The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1895-05-29
Memorial Day.

disband, their task of saving the nation
from dismemberment happily accom-
plished. Gratitude to the returning
veterans, and the unreturning brave "
who had sealed with their blood their
devotion to country, was boundless.
Language was powerless to express the
full measure of grateful feeling. Its
fervent depths were unsounded by
speech. So vast was the service rem
dered, so great was the burden of obli-
cation, patriotism and sentiment de-
manded that day be established for
the commemoration annually of the
splendid valor and unspeakable sac
rifces which had preserved the gov
eminent, and the infinite pathos of the
occasion found expression in twining
garlands for those who had fallen in
battle and in strewing their resting
places with flowers. The wounds of
war were fresh. The symbols of per-
sonal grief darkened every hamlet in all
the land. There was nothing per-
functory in those earlier observances
of Memorial Day, and the day was as
sacred as the Puritan Sabbath. Eyes
grew dim as the story of battle, of hard
ship and death, was retold by the
orators whose words were winged by
the living memory of scenes in which
they bore part. His hearers, if they
had not been soldiers, had lived in the
times when on many day the tele-
graph was bringing the tidings of tre-
mendous conflicts, in which men were
falling by thousands, when defeat some
times filed the country with gloom, or
when the people were transported in
the delirium of victory. When can
their glory fadel" Not during the life.
time of any person old enough to have
caught and retained recollection of
those battle years of the imperiled
nation. Such was the universal senti-
ment respecting the men who had
fought the battles of the republic.
A generation has passed since Lee
surrendered, and generations have been
born upon whose minds the scenes
and events of war, its excitements, its
agonies, its glories, made no direct
impression. The generations succeed
ing the War of the Revolution were
the faithful conservators of heroic
memories extending from the Boston
Tea Party to Yorktown. John Adams
prophecy of fervent celebrations
of Independence Day was fulfilled.
The scream of the American eagle
may have been sometimes vocif-
erous, and the orators, in these degen
crate days, would very likely be de-
nounced as "Jingoes." Nevertheless,
the screaming eagle and belligerent
speakers gave expression to vast deal
of robust patriotism and very high APP
probation of the devotion, suffering and
great public service of the men of l776.
Independence Day is an institution
radically different from Memorial Day
AS different as feast from funeral
The one is jubilee over the birth of q
nation, the other a solemn service in
memory of the men who gave their
lives that that nation might not perish
off the face of the earth" Proceedings
that might be proper in the one would
be entirely out of character in the
other. With the lapse of time the OBJ.
servance of Memorial Day has unques.
tionably been changing in its vital fea.
lures. There has been growing tend
ency to treat it as a general holiday.
Sports and games have been deliberately
planned for this day, until there has
come up from all parts of the land an
earnest protest against this dissertation.
The stars and stripes have been hoisted
on the school-houses as an incentive to
patriotism, and laws have been passed
requiring the schools to teach patriot.
ism. Are these unavailing? Are the
rising generations growing degenerate?
Are the schoolmaster's services needed
to teach them the commonest precepts
of patriotism? Has it become neces.
sary to admonish the young to pay the
commonest marks of homage to the
dead saviors of the government under
which they live? We believe an entire
change of trend in this matter of Me
mortal Day observances will show thai
American youth are not insensible tC
their obligation to the men TO whom they
owe the preservation of the blessings
and glory of great and free and power
full nationality, They will find on othel
days of the year opportunities enough
for sports and diversions that are mani
testify inappropriate on Memorial Day
and will surrender to patriotism and {
reverent, sympathetic observance thu
one day in the wear when