans perchance
| were there that day, eye witnesses OF shat
surrender. TO such this day of memory
| will bring back fully the scene. 70 all
| of you this day brings the memory of the
days i'll camp or on the march; by the
| cheerful bivouaC fire or on the lonely and
| fearsumc picket post; the fearful horror
before the battle, then the reckless dash
through storm of shot and shell. How YOU
stood, Union and Confederate on either
| side of the line, shot each at the other i'll
| IN cold blood, then forgetting war in a
common brotherhood, called truce and
swapped coffee and sugar for TOBACCO
| gently calling each other Fed" and
| "Reb." 1t brings up the comrade who
tearlessly by your side met death face to
face. and of that other one who turned
and He'd with his fear of the coming bait lie;
the tender and the true; the rough and the
false of that great comradeship of the re-
bellion. Indeed may not say that memory
to-day paints on the canvas of your life
the panorama of all your soldier acts. And
you now in these few brief moments are
living then all over again. We may dwell
no longer on this day rs one of memory.
Let ns turn to the most engaging of the
characteristics Of this day.
1t is the day of hope. Whatever it may
be as day of flowers, or sadness and of
memory; as a day of hope it has pre-emi-
nent significance, For nearly hundred
years our national slogan 'all men are
born free and equal" had been sounded
along the line of the nations of the earth,
and yet all that time gnawing at the ma
tional yltal5, was the cancer of human
slavery, that national lie that blotted out
the universal truth that we had proclaimed.
Our brallIiest men, our broadest statesmen,
our subtlest politicians had in vain sought
to harmonize the irrepressible conflict ex-
pressed in these two conditions. The result
was only to iniiame mems passions and
sow broadcast the seeds of sectional hate.
1t seemed in the providence of God that
this great scourge could only pass away in
a deuge of blood aud in the great up-
heayal of the nation.
There is legend that in the fourth cen
fury before Christ, IAN earthquake hap
pened in Rome, = large portion Of the
area OF the forum sunk down and a vast
chasm opened there; all attempts to fill it
up were vain and the city was smitten
with CONSERVATION, especially as the
lIaruspiCes had declared that it could only
be filled by casting into II that on which
the greatness of Rome depended. While
every one was hesitating and doubling as
TO the meaning Of the HuruSpicial utter
ance the heroic Marcus Curtirs presented
himself and proclaimed that Rome con
tanned nothing more Indispensable to her
greatness, than valiant citizen fully ac-
Coutred for battle, lie offered himself as
a victim; and having arrayed himself in
complete armOr and mounted his war
horse. galloped into the abyss. The earth
closed; the chasm vanished and the forum
resumed its wonted aspect
The chasm rent in the land OF freedom
by human slavery was not to be closed by
| n fhnIl4nnh II
riors. Eight hundred and fifty thousand
of our dead were hurled into its Jaws and
untold millions of property wasted and
consumed. Our country lost lhree millions
of her people before peace sandaled III
liberty, supported by Justice and truth,
could cross on the bridge of human bodies
and treasures thus spanning the chHsm
But out OF that baptism of blood our peo
pie rose to Erander conception of their
mission. Other wars had been formative
waged in the vlgor of the nations youth;
this was conserving, wased in the strength
and perfection of her manhood.
1t wiped out the one blot on the nations
escutcheon, human slavery.
1t taught both sections, north and south
that manhood knew no sectional lines, hui
was common product of this young peo
pie; this unique blending of the blood Of
the best nations Of the old world 1t
taught us to respect each other.
in tho forest, cradeted in the hardest
struggles OF pioneer life. nursed Of liberty
and chosen of Cod in the bond of union
were to be the leaders OF nations; not sun
dered in warning fragments, but cementeC
in the enduring bonds OF national life.
1t taught all our people to revere anew
the nag OF our country and all it symbol
izes-lite, liberty and the pursuit of hap
piness with the least possible abatement Oi
Individual rights-no flag ever lioated over
ship, citadel oi hearthstone that meant SC
much, and expressed such possibilities Of
human hope i'll its continuance as the
stars and stripes, our national emblem
Drake titly paints it in these words;
Flag OF the FREQ hearts hope aud home
BY angel hands 10 valur given;
Thy stars have lit the welkin dome,
And all thy hues were born in heaven.
The war has crystalized devotion to thu
flag into national virtue.
We have not only raised il at the mast
head of our vessels in every sea, and ovel
every military encampment, but it nov
floats over every school house in the land
and the nation with renewed ardor ha.
caught up brakes refrain:
Forever float that standard Sheet
Where breathes the foe but falls before u.s.
With ireedoms soil bcna attn our feet
And freedoms banner streaming DER US.
Ii the war had only revived an undyins
love for the flag of our country, ii woul(
be much, when we look at the results Jus
detailed we realize that we have been puri
lied rs with fire and have had Il new
national birth.
The storm purities and sweetens the air
we breathe. The wreckage left behind
marks its path and power. From this
great national storm has emerged more
heroic American manhood Its wTeckags
I st,..T, lEa- u. - - a.