The San Francisco call., 1896-05-31

the audience, and the oration of the day
was then delivered by the Rev. J. H. Ma
comber, United States Army. An idea of
its general drift is given in the annexed
citations:
Comrades of the Grand Army, ladies and
gentlemen, and fellow citizens, we are assem-
bled here on this, our Nations holy day. not TO
advance the Interests of partisanship, nor for
self agrandizement, but Tor holy purpose
Forgetting for the day party, creed and sect
we mingle and commingle as is being done in
like gatherings all over the Nation that we
may bear some humble part, that we may share
memory and patriotism, of our loyal dead. ON
Memorial day the people of this Nation gather
at the shrine OF their treasured dead to show
that they are not unmindful of the faithful
services rendered and the costly sacrifices
made by the thousands who went down to the
grave to the music of the battle march and
cannons roar.
Who, on the altar of heaven born patriotism.
laid as free-will offering for their country's
good, home, friends, service, all. In the pres
ence OF great events, great heroism, men ali
most lnstinctlvly seek to mbody their graft
tude in some lasting memorial. Our grand
American Republic was threatened with dis
ruption and ruin, but by the devotion and
death of her loyal citizen soldiery she escaped
that calamity, ana Memorial day is the monu-
ment reared by grateful Nation and estab-
lished as medium through which the great
event shall be kept in mind. And We learn
that this is not without classic precedent-not
in exact form, but similar in purpose.
The history of our memorial day in its in
cipiency is most beautiful and touching. In
1864 graves of our Union dead were scattered
throughout all the Southern States and no one
did them honor. In the spring of that year
the lately emaneipated colored men, with a
lofty recognition of the vicarious sacrifice of
the Union dead for their emancipation, with a
love Athat shone more brightly because OF
their poverty and humiliation. with tender
sympathy almost sublime, gathered from field
and wood the wild flowers in their fragrance
and beauty and under the cover of night they
stole softly to the last resting place of our
fallen heroes and with teardrops glistening on
their sable faces with tender hands laid
thereon their floral offerings, thus expressing
the gratitude they could not express in words
More imposing and stately, but never more
lovingly and devoutly and with more pious
Yeneraiion, will the services of Memorial day
be performed. Where no loving kindred could
and where no other hands would at that time
unbidden, unknown, moved by no other mo-
tive than purest patriotism and truest graft
tude, soul deep, those simple-hearted men
then and there all unconsciously inaugurated
a memorial that shall never die, but shall
grow more and more sacred as the years roll
on and our Nation continues to exist
This Nation can never forget the saviors OF
our Union who, with the battlefield for their
bier and their own blood for their winding
sheet, were buried in graves made sacred be-
cause of the deposit-the conquering heroes in
the fratricidal war. When their labors, their
courage, their endurance, their sacrifices are
remembered the immense cost at which their