Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1899-06-09
NO. 7.


French people?
Can, we, then, value too highly gov
ernment which has all this time known
but one flag; which has been sufficiently
strong to preserve its authority both at
home and upon the deep, and vet so lib
eral that the citizen has hardly felt the
finger tip of its power? 4 government
which has strangely grown from mere
handful of Inen to more than seventy
millions; a government which from its
very foundation has been the hope of the
world, and which today stands in higher
repute in every quarter of the globe than
ever before, and frmer than ever before
in the pride and affection of her own
people? Can We estimate too highly the
value of such government? Can We
name price for which we would be
willing to exchange it for any other GOV
ernment upon the face of the globe?
Nay, verify Then my friends how can
you ever sufficiently honor the memory
of those brave men, who, when the up-
lifted hand of treason threatened the life
OF that government, volunteered to step
forth and themselves receive the yengf
ful stroke, safely delivering the Republic
from her enemies and bringing her now
well past her one hundreth birthday
amid the triumphs of peace?
Those brave men! When the govern
ment called for help against host in
arms:
"How they went forth to die:
Pale earnest thousands from the dizzy
mills,
And sunburnt thousands from the har-
| vest hills;
Quick, eager thousands from the citys
streets,
And storm-tried thousands from the fish
ers fleets;
How they went forth to die"
And how they fell all along the red
burrows of that four years struggle
Some at Manassas, when we first felt the
hot breath of the enemy and knew he
was in earnest; some in sight of the
spires of Richmond in 1862, little think
ing that the army of the Potomac still
had before them three terrible wears. and
that the road to Richmond went by way
of Antietam, Gettysburg, the Wilderness
and Five Forks. Others fell in the tan
gled swamps along the sluggish bayous
of the great river; others among the
mountains, some above the clouds, even;
and others still, spectral host while yet
they fingered in the flesh, filled the ca
pacious trenches at Andersonyille, Sails
bury and Belle Isle. What anxious
thoughts of home and friends must have
filled the souls of those brave young fell
lows, dying by the wayside, in camp, on
the field and in the prison pen, as they
foresaw their burial on a hostile soil in
nameless graves to be known and heard
of among men no more forever, with no
tomb even to plead remembrance with
the living! And yet these lonely deaths
without any watchers from among earth's
children were full of glory. The soldier
shot on picket guard, or wounded and
left on the field, as the life currents were
ebbing, frequently had only the angels
and God for his watchers. And yet, like
one of old
Had he not high honor?
The hillside for his pail;
To lie in state, while angels wait,
With stars for tapers tall; Tplumes.
And the dark rock pines with tossing
Over his bier to wave; rland,
And Gods own hand, in that lonely
To lay him in the grave"
When the Lydian king asked the great
Athenian philosopher, who was the hap
piest among men, he replied that" No
man should be pronounced happy till his
DEATH" If this bit of pagan philosophy
be sound and it seems not to contra
vene the Christian view of death - then
may we we'll exclaim, Fortunate men
to have died in an era so notable, in a
cause so great. Your triumph is COM
plete. Your fame is placed where the
breath of calumny can never reach it :;
) where the mistakes of a weary life can
never dim its luster. Your glorious death
has won for you an immortality in two
worlds; in this and in the world to
come"
, Does some one ask why this procession
today? Why these flags? Why this
music and these flowers with mingling
; of melody and fragrance? The answer
is only because of those little mounds on
yonder hillside. There is, then, some
, how a mighty power in the memory of
the dead. And it is well in the fresh
t spring time, as nature radiant with
: smiles emerges from her winding sheet
e of ice and snow into new life, so suggest
e i've of the resurrection from death to life
!, eternal, for the living to visit the resting
y place of the dead. 1t is well, as the
+ flowers begin to bloom and the birds be-
t gin to sing for the living with those
n flowers in their hands and with some
y thing of the music of the birds in Their
S hearts, to repair to the place where rests
C the dead; and there from the silence OF
y the grave receive instruction there, also