The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-05-31

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tinua honor and love of the land they
had saved
| No calculations can estimate the debt
owed by this nation to the Grand Army
of the Republic. Look at the land they
preserved. What extent of boundaries.
what wealth of possession through their
efforts do we own today, Five oceans
wash our shores; on the loom of two
hemispheres appears the mighty fabric
that we call the United States Wealth
beyond the desires of avarice reaped amid
the chorus of well-paid toll
Science seizes the cataracts and chains
them to light her cities and enliven their
machinery. Art and literature uplift life.
Commerce, impelled by the heart-beats
of the nation, throbs through the arter-
les of the world.
The United States, what is it? A spin
ter from an old-world oak that has
grown to mighty proportions in the land
where the pools and forests of the will
derness have been changed by the magic
wand of labor into farms and munich
palities. Proudly We wear the stars
in the diadem of ages See what our ed
vocational force has accomplished; no sla-
very, no freeman's utterance choked by
the hand of power; a credit, at the head
of the worm $ finances; great Navy:
an Army that will spring up full-armed
from our stores and factories, our farms
and counting houses, at the tap Of the
drum; the greatest, freest nation under
the light of the sum- (Applause.)
And all owed to the men who fought
in the days of 1861 for liberty and the
Union. If they had faltered If they had
failed if they had thought of their own
safety and saved themselves from the
possible sickness and death that the flu
ture held for them, we might now be
only the broken fragments of once
powerful nation.
Events of the last few years have add
ed greatly to our wide domain. The
ground upon which l now stand was but
a short time ago 1000 miles from our
western borders and is now the geo
graphical center of that vast parallelo-
gram that extends from the Gulf Stream
10, 600 miles to Chinese seas and 5000 miles
from the Caribbean seas to the Antarc-
tic Ocean; all under the shadow of the
hammered stars Perhaps the extent of
our vast possessions may be best de-
scribed by the fact that ships now rav-
cling between American ports can lese
or gain day upon the voyage.
These acquisitions have added to the
Union races unaccuStomed to the use of
our privileges and duties.
Shall We govern these people accord
ing to European ideas OF adhere to the
American doctrine of first education and
then assimilation? Shall We elevate or
lower to the plane of despotism? Shall
we create of our, government a probate
court of control with letters of guar
dianship over these dusky races? Rath-
er let us hold aloft the fambeau of
American civilization that all may join
in its music and march beneath its light.
believe that the noblest principle, the
wisest policy to all who dwell beneath
the folds of our flag and are entitled to
its privileges should share with us
equally the heritage of time. its benefits
and privileges.
Were / a Hawaiian born, and in my
veins flowed the blood of kings, I would
feel that nothing in the monarchy 1 had
lost would equal the American citizen
ship that I had gained, and would cry
aloud to the Stars and Stripes, Aloha
nut. (Applause.) .
The silent occupants of those graves
bestrewn today with flowers have car
ried their records with them into the be-
yond for only the Omniscient to adjudge.
For US 1t remains to honor their mem
DRY. In. this remembrance 1t is easy to
understand the words of the evangelist
thousand years are as a day. 2ne
years shrfvel scroll as we see them
as they marched forth forty years ago.
Bearded men and youths with the down
of early manhood upon their faces moist
ened in a chrism of the farewell tears OF
wives, sisters, mothers, sweetnearts. 1
see Them. helms high set, animated with
lofty purpose, marching. marching to the
war music Of just cause as to an an
them of angels-marching marching for
God and country. that slaves may be re-
leased from suffering; marching to
wounds that Freedom may not be wound
ed; to death. that the country may live.
Not by crowns of gold nor diamond
studded dtadems can we show what we
owe to the Union dead. All that we can
do is this silent ministry OF flowers |
strewn above their graves, the ming
ling of the laurels and the lilies, the fra |
grant flowers above the mortal remains
of those who have Joined the union Of
spirits and have long ago received the |
reward of those who die for mankind
Prolonged applause greeted the concur |
sion of the Grafton. The reading Of the |
ritual was then continued by the Adtu-
tant. and Captain Lyle Dickey of the |
Sons of Veterans.
A firing party of sixteen privates and |
three on-commissioned officers of the |
Sixth Artillery fired, with military pre-
cision, the regulation three rounds of !
blank cartridges across the little cluster
Of graves of the departed veterans. The I
bugler sounded Taps" and as the mel
ancholy strains died away, Fred. Terriu.
the officer of the day. superintendent the /
strewing of flowers across the grassy
mounds. The chaplain then concluded
the ritual, the crowd sang the national
anthem and after the benediction follow
ed and reform procession as 1t marched
back to town to all the old wartime
airs.