The record-union., 1896-05-30
IN MEMORY OF OUR HEROES.
CONTINUED from Fifth Page.)

q
land where the memorial shaft of brass
or marble does not tower skyward to
remind the successive generations as
they pass of the heroes who have
fought and died for their country on
some foreign field.
France looks up to her column of
July, surmounted by the figure of Ma
poieon. Germany to her colossal
statue of Frederick the Great. Russia
to her images of Peter. Britain to the
stern face of her Iron Duke, and the
bronze counterfeits of Nelson. In
every case it is a man who stands at
the top of the column, a colossus OF
conquest, raised to the clouds from a
pedestal at whose base lies millions OF
common soldiers, who fell unWept, un-
honored and unsung. 1t has been ap-
propriately reserved for the great re-
public to initiate new order of mar
tlal commemoration, and nothing in
her broad domain affords a truer earn
est of the freer and juster and more
equal civilization, of which she was
the cradle, and is still the chief GUS
fcdfan, than the simpler monuments
which dot her commons and public
squares, surmounted with the figures
of the common soldiers and sailors
and inscribed simply but strongly, In
the memory of the soldiers and sailors
who fell in the war for the Union
The Old World builds its monuments
to individual greatness; the New
World holds in supremest gratitude the
common sacrifice of the plain people.
We are not without military glory
but it is not the glory of one man ris-
ing above his fellows, and towering like
a demigod among men. 1t is the glory OF
the masses of mankind. When France
thinks of Marengo and AuSterlitz, ii
IS only Napoleon, Ney and Soult, whom
she deifies. When Britain boasts OF
Trafalgar, it is only the form of Nelson
that she sees through the smoke of the
'V1ctory's guns. If she revertS to Blen-
heim it is Marlborough, or if to Water
100, Wellington. The common soldier
as forgotten. 1t is only the one hero
who is remembered.
The American Republic has her in
divfdual heroes, the luster of whose
achievements will not pale by COM
parfson with any of the great COM
manders of other lands and times. She
has her Grant and her Logan; her Sher-
man and her Sheridan; her Mcclellan
and her Meade; her Hancock, Thomas
Hooker, Farragut, and a score of other
deathless names of men, whose cour-
age and skill as commanders are part
OF her imperfshable renown. And yet
we have still another whose name and
memory will never be forgotten; no.
not as long as there is a star in that
blue field, or in the canopied heavens
4hnVa. In,acr T.
patriot left to sing the battle songs OF
the republic.
1t seems to me as If I now beheld him
In the midst of that grand galaxy OF
American heroes, rising as if from
flames eternal camping ground" the
towering form of the matchless, the
martyred, the immortal Abraham Lin
coin.
These have their fitting tribute and
their just reward, but let us thank God
this day that their deeds, brave and
brilliant as they were, dazzled but
never dazed the republican sentiment
of the people. When they come to erect
statues and monuments, and to de-
cree a day of remembrance for the per-
petua1 consecration of that great con-
fiict, they inscribed and devoted them
diers and sailors, the men who went
out from the farms, the factories and
the workshops and the counter, and
made the glory of Grant and Logan and
Sherman and Sheridan and the fame
of Farragut alike possible. They saved
the past and secured the future. They
reaffirned the judgment of Yorktown
and destroyed the last hope of kings
IN 4 hi +f,aay 1.
Republic and washed from her robe the
stain Of slavery. They made the final
award between Webster and Calhoun
and affirmed that this is and forever
must remain an indissoluble union ot
indestructlble States. They secured tC
this continent a republican form oil
government and rewrote Cannin's cpl
gram. II call new world into exist
ence to redress the balance of the old. .
They preserved the integrity of a ma.
tion of 30,000,000 of people, already a
nation of double that number, that pays
them the annual homage of their graf
itude, and when we have grown, as
statists tell us we shall grow, to a ma
tion of 100000 of people, their rest
ing places shall be the Meccas of patri-
otic pilgrims, and the pledges of oul
one government, the dominant ani
dominating democracy of the earth.
The flowers of a, hundred springs were
all too few to cast upon their graves
They died that the nation might live
and these poor offerings which we bring
once a year to scatter on their dust
what they are-mere tokens and sym
bols of boundless reverence, meagel
dividends on a debt of gratitude thai
may never be paid in full Yes, it's al
that we can give. On those clear nights
where now their happy spirits walk
what are the beauty and fragrance OF
earth's fading flowers? The blossoms
of Gods eternal garden are theirs. il
is for US, not for them, that we strev
the first fruits of our gardens above
their clay. They need them not They
have entered into their rest, and moth.
ing we may do or leave undone car
touch them more.
But for us there is inspiration and i'm
pulse in this day. In the presence Of
their bright memories and spurred By
their exalted examples, we may perhaps
be lifted for one day in the years dul
round of days onto a mount of trans
figuration, where, communing with
their spirits, We may discern, though