Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-06-01
MEMORIAL oAy.
Continued from page ~

Icgotistic mugwumps, brainless uuues
and educated charletans may attempt
as much as they will to resist this pa
triotic spirit, but even when supported
by whatever there Is left of the ola
Copperhead element yet remaining IN
the country, they will be swept down
before 1t, as they hitherto have been.
serving only to show it's great strength
and their own weakness in comparison
1t Is not only well that this is So
but it is most honorable to the human
race. Individual gratitude is one of the
most commendablc elements in human
character. Gratitude for great and
virtuous services rendered to the pub
lie is only more highly to be regarded;
and he who is not inspired by brave
and generous deeds may have the elo-
quence of good breeding and the polish
of the schools. but he lacks the essen
tial requisite of good man ana use
full citizen. he has no soul. The doc
tfinaire may repine, the muSWump
may scold, and the malignant may
abuse, but the heart of the nation VIII
beat with veneration. sympathy and
affection for the veterans of our brave
armies until the last one shall have
gone to his final camping ground, and
posterity will honor them in history,
cratory and song, and in monuments
to which our children's children shall
Point with qualification and pride.
| 1t may appear. until we have re-
flectcd upon it, to be singular that no
people but our own have set apart a
day to bring their tributes of affection
to the graves of their dead soldiers. 1t
is true that we are the first to have
instituted this fitting and touching
ceremonial and indeed it has never
been elsewhere INDUCED in.
But the foreign soldier is in a large
degree a professional. He follows war
as a pursuit in many instances. and is
not fully identified with the people in
civil life. On the contrary. the great
armies consisting of more than mil
lion of men, who saved the Union in
its great struggle for life, were a part
of the people They went from their
homes among us to fight, never having
been trained in military science. They
were of every profession. trade and
pursuit Every community furnished
| its quota of its own people. They We're
| the neighbors. the sons, the brothers,
manned at home.
| And they went to battle not for fame,
rot for conquest, not to extend do
rlinion or establish a dynasty. but for
| the integrity Of their country for the
proto elton of its life. for the vindica-
| ton of the principles which it repre-
scnts, for the preservation of free gov
ernment and equal rights among men.
| AS those principles are dear to us. as
we regard our country to be not only
a blessing to us. but as the great home
and fortress of freedom upon the earth
and the best hope of liberty-loving
men, wherever they be, so they who
| by their valor ana power preserved
| them are above all others dear to us.
today: and the people gladly leave
| their avocationS and come out to eX-
press their gratitude and lay the to-
kens of their affection upon their
graves.
We have other ceremonials and cele-
Lrations that may be more noisy and
| demonstrative. but surely none So
touching and beautiful. none more
| sincere What l have said refers for
the most part to our obligations to the
veterans Of the Union armies for what
they did in war. But we owe them not
a little for what they have done and
leen since.
With few exceptions they have cx-
hibitcd that patriotic spirit which inn
PEELED them to march to the front al
their country's call and fight heroicali,
for it's life and its honor That the,
love the nation which they saved and
lare proud Of the exalted position which
their efforts have enabled it to reach
is potent in every part of the land
where they are. They remain. today
as the monuments of the patriotic
spirit and the heroic achievements OF
a generation ago. and are an inspira
ton to love of country
No man can see the old soldier of tn,
Army of the Potomac. the Cumberland
the Tennessee of the extreme West
recolcct what he and his comrades did
and suffered. without a new realization
of the cost of our institutions and a
| determination faithfully to sustain
them.
But the veterans have done no better
service to the nation than to establish
and maintain the Grand Army of the
| Republic. No more beneficent or use
Iul INSTITUTION mas ever existed IN any
country. Following the example OF
| Washington, who, after the close OF
the Revolutionary War, established
the Society of the Cincinnati among
the officers of the patriot armies. in or
der to keep alive that ardent love OF
country and liberty which Nod sus-
tanned our forefathers through their
seven, years struggle to defend the
new nation which they had brough,
into life, the Union veterans organized
the Grand Army of the Republic. They
wisely and justly included every brave
soldier of whatever grade.
The value to the nation of what II
has done as a body to consolidate and
keep active the patriotic spirit of the
people, to be an ever-prescnt object
lesson to the generation which has
been born since the war, it's whole
some effect upon public sentiment
Legislation, and it's liberal beneficence
to the old comrades in want and suf-
fering, can hardly be over-estimated
l know that it seems to harrow the
nerves of President Elliot of Harvard
college, and few people of his kind
which the country is SO unfortunate as
to have in its conglomerate population
that the old soldiers organize and sus-
tain each other in the hour of Their