The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-05-31
MEMORIAL DAY.


come the Mecca OF patrlOtlc pilgrimage.
There was ''the high water mark of the
Rebellion" and there arose the first
great cheer of decisive victory for the
Union. Nature seemed to have created
there field where American valor might
airy and artillery could all take full part
in the mighty tournament. There were
witnessed the perfect science of modern
warfare, the matured experience of gen.
eralship, and the conspicuous heroism of
the soldier.
The marvellous bravery displayed by
the soldiers of both armies, in the war
of the Rebellion, is attested by the per-
centage of loss in battle as compared
with the numbers engaged. and by COM
parison with the most memorable exam
pies in other nations.
The Light Brigade in its famous charge
led by Lord Cardigan at Balaklava. lost
PAT of it's CTS officers and men, 36.7 per
cent.
In the Franco-Prussian War, the heav-
lest loss in the German army was sus-
tanned by the Sixteenth Infantry, one of
the great Regiments of 5000 men, at
Mars La Tours, a loss of 1914 per cent.
In our Civil War sixty-two Union regi-
-ments in single battle, sustained loss of
from so to 50 per cent Among them the
LIST Maine Heavy Artillery, at Petersburg,
suffered loss of $3.50 per cent.
The Confederates had forty-two regi-
ments in which the loss in single battle
was from so to 1913 per cent.
Barely does the history of thousand
years record such valor, and if we could
forget Belle Isle and Andersonville, new
er in civil war such humanity, as was
shown by the victors and vanquished in
the war of the Rebellion; the chivalry of
the middle ages revived; fraternal SYM
pathies, awakened by scenes of suffering
and death, obliterated the thin lines
which separated friend and foe; and the
Grand Army of this immortal Republic,
as they decorate the graves of their COM
rades, will not pass by the spot where
sleeps the brother who fought SO well,
and SO heroically died, though in an I'M
just cause: for they remember that they,
and such as he, have paused amid the
storm Of battle to give water to the
wounded and the dying, whether they
wore 1.-THE blue or the gray
In the brightness of peace, sectional
hate and prejudice are melting away,
and the old flag 'sold Glory" floats over
the nation.
Grant, the magnanimous conqueror in
mattox, babe the great armies he had
conquered return to their neglected
homes, and cultivate again the arts of
peace. Then it was, as it is today, the
duty of the citizens, both North and
South to reunite in a common destiny
and to cherish the traditions of COM
mon glory. The palmetto and the pine,
which our fathers planted 'son the world s
majestic height" should still be our
united emblems. for
"They planted them together, our gallant sires
Though one was crowned with crystal snow,
and one with solar gold:
When tney planted independence, as symbol
They struck deep soil, and planted the palmetto
and the pine, 81
They planted them together, by the river of the
years,
Watered with our fathers hearts blood ,watered
with our mothers tears.
Together shouts Niagara his thunder-toned
sTogether!' echo back the waves upon the
Mexic sea;
1Togetherl' sing the sylvan hills where old At
Together boom the breakers, on the wild Pa
cific Shores
Together, cry the people, and together it
An everlasting charter bond, forever for the
free!
OF liberty the signet SEAL the one eternal sign,
Be those united emblems, the palmetto and the
pine.''
Twenty-eight years have passed away
since the great day Of Appomattox. Our
population has more than doubled; thirty
four millions OF people have become
nearly seventy millions. To-day. the
nations of the earth are the honored
guests of the nation of the United States
of America, and the grand achievements
OF these tranquil years have shown that,
Peace hath her victories. No less re-
nowned than War"
But though all the fair fields, which
were torn by the lannon's pitiless track.
and the forests which were rent by the
tempest of war, have been restored by
natures healing hand, and the darker
recollections of those terrible DAYS are
softened inthe halo of the passing years
time has not and will not rob the patri-
OF Of his fame. For what he dared, and
did and suffered, he can never be fully
paid, by any emolument of honor, and it
is not merely to pay our debt of graft
tude, but to obey the promptings Of our
hearts that we assemble to-day to give
united expression to that patriotic senti-
ment which Portland has inscribed upon
her Soldiers and Sailors monument.
Honor and grateful remembrance to the
dead. Equal honor to those who daring
to die survived" These sentiments are
not peculiar to us, or to this age. They
built the pyramids wrought the costly
mausoleums of the middle ages, and
reared the lofty monuments of The pres
emit times. Along with these grander at
tempts to preserve forever the memory
of the great and good, has existed the
beautiful custom of strewing flowers
upon honored graves. +,i-
1t was the happy and patriotic thought
Of that illustrious soldier, John A. Logan
when he was ommander-in-chief of the
Grand Army of the Republic, to estab-
lish day on which the American people
might unite in honoring those who risked
their lives to save this nation.
Year by year the gracious interchange
of the fair flowers gathered upon north
ern hillsides and tropical flowers which
bloom in southern valleys will nationalize
Memorial Day. These blended, garlands
laid, each year, upon the soldiers graves
by their eloquent symbolism will voice
the gratitude of the present and the
coming time; and this ..pious service will
forever teach the lessons of patriotic
citjzenshin ~