Sunday Washington globe., 1902-06-08


were called for, Delegate w. J.. Elliott, of
Ohio, nova resident of Washington, offered
a resolution that Congress be petitioned to
enact the necessary legislation, making
Memorial Day a national and alegal holi-
day When the resolution was read, Com
rade Logan, Of the Illinois delegation, arose
and said:
II desire to inform my youthful comrade
from Ohio that Memorial Day is already a
legal national holiday"
Tire encampment laughed goOd-naturedly
at Comrade Elliott, but when the laugh
subsided he addressed the commander, and
said
with all due Difference to the distn-
guished comrade from Illinois, desire to
reiterate that Memorial Day has not been
legalized by Congress as a holiday, and in
proof of this fact I need only state that
one hour ago / met Comrade Logan IN
the First National Bank getting a draft
,cashed."
General Logan smiled, and arising, said;
II stand corrected, commander The
comrade from Ohio is right While Memo
rial Day is universally observed as a ma
tional holiday, il is not legal holiday, and
therefore hope the comrades resolution
will pass. AS ameude to the comrade,
promise him that ] will incorporate his
resolution in bill and introduce the same
in the Senate at the coming session"
General Logan was as good as his word.
The bill was introduced, and passed by
both Houses and signed by the President,
adding Memorial Day to the list Of national
holidays
Comrade Elliott was a member Of Com
pany /, Fiftv-ninth Regiment, Massachu-
setts Volunteers. This regiment was con-
solidated with the Fifty-seyenth Massa-
chusetts owing to heavy losses. In the list
Of the ten regiments, which suffered the
greatest mortality IN the civil war on the
Northern side, the Fifty-seventh and Fifty
ninth Massachusetts stand sixth.
Some years after the creation of this
new national holiday the author of the
resolution was on trial for his life in the
Ohio courts, having killed a rival editor
in a street duel The prosecuting attor-
hev, in Summing up for the state, laid
particular stress upon the fact that the
duel occurred on Washington's Birthday
and that the prisoner had desecrated the
nations holiday. In speaking to the ques-
ton Of what he had to say why sentence
should not be pronounced, COmrade FL
lott said to this charge:
II am charged with desecrating a ma
tional holiday. 1t is true that I did so,
in defense of my life, butif your honor
please l am proudly conscious Of the inn
mortal honor of having given the nation
a holiday which typi6es the patriotism of
the dead and the eternal gratitude of the
living"
The trial judge was a member Of the
G. A. r. and a comrade of abe prisoner,
and he bowed his head in sCquiescence
as he recalled the Denver Incident Wash
iqgton Post May .3I
The Washington Posi- in the foregoing
article in its splendid Memorial Day Issue
states the facts as they appear inthe records
Of the Denver National Encampnent G. A.
r. touching the legalizing of Memorial Day
as a national holiday. While the Post was
kind enough to state that we are now a res
ident Of Washington it omitted to state that
we publish the only truth teller in the ma
tons Capital However, we viii let that
pass, as It would be giving as that 'lift'' so
far denied by the classes in whose interests
the GLOBE 10 published. 1t may be of in.
terest to add to the P0Sf'S correct statement
the additional information Of how. among
all the then hundreds of thousands Of sur
viving ex soldiers and the tens of thousands
dividual to discover as late as 1898 that
Memorial Day was not a national holiday.
We had been a member of the old Grand
Army (Greble Post No. 10, Philadelphia, in
Is76) and on the organization of Mccoy
Post No l. of Columbus, Ohio, we became
a member Of that Post in 1881 of the present
Grand Army of the Republic.
Noticing that the banks were open on
Memorial Day first admonished us that al
though the goth of May was universally OBJ
served as a holiday il was not in fact legal
ized as such II took US some time to
convince our comrades of Mccoy Post of
this discovery and if our memory serves us
we failed to arouse any interest in the sub
ject until our election as delegate to the
National Encampment at Denver. While
assistant quartermaster general of the de-
partment Of Ohio we ascertained beyond
doubt that Memorial Day had never been
legalized as a holidaysby actlof Congress, as
required to give It standing as such in the |
calendar of our legal national holidays.
Hence on the trip to Denver we broached |
the subject to the many delegates from
Ohio and other states on the train and Sc
cured their conditional supportl That is to
say the majority Of them disputed the fact
that it was not a legal holiday, but pro.
mise1 If we established our contention 10
vote fof the resolution we had drafted.
Hence when the resolution was offered
in the encampment the gallant Logan labor
ing under the same mistake that Il was al
ready iegalized, turned the laugh on us, and
the resolution would have been tabled for
further investigation, but that the general
generously came 70 our rescue by admitting
his error and favoring its passage as stated
by the POSI-
In grateful recognition of his enactment
into law Of the resolution, and in admira-
tion Of his superb record as a soldier, saws
beur ef sans yspyoehe as we'll as for the
tariff plank in the Republican national
platform we cast the FIRST, last, and only
ballot in our life Tor the Republican party
aud il was a loserl