Missouri Valley times., 1899-06-01
NATIONS DEAD HEROES
ARE REMEMBERED
Spanish-American War Gives an
Added Significance to Memoir
iaI Day 0bservances.
vAs1rERsoN's ELOQUENT WORDS
Brilliant Kcntuckian Orator OF the
Day at Louisvilic---Occasi
More Generally Observed
Than for Years.

Louisville, NY, May 3o.-Although
the day was gloomy and the rain
threatening the graves of union sol
diers in the cemetery in this city and
in the national cemetery at New AL
bany. Ind. were decorated by the G.
a. II. posts and school children, and
literary exercises were held at both
places, a general holiday being OBJ
served. Hon. Henry Watterson deliv-
cred the ofaton on this side of the
river, and Hon. Charles l.. Jewett, late
Judge advocate general of the Philip
pines, at New Albany.
Watterson's Address.
MIR. Watterson spoke as follows:
The duty which draws us together, and
the day-althoush appointed by law
come to us laden with a deeper meaning
the place which witnesses our coming
invests the occasion with increased SOL
emnty and significance. Within the pre-
cinets of this dread but beautiful city,
ronsecrate in all our hearts and all our
homes-for here lie our loved ones-two
plots of ground with but u hillock be-
tween. have been set aside to mark the
resting place of the dead of two armies
OF the union, the army of the confeder-
acy. 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
disembodied spirits. but i'm 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
at last fulfilled, and that the confederacy
swallowed up by the union lives again
in American manhood and brotherhood
such as We're contemplated by the MAX
ers of the republic.
To those of us who were the comrades
and contemporaries of the dead that are
buried here, who survived the ordeais of
battle and who live to bless the day,
there is nothing either strange or un-
coming for n long time: we have seen it
coming in the knship of ties even
close as those of a common country; in
the robust intercourse of the forum and
the market place: in the sacred inter
changes of domestic affections; but above
all. in the prattle of children who cam
not distinguish between the grandfather
who Wore the blue and the grandfather
who wore the gray.
1t is required of no man-which ever
flag he served under--that he make any
feiiunciation shameful to himself, and
therefore dishonoring to these grand
history the casting of the balance be-
tween antagonistlc schools of thought
essentials of fidelity and. courage We're
so amply met. Nor is it the part of wis
dom to regret a tale that is told. The
issues that evoked the strife of sections
thought to be irreconclable, and was GER
tainly Inevitable. ended more than thirty
years ago. 1t was fought to its bloody
conclusion by fearless and honest men.
I,. II 1nt Ia
1t was disappointment all 1T was final.
AS no man disputes 1T, let no man de-
plorc it. Let us rather believe that 1T
was needful to make us a 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 new south
who contested in generous rivalry UP the
flre-swept sleeps of FL Caney, and side
by side re-emblazoned the national char
acter in the waters about Corregidor ISL
and and under the walls of Cavite, let us
behold hostages for the old north and the
old south blent together in union that
knows neither point of the compass and
has flung its geography into the sea.
Great as were the issues we have put
behind us forever. yet greater issues still
Who shall fathom them? Who shall
forecast them? seek not to lift the veil
me to know that | have a country and
that my country leads the world. l have
lived to look upon its dismembered frag-
ments whole again: to see 1t, like the fa-
Arabian desert, slowly shape itself above
the plains and ashes of Il conllagration
that threatened to devour 1T; have
watched j; gradually unfold its magnitl-
cent proportions through alternating
tracks of light and shade; ! have stood
in awe-struck wonder and fear lest the
glorious fabric should fade into darkness
and prove but the insubstantal pageant
of vision: when. 10, out of the misty
depths of the far away Pacific came the
booming of Dewey's guns. quickly fol-
lowed by the answering voice of the guns
of Sampson and Shafter and Schley. and
] said: 1T is not dream. 1t is Gods
promise redeemed. With the night of Sec
has passed from the scene. and. in the
light of the perfect day that is come, the
nation finds. as the first fruit of its new
birth Of freedom. another birth of great
ness and power and renown.
Fully realizing the responsibilities of
this and the duties that belong to ii,
for one. accept it, and all that it brings
with 1t and implies. thankful that 1. too,
am an American. Wheresoever it's star
may lead. / shall follow; nothing 10th,
or doubling: though it guide the nations
footsteps to the furthermost ends of the
earth. Believing that in the creation and
the preservation of the American union
the hand of the almighty has appeared
from first to last that his will begat it,
and that his word has prevailed. that i'm
the war of the revolution and in the civil
war the incidents and accidents of battle
left no doubt where providence inclined:
II the star that now shines over us, at
once a signet of Gods plan and purpose
and a hcavcnsent courier of civilization
and religion, shall fix itself above the
steppcs of Asia and the sands of Africa
II shall but confirm me in my faith that
The judgments of the Lord are true and
righteous altogether