The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-05-31

world so thoroughly disproved this asser-
ton as our own country. All over this
fair land to-day, men. women and cnildren
bear fresh garlands and wreathed flowers
to place upon the mounded graves of the
soldier dead, and whilst memory retells the
v~alorous deeds and heroic sacrifices Of the
is said for peace eternal to their souls.
Truly has the poet said: To live IN
hearts we leave behind. is not to die To
be an American citizen is to rejoice in
a high privilege. To be an American sol
dier-a defender of that flag which is the
sublime emblem of freedom and the sym
Dol of all that Is highest and best in the
aspirations and hopes of h~umanity-to have
died in defense Of that noble standard, this,
indeed. is the hero's privilege;
mo standard save that of the cross mas
ever been upiifted in the world which rep
resents so much and is so precious TO hui
manity's cause as tine star s~pangled ban,
this banner and offered up his life be-
meath it's folGs, is TO be remembered as
a consecrated martyr TO liberty.
PROUD PRIVILEGE.
""The American soldiers portion in life
is the proud privilege TO defend his coun-
try's honor and advance her glory, in death
to be embalmed in the grateful heart of a
great nation and to leave to imperishable
fame an incompatible remembrance.
1.-The American volunteer soldier has
been and is the edmiration and wonder Of
the world.
mo soldier fights so fearlessly and so eff
fectively. The intrepid courage, skill and
dash of the American soldier boy has been
we'll proven in the two wars which to us
are recent, modern facts.
"It used to be said: NO man living walks
this earth with greater probity of life and
a higher sense OF honor than the Roman
citizen So, too, ought ii be said no man
living walks this earth with greater probity
OF Inc and a higher sense of honor than
the American soldier-citizen.
mo soldier deserves better of his country
than the American soldier, and most as
suredly no country deserves better Of her
soldiers or citizens than America.
Two supreme emergencies have arisen for
the people of America within the space of
a single life, and l am not yet old. Two
great wars. the one a deadly conflict be-
tween brothers in vindication of a principle
which happily was terminated; the second
a short and decisive struggle with an old
1T is good for a people that supreme
emergencies arise to test it's patriotism to
the highest pitch. But as a Christian peo-
pie We anxiously look forward to the fair
dawn of the day of blessed %unending peace,
and may God hasten its approach and in
sure its stability.
LESSON LEARNED.
"The lesson that has been learned by the
world at large in the two crises through
which we have gloriously passed is that the
patriotism of the American citizen-soldier
may be firmly relied upon in time of war.
But patriotism is a duty which is not
over with in times of peace. What was
saved in days of war must be guarded in
times OF peace. If we can fight with honor
and with valor. we must learn to live hon
orably and act valorously in time of peace.
KNOW myself was a great adage with
the ancientS. Nations are only individuals
on a larger scale. They have a life, an in
divlduallty, a reason, a conscience and in
stincts Of their own, and have the same
general laws of development and growth,
and perhaps of decay, as the individual
man.
"a nation has a spiritual as well as a
material, a moral as a physical existence,
and is subjected to internal as well as ex-
ternal conditions of health and virtue,
greatness and grandeur which it must un-
derstand in a measure and observe or be-
come weak and infirm, stunted in its
growth and end in premature decay and
death.
among nations no one has more need
at the present time of full knowledge of
try has hardly had a distinct conscious
ness of its own great national existence.
Our growth has been so lusty, our success
live the irredectixe ' life of of a nae cbi GIlnS 70
no severe trials except the two crises of
war and the consequences impending; but
now we have the time and are compelled
to reflect upon our Constitution, its indi-
viduaiity, its tendencies and its end.
A CHOSEN PEOPLE.
Every living nation has an idea given
it by Providence to realize, and who's
realization Is its special work. mission or
destiny. Every nation is. in some sense, a
chosen people of God. The Jews were the
chosen people Of God. through whom the
primitive traditions were to be preserved in
their purity and integrity, and the Messiah
was to come. The Greeks were the chosen
people Of God, for the development and
realization of the beautiful or the divine
splendor in art and of the true in science
and philosophy: the Romans for the devel-
opment of the state, law and jurispru-
dence. The great despotic nations of Asia
were never properly nations; or, if they
Were nations with a mission. they proved
false to 1t, and count for nothing in the
historic development of the human race.
This country of ours, the American Republic,
has a mission, and is chosen of God for
been chosen not only to continue the work
assigned to Greece and Rome, but to ac-
complish a greater work than was assigned
TO either. In art 1t will prove false To
it's mission. If it do not rival Greece: and
in science and in philosophy, if it do not sur
pass 1t. In the state, in law and juris-
Rome. It's idea is liberty. indeed, but lib
erty with law, and law with liberty.
whether we. as a people. shall prove
faithful TO the mission which Is intrusted
us and thereby realize our destiny, or not
Is known only to Him from whom nothing
Is hidden. Providence is free and leaves
always a SpdCc IOT uILG Tree Will. w
can fail and will fail if we neglect the APP.
pointed means and conditions of success
but there should be nothing in the present
as there is nothing in the past, to render
failure probable. We nave in our Con
stitution what Rome wanted, and if we Ia
Dor to fulfill our internal mission We shall
be working out the destiny which an over
looking Providence is directing.
Mingled with the prayer for the depart
ed dead heroes to-day we voice a prayer
to the God of Nations that He deal with u:
as pr~ovidentially and as kindly i'm the times
to be as He has dealt ever in the past, anC
may our mission be perfected and perpet,
este perpetual
"Old John Burns OF Gettysburg" was re-
cited by Captain p. j. Kelleher before the
Grand Army ritualistic services were con,
Quoted by Past Commander n. NJ. Taylor
and the comrades who were with him
After the G.. A. r. service flowers wer,
strewn over the graves in the cemetery
and flags implanted in them by the ole
soldiers. A salute of musketry by a firing
squad from the Boys Brigade and taps
by Bugler Kelleher ended the ceremony.
:. CONFEDERATE GRAVES