The Portland daily press., 1895-05-31

that none SO truly and abundantly fulllllss
It's obligations of Fraternity, Charity anu an
Loyalty, as the Grand Army of the he
public.
For it's Fraternity 1t knows not party,
| 1actlon, color, race nor creed; 1T per 9
lneates and illuminates every walk OIL
life, ministers to the sufferings of SICK
ness, survives death and mitigates ;, l!s
sorrows In witness of which all over !, Thls
broad land to-day in every State and Ter,
ritory, and even in distant Canada ana
far off Mexico, time worn comrades,
many of them with faltering steps ana m
trembling limbs, are making annual Pill
grimage to sacred shrines, the silent grass
grown tents whose doors open inward
only
For Charity! Our noble State to lts
lasting honor has enacted that none who
wore the uniform of Union soldier or
sailor, shall ever fill pauper's grave.
The Grand Army of the Republic has
decreed that none of them shall go un-
sheltered or unfed 1t matters not wheth-
er he be a comrade of the Grand Army
of the Republic or not; if he wore the
Union uniform and marched or sailed
beneath the flag, he goes not shelter!ess
nor hungry from it's doors, and till his
needs are satisfied, the message to all
Sucn is 'InOu arG ever with me anu dill
that have is thine. Z"
the fact that in these bronzed and griz-
zled ranks, is merged the young and Wig
orous yalor that went laughing to the
disaster of Bull Run with Mcdowell,
that woke the first echoes of victory in
Shiloh woods with Buell., waded the
dismal swamps of the Chickahominy with
Mcclellan, endured the discouragements
of disaster and defeat with Pope, yet
rallied at Antietam and repulsed a foe
| flushed with the f1ood-tide of victory,
that manned the Cumberland, when with
| her gun deck under water she fired her
last broadside into the Merrimac and
went down with her living, dead and
dying and with her colors flying, that
breasted the fearful heights of Fredricks-
burg with Burnside, that shrivelled but
shrunk not on the blistering slopes of
Port Hudson, that ran the fiery gauntlets
of Vicksburg and Mobile with Farragut,
that clutched and held the ultimate
battlements of Freedom on the trembling
hills of Gettysburg with Meade and Han
cock, that circumscribed rebellions' citadel
with Sherman, that sent the Alabama to
her watery grave, with Winslow in the
Kearsarge, that swept and garnished the
valley OF the Shenandoah with Sheridan
and girding itself for the last final struggle
with a courage undaunted by disaster and
blazing thiclets of the Wilderness with
Grant, where day after day the rising sun
was the signal to assault impregnable
works manned by full peers of the best
soldiers of Christendom, and night fall
brought the never changing order "by
the left flank, march!' that pushed on
bleeding at every vein" through the
furnace OF Cold Harbor, the holocaust of
Petersburg, leaving behind them sixty
thousand killed and wounded, never re-
tracing a step nor looking back, commit
ted to self-imposed duty to the death, and
pressing on by Five Forks and Sailors
matox. Forging in the fire of battle and
tempering with their blood, the instru
ments to cut the cancer slavery from this
fair land and extirpate forever all danger
from treason to the flag Comrades and
representatives of every glorious hero and
event l name, are here with BoswortI
Post to-day some in the ranks 422 off duty
counted for'' Aye Grant and Sherman
Sheridan and Hancock, Farragut anG
Porter, Meade and Mcclellan and tn
long line of lesser fame but no less equal
glory were comrades all, and on thei1
pulseless breasts, as they went full OF
honors to their graves, the proudest decor
alton was the simple bronze star of the
Grand Army of the Republic
The greatest master of the science o1
war declared that in all the great armies
of history, the commander was every
thing, and in burst of naughty elo
quence he said, 1t was not the Roman
Army that conquered Gaul, but Caesar
it was not the Carthaginian Army thai
made Rome tremble at her gates, bu
Hannibal, lit was not the Macedonian
Army that marched to Indus, but Alex
ander," and with as little arrogance
might have added, ''It was not the French
Army that shook the thrones of continen
tai Europe and made the kings of Chris
tendon turn pale, but Napoleon.
But such vain glorious boasting has M
application to the Army of the Union, fol
it's commanders did not make that Army
that army made it's commanders; and il
all it won, it borrowed less from genius
than it bought and paid for in the FIRE,
coinage of the blood of its best and brav
est.
Readingsthe history of nations in tn,
light of the worlds experience, we lear1
that the truly great are only those wht
have greatly honored their defenders, and
journeying through our own fair lanl
to-day, the observant traveller canno
| fail to note, that where our soldier
monuments stand thickest, there mos
surely abide the enlightnment, prosperity
peace and happiness, to which such shafts
are the unerring finger posts that poin1
the way.
The great Commoner of England, John
Bright, asserted that the first five hundred
men who passed in the Strand of Londor
would make as good Parliament as any
! that sits in Westminster. I raise a loftiel
standard for my country, for I believe
} that the first one thousand young and
} able bodied of my fellow countrymen
whose eyes have rested on this monu
, ment, will make as brave and true a regi
ment, as any whose achievements are here
commemorated. But, if my proposition
stand the proof, it is only because when
gazing on its fair proportions their hearts
shall beat responsive to the inscription,
'sIn honor Of the living, in memory Of
the dead of those who counted limb OF
life well lost in defence of the honor and
| integrity of the flag above it.
For twenty years. ever since this little
section of Goods acre. passed to the
control Of Bosworth, Post it has earnestly
desired to place above these patriotic
dead, their worthy testimonials but the
requirements of needy comrades from 9
| treasury limited to its personal resources
have prevented the consummation of its
cherished purpose until the sacred privil
, ege has kindly tenderly and gracefully
been taken from us. To the distinguished
COmrade whose generOrS munlficenCt