The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1896-07-23

him to love this country the land of his birth or
the home Of his parents adoption-to love II most
| and best This country is educating him, this MAJ
ton wants him for its loyal citizen III calls Tor ms
love-his devotion. To him this Nation must be-
come the Nation of all the Garth
Does the Nation realize the responsibilities which
upon these political nonentities-these women
teachers If our public schools?
Think OF it, Our public schools are full oil children
who never hear word of English spoken at
home. They the offspring of parents who
habitually set all law at open defiance or secret
evasion These parents strangers TO our Anglo
Saxon ideas of morality and government. Ihey
nothing for America except that here they oo-
tain the living that they could not wiring from the
| pauper soil OF Europe. Can the public school
! teacher make patriotic Americans OF such chill
| dreu? That is what she is doing every day.
The hone OF our country is ia our children, ana
as our public schools conducted so VIII that
! hope be frustrated or fulfilled
Among the thinkers of the Nation. those who
LOYALTY elevate the Nation above the separate State,
the conyic ion grows that the National Government
should have control Of the public schools, reducing
| the uneven and conflicting systems To au educa-
tionaI uniformity aud raising the standard oil indi-
| vidual excellence.
The Nation educates her soldiers and her sailors.
| Why not her future citizens? Her very life depends
4 upon their loyalty. -,
Il is too late TO train voter when he Is on his
way to the polls; but the children may be trained
la the virtues of true citizenship. School children
must be taught that good name - better IMAM
riches and that the ballot-box Is as sacred as sn
| altar. :.
| The American child must be helped to realize
that material prosperity is not everything but that
is the soul of life, the divine compensation iof
| mans necessity for labor.
| In America our good is better than the best Of
other nations. What is bad has come from outside
sources shall be forth, and what 10 best IN
| other countries will take and make our own
aud stamp it with our Americanism.
! We are The people, and our country Is the one
| great Nation OF the earth.
| THE UNKNOWN DEAD.
Past Department Commander George s.
| Evans delivered a feryid Grafton as orator OF
the day at the dedication OF the Memorial urn,
| Cambridge Mass. erected by the several Keller
Corps of that city, in which he gave very vaIu-
| able statistics which he had colated concern
| ing the unknown dead in National Cemeteries.
| The following quotations are taken from his
| spiendid Grafton and should be preserved for
future reference by those who would keep be-
| fore them some idea of the extent and magni-
tude of the sacrifices made by the Union SOL
der for National unity and the preservation OF
the flag:
Who are the unknown deadP They are
the men who in line-of-battle were shot down
and who were buried tenderly by their com
radcs. They are the men who left nothing
about their clothing or their person to Indicate
who they were or what their names were. when
the smoke of battle had cleared away the hrst
duty OF the soldier was TO care Tor the dead anu
wounded. Maybe under flag OF truce or,
perhaps because the field had been evacuated,
the dead were buried. A shallow grave about
two feet deep was dug as best it could be, the
body wrapped in a blanket or some other avail
able covering if obtainable, earth thrown over
it. aud il there was anything to indicate who
the soldier was, his NAME company and regi-
mept was written upon piece of board, most
| frequently a piece of cracker box, and then left
with the hope that in the future there would
be a more formal burial. If the name was un-
known, then the grave had TO be left unmarked,
and the identity of the soldier was forever lost
Oh how sad these rites, and let me say here
that men were never buried more sacrediy, OF
more reverently, than were our Union DEAD by
their comrades-in-arms.
.Some time after the close of the war the
Government established Nation Al Cemeteries, In
which were to be buried the "oiles Of all Union
soldiers gathered from the different battlefield
Of the rebellion, and appointed commission
for that purpose. There are at present 81 o.
these cemeteries, in which are buried 1884, 40:
soldiers. or these 1895 are known, leaving
: l50,507 unknown graves. Besides these il II
safe to say that there are thousands OF h0dle:
buried in out-of- the-way places. by the roadside
on the hilltop, and in the valley, who are un
: known From the best information / car
gather it is safe to say there are 100000 un
known graves of Northern soldiers in the South
land Of our Nation. There were buried a
Corinth. Miss 1899 unknown, 1,790 known
| at Fayetteville, Ark, 1888 unknown, lO'
. known; at Florence, S. c.. 1854 unknown, 81;
| known; at Richmond, Va, 500 unknown, S5
known; at Vicksbnrg. Miss, 1921 unknown
| 1896 known; at Seven Pines, Va, l,226 un
known, l54 known.
''The saddest tale OF all is at Salisbury, n. c.
! where there are II. OBS unknown graves and bu
= l02 Of which are marked or known. This place
was a prison for Union soldiers, and it is sup
y posed that these men were buried from thu
prison. II such was the case the name Of ever,
| man was known To the rebel authorities ant
I | could have been placed over the grave of eacl
= soldier. Cruelty alone is accountable for thi
/, | neglect Even in Andersonville, Ca, anothe
: | prison, there are only 923 unknown graves
: while there are IL 1872 which are marked, show
: ing that the graves at Salisbury could hav
a been mark ed had there been any desire to d
i so.
AT Cold Harbor, Va, there ,960 graves o
Union soldiers, of which ,2SS unknown
OF the 672 marked graves l59 are known to b
% Massachus etts soldiers. You can imagine ho,
u many Massachusetts, men there were among tn
!" / 2SS unknown. There is in that cemetery
l. mound Of stones. picked up on the battlefield
upon which is this inscription Near this ston