Union gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1899-1900, 1900-03-23

heritage to the worthy wearers more
valuable than gold, yea than much fine
gold" The affections OF a whole people
| for meritorious services performed for
our common country, is one of the most
striking things in our history; it is the
grandest tribute that can be paid to
man, it is the joining of rivulets from
| thousands of sources into one grand
volume of human affection; monu-
ment more lasting than marble, more
beautiful than bronze-the breath OF
God through the best impulses OF the
human soul It has striking illus
tration in the manifestations to Ad-
.miral Dewey, the living hero of Manila,
and sGeneral Lawton, the dead hero
Of the Philippines. The, living and the
dead both dear to US, both held in high
esteem, and embraced by the warmest
affections of seventy millions of people:
While swe rejoice with the living
heroes and feel that our whole country
has been elevated and our national char
acter made more energetic, and given
additional lustre, brightness and force,
by their brave deeds, and We feel an
additional pride in being American
citizens, yet in addition to all this,
there is a holier feeling of veneration-
Nearer, my God, to Thee" peryades
our whole being when we commune
with the heroic dead.
When the president of this great
Nation with his cabinet sat at the feet
of General Lawton in the great cathedral
at the national capitol, under the peals
of the grand organ sending forth
mournful dirge over the dead hero, 1t
was more impressive than the cheering
of the thousands who assembled to
witness the passage of Admiral Dewey
under the $3.50, 900 arch in the great city
of New York. The one passed through
that grand arch as living hero, the
other passed through grander arch
that reaches from time to eternity;
mourned on this side by his whole
country, but welcomed on the other side
by angelic hosts of the brave and true,
that no man can number, extending
from Bunker Hill to Manila, and led by
Washington, Lafayette, jackson and
Grant.
1t is consoling thought tina. the dead
are beyond the reach of envy and malice.
Admiral Dewey has been stung by the
shafts of these demons, while General
Lawton rests in peace and is embalmed
in, the affections of grateful nation.
These manifestations of affectionate
esteem are no higher in their sources,
though they may be greater in volume,
than those earned and generously and
freely paid to the humblest private in
the ranks, who did his duty and magni-
fed his country according to his oppor-
tunities, whether he gave up his life
on the battle field, or in the hospital in
her service, and so as we carefully,
lovingly, and tearfully lay away our
neighbor boy, We do so with feelings OF
deepest sorrow over his loss. The
humblest heart can heave sigh as
deep as the proudest, and the mournfnl
privilege is accorded to us, of swelling |
the ascents of grief which have been
poured out oyer the graves of the
leaders, with larger but not more sin
cere utterance.
''Thus, O brave heart, we bear thee
to thy rest!" Thus with the affections
of grateful people, and the gratitude of
a great state, we leave thee to the equal
grave, and though no marble slab may
ever mark thy final resting place, yet
Thy name will find place on our great
state monument with our fallen heroes,
and will be- read with grateful emotions
by thousands yet unborn.