The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1903-05-29

tie, the music of child's prattle or
sweetheart's fond confession, through thu
dust and smoke of battle, vision of thu
dear old home, but that was all.
Their bodies moulder in distant
places. They found them graves in The
soil they added to freedom. In the
rice plantations of Mississippi, in the
/, cotton fields of Carolina, in cane brake
and everglade, worn out with marching
and watching and the labor of sieges
or slain in the dread hour of battle, they
found their rest. Piled into pits like
brute carrion by prison wardens, or
buried by comrades at dead of night
while the moon kept sad and solemn
vigil, their graves are scattered all
through the sunny south. Unmarked,
the corn and cotton grow above them,
and the laborer sings as he drives his
team afield unmindful now of the sac
red dust beneath his feet The magnolia
tree, pushing down her roots into the
patriots grave, and bearing upward
through her vital currents all that is
mortal of the soldier, while unfolding
year by year her beauty to the sun, and
tossing her sweet incense to the breeze,
symbolizes the precious moral fruitage
yielded by this harvest of death.
The honor which we bestow upon the
soldier who persisted in the war is due
equally to the soldiers who returned
from the war and spent the remainder
OF his life in the walks of peace, and was
finally carried by his comrades or his
friends to his rest among his kindred
He is deserving of equal honor because
he offered his service, and hazarder his
life in the service of his country He
served not less, or less nobly, because he
fell not in the service. All honor to the
soldier and the patriot dead, whether he
fell at the battles front, or after the war
was over, amid the fruits of peace! And
equal honor to the soldier living still,
because he also offered himself for his
country. We are glad and thankful that
after fighting his country's battles, he
was permitted to return and enjoy with
us the fruits of peace. May he long
abide with us to prove the intelligence
and constancy of his devotion to his
country by helping to fight the battles
for civic righteousness in the war be-
tween good and evil, right and wrong,
that still continues!
Nor, in this tribute to the soldiers of
the Republic, whether living or dead,
do l forget the soldiers in our more re-
cent war. l have spoken especially of
the Union soldier because it was in
memory of him that memorial SER
vices were instituted, because the war
for the union was our greatest war, and
because the veterans of that war still
claim our principal attention. But we
have had another war, and into that war
we have sent lives as precious and sol
diers as brave as ever faced our coun-
try's foes, and whether they fell in Cuba
o. the far off Philippines, or came back
to us again alive, we remember them
and do them honor as soldiers of the
republic. 1t may possibly yet appear af-
ter a hundred or five hundred years that
our war with Spain for the deliverance
of Cuba from oppression resulting in
our possession of the Philippines, has
yielded more to human progress and
Christian civilization on this planet than
the most prophetic intuition has yet an
ticipated.
Let it not be supposed that our fallen
heroes are mustered out of service
They still guard the nations honor; they
serve the Republic still. If treason shall
ever again menace our freedom and
honor, in the appalling silence of that
hour when the weapons or argument
are laid down as useless and the anguish
ola fearful suspense is upon us, visions
of our dead will rise up before us, and
we shall seem to hear the tramp, tramp,
tramp of that martyr host, and thous-
and hearts will be great within each
bosum, the spirit of slain warrior will
come upon each living one, and liberty
will prove once more the security of her
abode within the sanctuary of this great
commonwealth.