The Portland daily press., 1895-05-31

|
other brilliant soldier of our State, l love
to say of our city, whose very youth
seemed to sound the depths and shoals OF
honor; to whom descended the traditions
OF our great Senator, and the memory OF
a younger brother, fallen in his country S
in his pride ~
| In honor of the survivors of that
knightly host that came home from the
war to mingle with the mass of the COM
munity, as the snowflake melts into the
river, but still to be known and loved of
all and to cherish among themselves, in
| their own hearts, the undying and unfad-
| ing memories Of those heroic days,
| In honor of the living, in honor of them
ALL
| In grateful memory of the dead; of
| those who fell in battle, cut down in that
| terrible harvest of sorrow, as the grain
by the sickle, of those smitten by sudden
disease or who grew pale and spectre thin
and died i'll camp, hospital or prison
and of those who lived to be welcomed
joyously home among the victors, but
have since been numbered with the dead
In grateful memory of the dead, in
memory of them all. In honor and mem
ory of them all this silent soldiers form
stands sentinel here forever.
The time is not far distant, but few
years more, when the words, in honor
of the living, will have ceased to have a
present meaning to those who shall read
this inscription. They will be only a
reminiscence The words, in grateful
memory of the dead will include the
whole. But what @ reminlscence it will
be, reminding those who shall succeed
US. our children's children to a late pos
terity, that on the day when this monu-
ment was dedicated men stood on this
| spot, living men, who in the war for the
| Union had followed their country'S S flag
| wherever it was in danger, who followed
| it in the dark days when the broken lines
around it fell back, back, back even upon
Northern soil, and the nation bowed her
ed it, in despair but without failing,
through that deepest gloom of the war,
until at last light broke over Gettysburg,
broke through the dreadful clouds over
hanging that vast field of the nation S
dead; and then, then, followed it in tri-
umph, in costly. triumph, the noblest
youth of the land falling dead at every
step followed it in triumph from Gettys-
burg through the Wilderness on on to
Richmond, to the deadly halt and the
| final charge there, or on, on to the sea and
| the gulf. What d "Reminiscences this will
| be, what recollection to hallow this
spot in all the future, holy ground now,
memory of today that will float farthest
| into the future, the one thought that will
| linger latest in the minds of our descen-
| dants, or of passing strangers who in fu-
| ture ages shall read this Inscription that
in the year 1895, thirty years after the
war had ended, this monument to their
comrades, the gift of a soldier in his own
name and in the name of loved and
honored brother, was dedicated to the
eternal memories of patriotism by sur
viving soldiers of the republic.
| The inner circle about this monument
is yours, Union soldiers who have lived
to see this day. No irreverent footsteI
\ shall eiatRr there, the place of honor fol-
you now as the post of danger in the
lines we of the community, of the city,
of the State, of the nation, delivered from
danger and restored to peace by SO costly
a sacrifice, may assemble, to join with
you in the solemn service and spirit o1
| the hour, Of honor to the living, of CRATE
full memory to the dead; not in harsh OF
angry exultation over fallen foe, remem-
| bering always that the war for the Union
was for the life of the nation, for the
good of all, of the vanquished not less
than of the victors, and rejoicing that
| it's bitter antagoniSmS and asperities have
died away. 1t is not to perpetuate the
memories of civil strife that this monu
ment is dedicated, but to hallow the rec
election of deeds which saved the fail
served the nation as a Whole (which lee
at last to the restoration of peace an6
good will, to results universally benef
cent, and glorious in our eyes
In dedicating this monument, we seen
to be at once commemorating the past
and at the same time. opening before oul
| eyes, before the eyes of all of us who love
to visit this sacred place, the pathway Of
| the future.
AS we enter the gates of this beautiful
Evergreen Cemetery of ours, where for us
all so many hopes lie buried beneath the
turf, the tendency is for each of us tc
turn aside to the silence of his own seclu-
sion. For each of lis there is a wellworr
path which our footsteps almost uncon
sciously take when we enter here There
is a spot where we love to linger alone
looking down into the. very ground, as il
we would vainly seek to find what we
have lost but when we turn away, slow
Fly ana reluctantly, each of us from his
own h3orite and peculiar haunt of sor
row. with a sense of vacancy and gloon
| in our hearts, or striving through Oul
tears to look heayenward, here we all may
come, to this place of common interest
| of remembrance of universal loss, and fol
the moment perhaps may find escape from
the sharpness of our individual sorrow il
the perception of the larger, general grief
the lengthening shadow of which still
| UIcUCucS ONCI IIlobIly chl
try to learn from the lives and examples
of those whose memory we'here recall
something, something at least of the
heroic lesson, they had learned SO we'll tt
suffer and be silent, to heed in this worlC
at all hazard the voice of duty, counting
not the cost, but trusting in God.
Commander Edward G. SWEET of Bos
worth Post, was then introduced and ac
cepted the monument in these words:
| COMMANDER SWETT'S ADDRESS.
could well wish that the honorable
duty of receiving on behalf of Boswortl
Post, this noble tribute to patriotism
had devolved upon some one of all these
my worthier comrades; for I was 6
soldier of the Union in only a boyish ant
unimportant way. 1t is rather by tht
fiattering favor of these veterans, thar
any merit of my own, that I, who esteem
it a proud distinction to stand in tht
ranks of the Grand Army of the Republic
as one of its humblest comrades, am hon
ored beyond deserving by the office O
Commander of one of it's Oldest and mos
influential Posts.
A Post which during the twenty -eigh
years Of it's existence, has borne upon it,
rolls, representatives of every militar.
and naval organization comprised in tht
| caypDtv thou ucap6 cong nf Maine who in