The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-05-30
MEANING OF MEMORIAL DAY.

il should be SO. The nation that Is with
out sacred memories and hallowed a~ssocia-
tons TO bind it together in a union OF sem
timent is without cohesive power or patri-
otto moorings. There can be no Impulse of
devotion without an object, and when that
object is the national union, about which
cluster the heroic memories of the past and
the budding hopes and promises OF the
future. whatever custom or observance
tends to keep alive the fires OF patriotic
devotion should never be allowed TO decay
nor be diverted from its original purpose or
meaning.
The services held upon Memorial day are
impressive and beautiful. but, If they were
simply ar outgrowth of affection for the
dead, would fall into disuse and finally be
abandoned altogether. as time lessened the
poignancy of personal grief. But. back of
the dead in whose honor the services are
held. deeper than the graves in which they
lie, broader than the earth in whose bosom
they rest, stronger than the ties that bind
US to either the living or the dead. lies that
sentiment of the human heart which recog-
nizes loyalty. courage and fidelity as the
GROWING virtues of mankind, and devotion
to national integrity and the cause of
human rights as their highest and grandest
manifestation. 1t is the cause for which
they fought. the principle that sustained
them and for which they gave ''the last
full measure of devotion" that lives in the
national heart to-day, and finds visible ex-
preston in the memorial offerings placed
upon their graves. The men themselves
were nothing; what their names were is of
no moment; who they were does not mat
ter; what they were, whether of high or
low degree, aspiring scions OF wealth and
position. or contented plodders in the
humber walks of life. is of no consequence.
They rest, sheltered from storms forever,
with the myriads upon myriads of nameless
dead in the eternal embrace of mother
earth. But what they did, what they es-
tablished, what they represented. concerns
us all, everyone, and makes of our national
life a living force, vitalized with the hero
ism, hopes, energies and high aspirations of
all the ages gone and Of all the ages to
come. They proved that mankind have the
capacity, as well as the right, to rule them
selves. They struck the blow that shat
tered at once the traditions OF authority
and the Prescriptions OF caste, and estab-
| lished it as an axiom that no man has the
| right to earn his bread in the sweat of an
other mans face. They represented in
themselves the principle of loyalty and pa
tflOtlSm, the Splr1t OF SelI-Sacrluce lot a
cause, for an idea, for liberty.
The war for the Union was not merely a
war between the sections, a quarrel be-
tween different members of the same polft-
ical family over the honors or the spoils
of Office. 1t was the battle of opposing
ideas in human affairs, of conflicting forms
of civilization. 1t was the last great con-
test between the genius of progress and
the barbarism of the feudal ages. 1t was
a battle royal between human right and
human wrong, and the right won. Man.
kin broke their letters when the belated
knights of feudalism, with visors down
and lances in rest, rode to their final over
throw At Appomattox.
The Nation that was born anew amid
the throes of civil war and rededicated by
the baptism of blood to the cause Of human
freedom must be held to its course, and
| carried forward TO the achievement of its
high destiny. by the same spirit of patri-
| otto devotion that animate the men who
gave UP their lives in defense of the Union.
And to that end must the lessons to be
drawn from heroic examples of devotion
and self-sacrifce be impressed upon the
minds and instilled into the hearts of our
people.
The services of Memorial day are no
meaningless ceremony. They are not mere
| ly tributes to the dead. whose eyes annot
| see nor ears hear the floral offerings and
words of eulogy, nor yet the songs Of
thanksgiving and praise. but are a conse-
Grafton anew on the part of the living to
the integrity Of the Union and the rights
of man. No nation on earth requires so
much as ours that the faithful and de-
voted, in heart and soul. to the national
idea and the institutions of civil liberty
should be forever on guard. We are build
ing not only a nation, but a race-a race
that is to be formed by the processes of
assimilation out of the heterogeneous ele-
ments that come to our shores from every
quarter of the earth. A thousand years
hence will there be one great homogeneous
people dominating the continent, and up
holding the glories and controlling the des-
TIMES of a great republic Of freedom? or
will there be a diversity of races and ma
tionalities? The fate of the future lies in
the wisdom of to-day. The foundations o.
nation and race have been laid deep and
strong, cemented with blood and tears, and
hallowed by prayer and self-sacrifice. blu;
the beauty, and strength, and durability OF
the superstructure to be reared through
the centuries will depend upon the char
acter we transmit to the generations thai
are to follow us. and from and out of which
will be founded the race or races that will
receive from our hands a heritage of free.
dom to preserve or to lose.
In this age Of materialistic tendencies
and exaggerated individualism. with its
mixture of socialistic and other theories
and schemes of government, the rising
generations need to be taught that there
is something higher, nobler, grander thar
the worship of self or the pursuit of the
almighty dollar that while the state
and the institutions thereof give. the widest
scope and freest range for the develop.
ment and exercise of every capacity of tbs
mind and will, yet their stability and
permanence. and consequent power to give
and protect such freedom depend upon the
conservation of individual powers and ener
gies to their welfare and preservation. They
need to be taught that there can be no In
dividual freedom without national integrity
that the state owes TO the individual whai
he earns and no more. but that. on the
other hand. the individual owes all he has
is or may hope to be to the state. The,
need to be taught that patriotism is the
browning virtue of the citizen.
Our public schools and institutions o.
learning ought to be nurseries Of patrioti,
sentiment, where the duties and obliga
tions OF citizenship and loyalty to tn,
state and it's institutions should be laugh
NTH most aseiduouc CORA opd rvbooa taao oh