Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-06-04
MEMORIAL ADDRESS
Delivered by esss,sssn,a niiIitsa ssisrs Y.
n. Il. Rice Pest, G. A. r. q ellsworth.

The last issue of the Ellsworth American
contains the full text of the eloquent mem.
orial address delivered by Hon. S. L. Mill.
ken before the G. A. R. Post of that city.
We regret that our limited space permits nj
to give only an abstract.
Mr.. Milliken said: 1t is we'll to COM
memorate, as you have done today, the
dead soldiers of the Union armies and to
honor those that are living. 1t will be an
i'll day for the republic when she forgets
the services of the patriotic boys of '6I.
That forgetfulness will come only with our
degeneracy, and will be q sure prelude to
the decay and ruin of our institutions.
Then let the memory of the brave dead
be ever warmly cherished as tribute due
to them, and as the exercise of q patriotic
feeling necessary in our own hearts!
l am not here today to relate to you the
history of the war for the suppression of
the rebellion, or to call up before your
minds the brave exploits and proud achieve
ments of the sturdy men who wore the blue
and fought for the Union.
That will be in order in generations to
come when they who we're themselves a
part of the great struggle have gone to their
silent resting places beside the graves of
thei. comrades.
| Then it will all be done. 1t will be done
by the historian, the orator and the poet
1t win be done in stately monuments, in
statues of grace and beauty, in prose and
in song; yes, in songs which shall be sung
by the family dreside and upon the public
stage; songs which shall be the mother
lullaby to soothe her Graded infant to
sleep; the martial strains to awaken patri-
otto devotion in the peoples hearts; the
national anthems which shall excite pride
in our country's heroic history and deter
mination to maintain its integrity and honor
10 the council halls, upon the battle field
and wherever and whenever it shall be as
sailed.
But am talking now to an audience the
most of whom but too wildly recollect
| when the Southern warcloud gathered and
burst upon our country, many of whom
barred their own breasts to the storm of
war, ard by their brave efforts cleared the
skies and saw the sun of victory shine out
to gladden. the hearts of the loyal and true
10 all our land, and the lovers of freedom
and good government wherever they were
upon the face of the earth.
Yes, many of you were yourselves part
of the great contest-some upon the tented
field, some upon the tumbling and foaming
sea, others at home supplying the resources
of war and encouraging the gallant army at
the front, and women, with their tears, their
prayers and their courage, giving words
and loving contributions to the wounded
and sick.
You know the history of your own GAL
liant achievements, your sacrifices aud suf-
ferings better from your own experiences
than tongue or pen can describe them to
you, and your memories today will call
them up more wildly than words of mine
can possibly do.
believe thoroughly in such commemor-
alive ceremonies and displays as these to-
day. believe that the Grand Army or
CARNATIONS, like the order of the Cincin-
matt established by Washington after the
Revolution, will serve to stimulate the
patriotic heart of the nation, and keep alive
memories that it is healthful for US to
cherish. They are better and more val
liable than the society of the Cincinn att,
for that included only the officers of the
Revolution, while these more wisely, more
justly and periodically, take in every man
who wore the blue.
| And these memorial ceremonies are an
honor to yourselves while they speak en-
couragingly to the nation. They show that
you have not lost your old patriotic ardor,
that you have not forgotten through whose
brave sacrifices and great achievements
your country has been saved. Indeed, they
show more than this; for those demonstra-
tions, of whatever character they be whether
to commemorate the men and deeds of the
Union armies in the War of the Rebellion,
or those of the Revolution, in no small de-
gree mark the character of the commune
ties in which they occur.
| Where they are entered into with earn
estness aud zeal and are prosecuted with
good heart and will, there you may safe
ly reckon to find the homes of public
spirit and enterprise, and the thrift and
prosperity which follow them. Yes, it i.
not in the novels of sloth and slovenliness,
it is not in the sleepy hollows of idleness,
it is not where men are laggards and women
are drones, that the plant of tender and
venerative affection for the patriotic dead
grows green and fourishing; it is where
men are brave and women are true, where
men are earnest and women sincere, where
life is looked upon as serious thing and
each one is striving to make it good thing
to himself, his fellow-men and prosperity
And so in this active and thrifty community
where the evidences of enterprise are seen
on every hand, where the hum of the mills
is heard and the promise of industry's re.
ward is on the face of the farmers field, We
find hearts beating in fervid sympathy with
the patriot dead and living.
And who will ever know how many noble
elements of character that terrible struggle
brought to the surface; how the grandeur
of the sacrifice made the souls of men
strong; how human hearts grew great with
the greatness of occasions, and how great
occasions drew from the depths of hundreds
of thousands of human hearts powers OF
generous seH-sacrifice and splendid aspira.
tons which might have lain buried and dor
mant forever?
| GREAT TRAITS DEVELOPED.
These heroic services and sacrifices moi
only developed great traits in those who
made them but they inspired them in others
We cannot but venerate him who struggles
manfully in a cause which he honestly
deems just, and it is not the least of the
debts which We owe to your brave com.