The Minneapolis journal., 1901-07-31

purpose of assisting in the building of mon
ument upon these grounds, appropriated the
sum Of $4,000, and the patriotic school chill
dren of this city have contributed for the
same purpose the sum of $500. The associa-
tion at different times considered various
plans for raising money to build the monu-
I ment, thinking that suitable one could not
| be erected for much less than $4,000; but
nothing more came of their efforts until last
! fall, when it determined that the monument
| should be built, and although we had only
| $500, We nevertheless let a contract to build
| the monument for $780, trusting to the gen.
! erosity and patriotism of the legislature Of
/ the state to help US out. Subsequent events
proved that our trust was not in vain, for
the legislature at its last session appropriated
for this purpose the sum Of 81, 900, enough to
finish paying for the monument. And now
this association, through its president and on
behalf of the Grand Army of the Republic,
| desires to extend its thanks to all the men,
bers of the legislature and to the governor Of
! the state who signed the BILL to the Lake
wood Cemetery Association, and to the patri-
otic school children Of this city for the as
sistance which they have rendered in erect
ing upon this beautiful plat of ground a suit
able and lasting monument to the memory Of
those who to-day quietly sleep beneath its
shadows waiting until the great archangel
shall summon them with his trumpet to a
more glorious and final muster
| This monument, which was built under
these circumstances. we now unveil; and as
you look upon it, let your thoughts go out in
thankfulness to those who gave up their lives
that you might enjoy the blessings of the
greatest and the grandest republic the world
has ever known.
What the Monument Stands For,
| This monument represents not alone the
organization known as the Grand Army of
| the Republic, but in wider and broader
sense 1t includes every soldier in all the
branches of the service, who enlisted under
the stars and stripes, from the breaking out
of the war in 1861, when Fort Sumter was
] fired upon, down to its close in 1885, when Lee
at Appomattox surrendered his army to the
greatest Of all great generals Ulysses S.
| Grant. 1t represents more It represents the
highest type Of patriotisn2; it represents cour-
| age; it represents patience; it represents suf-
| fering; 1t represents self-sacrifce, and it rep
resentS manliness.
The struggle from which we emerged in 1865
was the most impassioned and eonvulsive
strife Of modern times It called out the
highest type of patriotism, and life and treas
| ure were freely given, with the holiest devo-
tion, to the cause of self-government. There
were killed in battle $1,000; mortally wounded
$4,000, and died from diseases and in prison
249, 600, making in all more than 1000
|
said, when this country could no longer en-
/ dure half slave and half free; that house
| divided against itself could not stand The
right OF state to withdraw from the union
at its pleasure or to obey the constitution
and laws Of congress If it saw At and the
right not only to continue slavery and slav-
ooracy in the south, but to establish it in
every northern state, had been a subject of
long aad bitter debate in and out Of congress,
and these questions could now be settled only
| through a long and bloody war.
| We could never nave become the great
nation providence evidently intended we
| should be, without the determination of those
questions in the way they were finally set
| tied, and in a way which closed debate for
| ever and settled them beyond any eontro-
| versy. This was sad circumstance Of
| fTatricdal strife between a people of the
| same blood, the same ancestry, the same love
for its past history, and having the same
flag.
Not Sacrificed in Vain.
The victims of this war are everywhere. in
| our national and private cemeteries in IN
known graves, in the swamps of Louisiana,
| Mississippi and Arkansas on the hillsides of
| Vicksburg and all over the fair and sunny
/ south, and some are at the bottom of the
/ sea; but their lives were not sacrificed in
J vain. The results Of this war proved that
| secession Of any state or states was i'm
| possible; that disunion was a thought which
would no longer be tolerated; that we must
and should be forever one people, under one
| flag; that the constitution and laws of the
United States should be obeyed and enforced
| everywhere; that no state could longer set
| up its petty authority and defy the enforce
ment of the laws of congress, and that slay-
| cry was forever abolished.
Our battlefelds will be memorable as +ha
| theaters of the conflicts of the neblest peonle
| the world had to offer the god of carnage.
and the monuments of our dead will be
pointed to by succeeding generations as the
proud records of the heroism of the American
people. The people of the north rose in
silent grandeur and went as one peorle
to the defense of their common country. The
world never saw a more splendid or patriotic
uprising than this. They came to the num-
Der of 2,06S,391 from rock-ribbed New Eng
land, from the middle states, and from the
great west, shoulder to shoulder, all prompted
by common patriotic thought
Thirty-six years have past since the close
OF that memorable struggle bu. as time has
gone on and the people have been busily
engaged in the race of life building IN a
great commercial nation, spanning the con-
tnent with railroads and by means of steam
and electricity almost annIhilating time and
space. they have net forgotten, and never
will, the sacrifice that was made by those who
were engaged in that struggle that we might
have one country end one flag.
No nation in all the history Of the world