Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1901-05-29
THE HISTORY OF MEMORIAL DAY


around their sacred remains and garland
the passionlesS mounds above them with
the choicest flowers Of springtime; let US
raise above them the dear old flag they
saved from dishonor; let US in this
solemn presence renew our pledges to
aid and assist those whom they have
left among us a sacred charge upon ma
tons gratitude, the soldiers and sailors
widow and orphan.
IL 1t is the purpose Of the commander
in chief to inaugurate this observance with
the hope that it will be kept up from year
to year, while a survivor of the war re-
mains to honor the memory Of his departed
comrades. He earnestly desires the pub
lie press to lend its friendly aid in bringing
to the notice of comrades in all parts Of
the country in time for simultaneous COM
pliance Herewith.
III. Department commanders will use eff
forts to make this order effective. BY
order of
JOHN A. LOGAN,
Commander in Chief.
Into almost every community in the north
this proclamation found its way, and the
people responded as they had responded to
the call to arms. This time, however, none
were disqualified. Mothers, daughters,
wives, sweethearts, the young and the aged,
joined the throngs that marched in the
streets, that pressed about the burial plots
eager to lay upon the graves of the country's
fallen defenders the wreaths of flowers
which loving hands made. So unanimous
was the response that in corresponding
order which was issued by Logan in the
year following was inserted this para
graph:
The commander in chief desires to thank
those patriotic men and women who gave
their aid and sympathy on former Occa-
sion to make successful this national
Memorial day, and they are cordially in
vited to unite with the comrades of the
grand army in the approaching cere-
monies, and he thanks the loyal press
everywhere, through whose generous aid
lasting record has been made of the OBJ
servances one year ago. To the congress
of the United States the comrades are es-
pecially indebted for authorizing the pub
LEGATION, in book form, of the proceedings
Of last May, and for the promise held out
that each year a coInpila ton will be made
and published, as national recognition
of sympathy with these memorial observ-
ances.
While Memorial day is not national le-
gal holiday, many state legislatures have
made the day state holiday sacred to the
memory of the nations heroes Some states
which have no statutory holidays also OBJ
serve the day. In some sections of the
south the 9th of April has been the date
upon which to garland the graves of the
confederate dead. Each succeeding year
it is apparent from the speeches of Memo
rial day orators, both north and south, that
the old sectional feeling is disappearing.
No event since the civil war has better
served to draw the north and the south to-
gether than the late war with Spain. These
great sections of the country wed with
each other in furnishing men to fight
common foe, and they now join each other
in paying tribute to the fallen. In the i'm
pressive ceremonies which not long since
attended the burial, at Arlington, of some
of the soldier boys who gave up their lives
in Cuba, every state and territory of the
union felt that it had an interest and a
part. With common gratitude and sorrow
the north and the south will in future gath
er at the graves of the nations heroes and
make fragrant with flowers a common
Memorial season They will remember that
their countrymen "have stood to their
guns and been shot down in greater COM
parative numbers than any other race on
earth," and yet, withal, that we are not
a warlike people--that the great mass of our
citizens desire only freedom and justice.
''The war;" Gen. Grant once prophesied,
referring to the strife of 81, "has made us
nation of great power and intelligence
We have but little to do to preserve peace,
happiness and prosperity at home, and the
respect of other nations. Our experience
ought to teach us the necessity of the first,
our power secures the latter. [ feel that
we are on the eve of a new era when there
is to be great harmony between the federals
and the confederates. | cannot stay to be
a living witness of this prophecy, but feel
it within me chat it is to be so. The uni
versally kind feeling expressed for me, at
a time when it was supposed that each day
would prove my last, seemed to me the be-
gl1ning of the answer to let us havepeace.