Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-06-01
The following Is the address by Mr.,

Mr. Commandtr Ladies and Gentle
!, men, and Veterans of the Grand
| Army of the Republic:
have gladly responded to your in
vitation to speak to you tonight. This
Is my native city. Here on these glo-
rious hills, as boy, l spent many a
carefree hour. Here beside your beau
tiful river l wandered and frolicked
with my playmates. Here In school
and church learned many a lesson OF
earthly and heavenly wisdom. Here in
my boyhood home, / learned my first
Lessons of patriotism, and at my fathers
knee. heard the story of the war.
I Golden days We're those whose ex-
haustless glory shall never fade from
heart or brain, but shall endure even
beyond the grave. In thanking you
for the summons which has brought
me hither. let me say that l am glad to
be with you this evening and to rem
der such service as may be given by a
loving. loyal heart.
My friends, from a soul full of SYM
pathy and love and Quickened even to
| the point of conservation. l would
speak plainly to you of that which
| concerns us all most nearly. l ap-
preach this task with deep anxiety
| and a full sense of my inability to do
justice to the demands of this occasion
For the first time in manhood years, l
address the people of my native city
From a heart stirred by emotion and
filled with conservation. let me speak
to you, my friends, and God give me
wisdom to speak Alright,
Thirty yenrs and more have come
and gone since the closing of the war
| In this time many of the wounds have
healed and many scars have been
| erased. Let us hope that the past has
| long since been forgiven, but please
God. it has not been forgotten and it
never shall be while a spark of loyalty
remains in the hearts of the freemen OF
the North. We realize that the war is
| over. we have no desire to renew its
| conflicts or its controversies, and we
should have no desire to be less than
generous to our conquered brothers of
| the South. The Lord God Almighty
has led them from passion into reason
and has blessed them In defeat The
cause for which they fought SO bravely
he has adjudged wrong and that judg-
ment has been accepted by both North
land South. Today the South of ante
bellum days is fading from observance.
In the words of one of her most hon
ored leaders,
There was South of secession and
slavery that South is dead. There is
a South of union and freedom, that
South, thank God, is living, breath
| ing. growing every hour
! The tide of immigration and the in
/ Of fol hat cot tn
the North are obIterating Mason and
DiXon's line and bringing the two see
| lions into closer sympathy and better
| understanding. Let this continue for
| a generation longer and we may hope
that there will be no solid South or solid
North but one glorious undivided re-
public which shall cherish in love and
hold in reverential memory the remem-
brance of those brave men who fought
to settle principle which could be set
tied in no other way.
| Reasonable men, both North and
South... are rejoicing to behold what
promises to be the dawn of such an era.
And as a brave people can afford to be
a generous people. both sections North
and South can afford to let the ami
ndA3ies and bitternesses of the past
sinh cut of sight while each still clings
in bye and reverence to the memory of
it's fallen brave. A
| Linn sure no brave soldier of the
North would wish to estrange the South
Ifromsthe graves of her dead os1o turn
her from the monuments of hf& brave
sons Such a thought wouldtbe un
worthy of ourselves. And tt day,
lconsecrated by the victoriouSsNufth to
the memory of our loyal dead. k, ITO my
mind, not day for bitter feetipgs OF
the indulgence ofshatred or the tear
ling OPEN of old wounds. 1t should be
a day d peace, made sacred to the
memory, of the heroic deeds Of, the
brave nieh of the North and front their
example to teach our children lessons
of loyalty and lovesand patriotism.
1 1t is fitting that we should once
lEyear, at least, stand aside froms the
tpaths of our everyday pursuits and
Egive a time to the contemplation of
such examples WeHhre too prone. to
forget such things IN the rush and
worry and work of life and business,
and we too seldom go to these fue
sources of inspiration to rekindle With
in us the fires of patriotic devotion.1
Within a few weeks I stood in the
midst of that great cemetery at ar
Ilington. Here sleep $1,000 soldier dead
who fell in the war for the Union. 1t
lis consecrated ground, to which come
thousands every year from the North
and the South, the East and the West
to honor those who gave their lives
that the country might live. One can
not stand thus as l did within those
Isacred precincts without being brought
closer to the four years of sacrifice and
feeling his patriotism quicken. And
as I stood there in the midst of that
silent army, 10000 strong. where the
lheadstones stretch away in lines end
LESS to the vision. arrayed in order and
lmarsalled as battalions for review,
recalled the immortal words of Lincoln
speaking at Gettysburg.-'We cannot
dedicate. we cannot consecrate, we
lcannot hallow this ground. The brave
men, living and dead, who struggled
here have consecrated it far above our
power to add or detract. The world
will little note nor long remember what
we say here but it can never forget
what they did here. 1t is for us, the
living. rather to be dedicated here to
the unfinished work which they who
fought here have thus far SO nobly adj