Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-06-01
MEMORIAL NIGHT.
Continued from page So

4 CDIueu III IledNel. w iidl NoIilllNt VI
feelings are aroused as you recall the
first and second battles of Bull Run
! and Gettysburg, as you contemplate
the Army of the Potomac under Nc
Lellan in 1862. and the Army of the
Potomac under Grant in 1864, as you
smell again the foul and fevered air of
Libby Prison and Andersonville, as
YOU remember how on the eve of bat
tie many a comrade sat upon the
ground and wrote farewell note to
loved ones at home.
| How your eyes light up as memory
brings to you the surrender of Rich
mond on April 9th, only to be over
Swallowed by great sorrow eight days
afterwards. o pitiable recollection!
The man who for four long years,
through tireless days and sleepless
nights, had guided the destinles and
guarded the liberties of his country.
was struck down by the hand of the
assassin. Abraham Lincoln was dead,
but out of the womb of death came a
new born Liberty. The gentlest MEM
DRY in all the world had passed away,
but the eternal principles of Lexing-
ton. of Bunker Hill, and of Valley
Forge had been re-established.
Is it any wonder that the glad and
loyal hearts of the American people
have set a day dedicated to the memory
of the Union soldier? And on this 1e-
curing anniversary, at a season of the
year when all nature is bursting into
joy and gladness it is well for us to
gather here to honor the dead and pay
homage to the living.
1t has been custom through all the
ages for man to visit the graves of
loved ones who have departed. Mem
DRY is tie that binds the present to
the past, and the living to the dead.
The theories, the dreams, the visions of
the great beyond, the hopes, the as
pirations, the longings of the human
heart, all unite to turn us back to the
last resting places of our departed
friends. All! how many son has been
restored from a life of sin by visit
to the tomb of noble father! How
many a daughter has been turned from
paths of vice by shedding tears of re-
pentance over the grave of sainted
mother! A son or daughter is blessed
indeed on coming to manhood or
womanhood who can go to the graves
of noble, tender, kindhearted and vir-
tuous parents and there throw off the
vices of the world. A nation is fort
innate indeed that can go once year
to the graves of it's dead defenders
and there repledge itself to the cause
for which they fought, and leave some
offering in token of a patriotism that
still lives.
If there is one thing in which l be-
lieVe more than another, it is in the
unconscious and eternal existence of
moral and immoral forces in the world,
set in operation by men who have
lived in the past, and which we, as
pieces of conducting metal may be the
transmtters of. Believing this, it be-
hooves me to ask, how much of that
good is passing through me? How
much of that bad is my share of the
infinite conscience stopping at the
transmitting office?
Man is ii free moral agent. lie is
likewise a free immoral agent. Every
act he does, he does for poSterity.
whether he wills it or not. No man
is so insignificant, no life so brief, that
all the ages does not feel its influence.
II is no pIatitude to exclam with the
philosopher that had a single pebble
on the beach not existed the geologi-
cal history of the whole world would
have to be rewritten. With the strug-
Cling reaches of human thought we at
tempt to explore the heights of infinite
wisdom. At every point we discover
evidences of cause and effect, of asso-
citation and relation. If the very stones
are affected by other stones how much
more is a mind which knows that it
exists affected by minds which have eX-
listed, how much more are acts to do
affected by acts done.
oh. members of the Grand Army of
the Republic, what an impress you
have left upon your country! What
lesson in patriotism comes to us to-
day when we think that throughout
the length and breadth of this broad
land all labor has ceased million
flags wave in the air gray haired vet
Grams go to the graves of comrades,
there perhaps to find the bowed heads
of mothers and fathers. And what is
all this for? All, that's the question.
The flag you have put upon the grave
of the dead is the flag he defended.
The flower you placed beside it grew
out of the soil of Il free country. Inc
dead soldier fought for that flag be-
cause it was stained with the blood of
General Warren. He loved it for what
it represents. Not a menace ana a
power, but Il harbor and haven LOT
the oppressed a country whose fortl-
fications are schools and churches.
where man may learn of nature and
bow to his God.
You love that old flag because 1t
still floats victorious over external OPP
preston and internal moral decay; be
cause three hundred thousand of your
comrades laid down their lives on
southern battlefelds for it, and hum
bred and seventy-fi five thousand more
starved ian rebel prisons. 1t was I'M
comparable when it waved over
broad. but almost uninhab ited, coast
line in 1916. 1t could not be torn
asundcr in 1861. Today an immense
domain and nearly eighty millions OF
people offer it fealty and homage, ana
it floats from the smallest craft UNI
challenged in any port in the world. IL
stands for what no other flag in the
world stands for, ten million homes
where the smile of a happy mother IS
the rich reward for the labor of an in
Il trin faf