Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1898-06-03
Memorial Day Address.
Synopsis 81 Rev. D. Donoyan's
Memorial Day ado dress. s. S s55

s 80 ~ -
DEAR FRIENDS, AND COMRADES OF
THE WORKMAN POsT: ~
Once again we meet as the years
are passing to honor the memory Of
the dead who died for their country.
to recall their services and their
sacrifices and to magnify the prin-
ciples for which they fought. It Is
fitting and proper that we should
thus do, for the living do but honor
themselves when they honor their
patriot dead. The,silent dead rest
ing in their graves need not our
tributes of love. They sleep needless
OF praise or blame, unless God in his
love permits the soul with the eye OF
the spirit to look from the battle
ments of heaven on the acts of men.
The ljving-need the stimulation OF
the day that they may rise to q
purer patriotism and a nobler life.
These children need the lesson of
patriotism and public duty, which
they learn from the survivors of the
great struggle of the '60's. standing,
in effect, by the graves of those who
died that the nation might live. We
gather today ON these beautiful
grounds, in sight of your beautiful
city, here by the homes of the
dead, where the silent dust
of many of your loved ones is
sleeping, we assemble to consider the
great lesson of duty to our country
and to each other. The men of the
post, the old soldiers. do not need
the inspira ton of patriotism today.
It is needed more By the promisuous
mass of those whose thoughts are
ordinarily running in other lines.
Our country is under new conditions
and relations today, and we need all
that the grander inspirations of
humanity and the higherprOmptings
of patriotism can give. While we
meet today our nation in unselfish
devotion to the rights OF the down
trodden and the oppressed, is devot-
ing her wealth and contributing her
sons to the high duty OF an unseltish
war. Let us then lift the shroud
which Time has thrown over the
buried years and recall the fading
past.
War is a great teacher. In the eos,
it arrayed us against slavery and
taught us that righteousness which
exalteth nations. It taught us the
advantage Of transcontlnental rail-
ways, and today it teaches the need
of an Isthmian canal, under Ameri-
can control. SO plainly, that even
partisan congressman ought to be
able to see it. Our battle ships in
place OF circumnayigating the CONT
f,ent ought o:pass only through The
mario " isthmus and the central sea.
War shows the advantage Of island
out posts. How plainly We now
understand how much the:Ha waiian
islands would count as a base for
attack or defense Of our western
shore. War teaches the advantage
of union, and we of the North and
South fortunately are in closer touch
and stronger sympathy today than
In any day since the legions of Lee
grounded arms at Appoma ttox.
Men of blue and of gray are march
ing side by side in common cause un-
der common flag, and Old Glory is
that f1ag-no doubt to gain new
luster from the united efforts of the
North and the South. We, too, are
brought in closer sympathy with our
motherland, the great, the free
Britannia, "whose flag has braved a
thousand years the battle and the
breeze" and navies dominate
the world of waters still.
But war teaches moral as well as
material philosophy. Unjust,
rapacious, bigoted Spain ruled SUBJ
ject peoples regardless of right or
humanity and red handed. War
avenged their wrongs, and despoils
the naughty Spaniard of the extern
sive possessions which he once held
on the Western continent.
Yes. it is true, new conditions and
have arisen this year
to add special interest to the
patriotic duty of honoring the men
who fought or. died for our country
in the '6O's. But it can be justly
claimed that the services OF the men
of the '6O's have made possible the
grander conditions of our country
today. It is only a free united ma
ton that would have right orpower
to zvindicate American freedom in
Cuba or to emblazen American glory
in Manila. Happily the lessons Of
American patriotism taught by the
Grand Army of the Republic have
not been bitter nor. sectional, While
they have always justly insisted on
the incompatible superiority oftheir
cause they have sDOken with honor.