Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-06

hung up for monuments. Great tracts Of
country that had trembled under gun-fire
and had been plowed by shell, that had
been drenched with blood and furrowed
with trenches for the dead. had grown calm
and green. Fields of grain were waving in
! the once desolated valley of the Shenan-
doah and over the war-worn plain Of east
Virginia. 4 generation had been born and
had come to manhood in the country of the
James, the Chckahominy, the Rappahan-
mock and the Rapidan; the Mississippi the
Cumberland and the Tennessee. Many
monuments and a myriad of tombs had
been built over the land and long lines of
simple stones white still and eloquent, had
arisen at Gettysburg. Sharpsburg, Airing
ton, Alexandria, Fredericksburg and scores
of other places. Old cannon were green
from long disuse and bayonets were rusty.
Earthworks that had not been cut away
were upgrown with trees or jungle.
There had been a score and seven years
of peace, but now and then blood dripped
from the old wound. There were some
memories that would not rest. A strange
iIllllS CdiiSu pOIllICS WOulu Hut icI tiiiC
sweeten the awful bitterness of civil war.
All swords were sheathed, but unknd
tongue or vengeful pen would some times
prick old scars. That was in September,
1892
Ten years have come and gone since the
Grand Army of the Republic trod the
streets Of Washington. In that decade the
organization has shrunk in numbers, but
gained in the peoples love. Death that did
not come to these men in the guise Of Mars
has come to many Of them in the form Of
age. Year by year Valhalla claims an in
creasing host" But as the Grim Reaper
gathers his harvest the country clngs the
closer to those who have escaped his scythe.
The actors in Americas heroic age grow
dearer as their ranks get thin.
In the companies of marching men today
there are few on whom the passing years
have not set their mark. There are fewer
whose step is alert and whose eye is keen.
They marched grandly in 1865. they march
proudly today; but they are getting old.
The thoughts of men go forward to that
time when the Grand Army Of the Republic
will be but dust in the earth and brave
example to the generations that are to
come. 1t is a solemn thought, but 1t 10
Gods way.
Washington gives reverent thought to the
men who marched here in 1861, "a. '65 and
'92, and whose souls are where no trumpet
calls to arms, no bugle sounds the charge.
The capital does not forget the dead while
she cheers with all her heart the men who
march today. She gives a welcome which.
as a distinguished local writer has said,
contains within itself the aggregated
warmth and enthusiasm and gratitude Of
all the greetings Of the past" If Washing
ton could compress all her emotions and
tell them in just one word, that word would
be "Welcome"
1t is significant that today everybody
shouts hurrah! as the soldiers, with their
riddled flags, go by Washington was
founded in the south and by the south.
Southerners guarded its infancy. George
Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Mad
ison, Henry Clay, John c. Calhoun and An
drew Jackson were among the stanchest
friends the town had. The District of Co.
lumbia was carved out of the territory Of
two slave states-Maryland and Virginia
and that which is now the District was a
part of sout hern Maryland a section of the
country southern in geography and pro-
foundly southern In sentiment and tradi-
ton. Slavery was the law in the capital.
The people here were as divided on the SUBJ
ject of secession and cognate issues as were
the people Of Maryland. West Virginia,
Kentucky and Missouri. Yet as the crum-
bling legions march in review, recalling
strife that billowed the land with graves
and moistened every hearth with tears,
everybody shouts hurrah!
The capital has truly become the capital,
the common property. the common pride
and the common meeting ground Of the
people of the north. the south, the east, the
west Washington has become 1.-The crystal
lizatlon of the national idea, the substantial
embodiment of the abstract Union, the ma
terialization of power superior to that of
the state. 1t owes no divided allegiance to
state. 1t is the city of the nation-of the
whole nation"
The national capital is the soldiers mon
ument 1t is the seat of the government he
preserved 1t is the city which, SO far as
the eastern campaigns were concerned, he
protected by keeping himself between it
and its enemy. While his eye was on Rich
mond, his hand was on Washington. He
planted guns wherever an enemy might ap-
proach. He stood guard In the surrounding
hills. His bayonet was always fixed 1t
may be that he was drilled on the fields in
and about the city. 1t may be that, strick-
! en- with disease or struck in action, he was
nursed in the hospitals here. For Washing
ton from 1861 to 1865 was a fortress, an
armed camp. a drill ground and a hospital
Thousands of recruits were fashioned into
fighting men here. Ambulance and supply
trains and fiag-wrapped coffins were COM
mon in the city's streets.