The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1893-05-26
MEMORIAL NOTES.
Observations and Reflections by Junius
Henri Browne.

Observations and Reflections by Junius
Henri Browne.
If it be grateful and honorable, as the
Roman maxim is, to die for ones country,
II is grateful and honorable likewise to re-
member those who have given their lives
for patriotism, and to decorate on Memo
sial day their graves with flowers.
Memorial day is not so much holiday as
D holy day, in the sense that our gratitude
and reverence for the memory of the men
who sacrificed themselves on the altar of
the republic stir the deepest and most sa-
cred feelings In our nature, and hallow
their dust forevermore.
1t seems often as If, in the rush and whirl
and fever of our everyday pursuits and
struggles, we had no time and little in
clination to cultivate patriotism. 1t seems
often as II the great virtue might die. But
1t will not While this day is honored, the
FIRE of patriotism will be kept alive in our
hearts.
Some persons appear to think that with
the passage of years, interest in Decoration
day will diminish until it will cease to be
celebrated. There is hardly any danger of
this. Great events need the perspective of
time and distance to be fully appreciated
The civil war will assume larger proper
lions in the century to come than in the
century now passing. The shadows of he
roes lengthen as generations recede.
A generation has grown up since the civil
war began. When another generation shall
have appeared, scarcely single man of the
hundreds of thousands who took part in
the struggle Is likely to be alive. Let all
who survive do honor to those who have
gone, on this day which may be regarded as
the anniversary Of the country's preserva-
ton.
Death, which comes to US all soon or late,
Is generally but commonplace prosaic
fact. AS everybody dies, death conveys
not the slightest distinction. But the man
who dies in a great cause, as the Union
soldiers did, is ennobled by the cause, and
his death is linked with history.
In the next century Americans will be
proud and happy to trace their lineage
through some soldier in the civil war.
And he or she who can say, "My great
grandfather fell at Donelson or Shiloh or
Antietam or Gettysburg" will have the
highest patent of nobility that democ-
racy can confer
Flowers are always considered an appro-
pirate contribution at wedding, feast or
a funeral, at the entrance into the world
and the going out of it. But they are
never quite so appropriate as when laid on
the graves of men who died that the na-
ton might live
The civil war made us for the first time
all Americans. 1t destroyed state sover
eighty and created Union sovereignty in
stead. Appomattox settled sectional diff
ferences for all time. After that we ceased
to hear of loyalty to Virginia, Mississippi,
South Carolina. That kind Of loyalty was
swallowed up in loyalty to the republic
which is alone consistent with permanent
government, with liberal and truly enlight
ened institutions.
The observance of Memorial day proves
conclusively that republics are not migrate
full. The saying is ascribed to Themis
tocles, who certainly had reason, from his
treatment by Greece, to hold such an opin-
ion. 1t may have been true of the old re-
publics, but it is not of the great republic
Of today. She remembers the brave men
who fell in her defense and understands
that to them she owes her present integrity.
Although William Collins has been dead
nearly $50 years, some of his odes might
have been written specially for this coun-
try and this time. What can be filter for
Memorial day than these familiar linesP
How sleep the brave who sink TO rest,
BY all their country's wishes blestl
By fairy hands their knell is rung;
BY forms unseen their dirge is sung.
There Honor comes, pilgrim gray,
To bless the turf that wraps their clay,
And Freedom shall awhile repair,
To dwell a weeping hermit there.
A day like Memorial day is always OK
cellent, most wholesome, in its influence.
1t was eminently proper to make it u legal
holiday. 1t gives us pause; it impels us to
think of others; it counterbalances our tend
ency to selfshness, Reflection on the dis
interested acts of our fellows arouses our
sympathy, stimulates our humanity, ele.
Yates our ideas, enlarges and purifies our
thoughts, eXalts our purposes.
JUNIUs HENRI BROWNE
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PASSING AWAY.