Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-06-02

Itney all nuTTlcu o"@J ~
union of the states and the hper'y u
mankind.
Really those were days that tried
mems souls. From the valleys ana nil
sides they volunteered. From the
north, east and west. the grandes.
army the world ever saw marcheu
down through the streets OF our sranu
cities and villages, down across the
fields and prairies, down to the field OF
battle. to do or to die for the eternal
right. Proudly they marched away
under the Haunting flags, keeping step
to the wild grand music of war. HOW
they fought and how they conquered
| all the world knows. The war Is over.
| no longer is there sound OF the pois-
ferrous drum or the silver note OF the
heroic bugle. The army overcoat Oh
| blue Is faded, but the memory OF the
men who braved the shot ana smell
will never fade and grow dim.
This day wildly calls to mind their
heroism and their suffering. We re-
member their weary marches. We
remember how they died in hospitals
of pain, how they persisted in the skel-
eton clutch of famine and Anderson
vile and Libby. how in the wilderness
they stood, slowly bleeding away
among the withered leaves the life that
they and others cherished. And we
also remember how, weary, parched
with thirst under the burning sun OIL
| those hot July days at GettysDurs'
| they fought more like demons than
men, holding Little Round Top, ping
| the "wheatfield" with dead, defending
the old stone wall. hurting back pickets.
made charges and driving Lee back
over the mountain wall into Virginia.
broken and shattered, leaving the soil
of the North sacred from being ever
again invaded by rebel hosts.
| They conquered, and in contempla-
| ting the great victory we are too apt to
| forget what they suffered. And in the
prison-pens of the South. those dens of
hatred and famine-but human speech
| can never tell what they endured.
| With no bed but the frozen earth, with
| no covering but the clouds of heaven,
| with no food but that which worms
had refused to eat with no friends but
insanity and death. cruelty unspeaka-
BILE, outrage infinite. but they kept the
flag in the air-and today. all over this
1
men, who risked their lives in the dark
night of the nations peril, is cherished
and honored. A mighty nation. today.
bends it's head in sorrow over honored
graves. and pays its tribute of memory
and tears. There We're brave women
as well as brave men in the days OF the
war And. however unusual 1t may be
| in a memorial address, ! deem IL not
| simply a justice but a duty. TO speak
of the patriotism. self-sacrifice and
sublime courage manifested by the
women of the North during those dark
and discouraging years of the civil war
| 1t took courage to part from hus-
bands, not knowing but that it might
be forever. Mothers gave up their
sons and maidens their lovers. The
home and family of children Were
often cared for by the mother alone.
| The women sent food and clothing to
| the front, and like angels of mercy,
| they were found nursing the sick anu
| wounded in hospitals of pain and even
upon the field itself. And to the ever
| lasting honor and credit to the women
of the North, let it be said that in all
the thousands and hundreds of thou
l
by the women to the front. not one can
be found where a woman ever advised
her husband to drop his musket and
return home. The war liberated the
slaves. 1t gave every peasant a
career and knighted every son of toll
| 1t put the star of hope above the cradle
of the poor mans babe. 1t was con-
fict that could not be avoided.
From the beginning of the govern
ment there We're two civilizations in
| this country, one in the North, the
other in the South. They We're as far
apart as the poles and as different as
the day and the night. The North was
moral and radical-the South proud
and chivalrous, The South considered
| the negroes property. and was not only
filled with Indignation but anger be-
cause the North objected to the insti-
tuition of slavery. The line of demark-
alton of opinion between the two sec
tons of country upon this great ques-
ton was no less pronounced and divid-
| ing than was the Mason and Dixon line
as regarding territory. But in the
North the people pittied the slave and
| in thousands Of homes and by thous-
ands of firesides, men, women and
children read Uncle Toms Cabin" and
with burning hearts and wet tears
cursed an institution that sanctioned
the selling of babes from mothers
breasts, that tracked helpless women
with blood hounds through swamps
and whipped the ignorant and the in
nocent The pulpit became aroused, the
press bold and the beacon fires of free
dom were lSindled on the Northern
hilltops, and they burned and burned
until their terrific heat melted the iron
shackles from the dusty wrists of three
million slaves.
This great struggle cost billions of
dollars and the blood OF the bravest
and most intelligent race of men that
ever inhabited the globe. In the viii
lage of Fairfield, where / live, there is
q beautiful monument erected in honor
of it's dead soldiers. Coming down
through the park the other day, l no.
ticed that mute memorial of granite
was headed, zone Country" Splendid
country, magnificent republic. one
country! The great principle necessary
to nculcate for perpetuity and success
of our institutions. is the prevalence of
the idea of national unity. OF this