Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-05-31
GODS PROMISE REDEEMED. %
Address of Henry Watterson in the Union
Division of Cave Hill Cemetery. Louis

Division of Cave Hill Cemetery. Louis.
ville.,
LOUISVILLE, Ky, May 30.-Although
the day was gloomy and dismal with rain
threatening, the graves of the Union sol
diers who sleep in the cemeteries of
Louisville and New Albany, Ind, Were
lovingly decked with flowers to-day. At
the graves there was beautiful musical
service followed by the Grafton of the
day by the Hon. Henry Watterson
Mr.. Watterson spoke in substance as
follows:
The duty which draws us together, and
the day-although appointed by law
come to us laden with deeper meaning
than they have ever borne before; and
the place which witnesses our coming in
vests the occasion with Increased solemn
ity and significance. Within the pre-
cincts of this dread, but beautiful city
.corsecrate IN all our hearts and all our
homes-Sor here lie our loved ones-two
plots of ground. with but a hillock be-
tween, have been set aside to mark the
resting place of the dead of two armies
that in life were called hostile, the Army
of the Union, the Army of the Confed-
eracy. We come to Decorate the graves
of those who died fighting for the Union.
Presently others shall come to decorate
the graves of those who died fighting for
the Confederacy. Yet, if these flower
covered mounds could open and the brave
men who inhabt them could rise not as
d.senibodied spirits but in the sentient
flesh and blood which they wore when
they went hence, they would rejoice as
we do that the hopes of both have been
al last fulfilled. and that the Confed-
eracy, swallowed up by the Union, lives
again in American manhood and brother
hood, such as were contemplated by the
makers of the Republic
To those of US who We're the comrades
and contemporaries of the dead that are
buried here, who survived the ordeal of
battle and who live to bless the day,
there is nothing either strange or I'M
natural IN this, because we have seen it
coming for long time; re have seen it
coming in the kinship of ties even as
close as those of a common country; in
the robust intercourse of the forum and
the. market-place in the sacred inter-
changes of the domestic affections; but,
above all, in the prattle of children who
cannot distinguish between the grand
father who wore the blue and the grand
father who wore the gray
1t is required of no man-whichever
flag he served under-that he make any
remuneration shameful to himself and
therefore dishonoring TO these grand
children, and each may safely leave to
history the casting of the balance be-
tween antagonist.c schools of thought
and opposing camps in action, where the
essentials of hdehty and courage were so
amply met. Nor is it the part of wisdom
TO regret tale that is told The issues
that evoked the strife Of sections are
dead issues. The conflict, which was
thought to be irreconciiable and was GER
tainly inevitable, ended more than thirty
years ago. IT was fought to its bloody
conclusion by fearless and honest men
To some the result was logical-to others
1t was disappointing-to all It was final
As no man disputes it, let 10 man de-
plore it, Let us the rather believe that
it was needful TO make US nation. Let
US the rather look upon it as into a
mirror. seeing not the desolation of the
past but the radiance of the future; and
in the heroes of the New North and the
New South who contested in generous
rivalry up the fre-swept steep of Ell
Cdney, and side by side re-emblazoned
the national character in the waters
about Corregtdor Island and under the
walls of Cavite, let US behold hostages
for the old North and the old South
blent together in a Union that knows
neither point of the compass and has
flung its geography into the sea
Great as We're the issues we have put
behind us forever. yet greater issues stin
rise dimly upon the view
Who shall fathom them? Who shall
forecast them? l seek not to lift the vail
on what may lie beyond. 1t is enough
for me TO know that have country
and that my country leads the world. /
have lived to look upon its dismembered
fragments whole again. to see it. ike the
tabled bird Of wopdrq1s plumage upon
the Arabian desert. slowly SHAPE itse1