Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1904-06-03
NATIONS DEAD H0N0RE D
BY FITTING MEMORIAL ExERClS-
ES MONDAY.
Rainy Weather Made no Noticeable
Difference in Attendance. - Strong
Address by Rev. L. M. keneston.-
Sailor Dead Remembered.


Despite the rainy weather which
characterized Memorial day Brattle-
boro's contingent of the Grand Army
of the Republic was out in force 10
pay the annual tribute of love and re-
spect TO fallen comrades in arms. on
Monday morning delegation from
Sedgw'ck post visited the cemeteries
! in West Brattleboro where many
graves of Union defenders were deco
rated. At 1880 in the afternoon Com
/ pany l. v, y. G. and Palestine canton
H. O. O. f.. headed by the First Regi-
ment band, marched to the post head
quarters and escorted the veterans to
the auditorium where the services of
commemoration were held. The at
tendance was large. The program
was opened with a selection by the
band, followed by a prayer by Rev.
n. a. Wood of West Brattleboro.
Two selections We're rendered by the
Brattlehoro male quartet consisting of
Messrs, Gilbert, Maynard, Thompson
and Brasor The address of the day
was by Rev. L. NJ Keneston of West
Brattleboro. 1t was in part as follows:
When the great Emancipator, the
Moses of the Christian era, issued that
astounding call for seyenty-five thou
sand men and you replied, in a cho
rus that rang through the entire
north land, I'VE are coming, Father
Abraham, three hundred thousand
strong" what was the country that
you marched forth to save? Forty
two states and territories with Mime
apolis near the center east and west?
No, the country that you did save has |
pushed out its western line until 1t al
most brushes the whiskers of the Rus
sian bear, leaving San Francisco in /
the eastern half. With her thumb and /
finger, she has picked up Puerto Rico, I
the little gem she ought to have worn
for centuries; she has planted her roses
m the flower garden of the Pacific. and
he ~Nst on the threshold of the
ancient celestial empire. Even this
is not the country you saved When
in 81, you rallied around that flag,
to save its every star, we We're less
than thirty-one and a half millions
Of people, and now we are about
eighty millions. You freed four mil
ions of blacks, and their number has
nearly treb4ed. And this is not all.
Il is even suggested that in future
line, this land win house and feed
/ thousand millions of people. Co
umbus, searching for a new route to
ndia, builded better than he knew
our forefathers, planting a nation of !
rec people at Plymouth, builded bet
er than they knew. The makers of )
Iew England who declared that no. /
,ody would ever settle west of Ohio, I
uilded better than they knew. And y
o did you. Our borders have inevi- I
ably expanded. our industries are de- !
eloping at tremendous rate, wealth I
J accumulating, churches, asylums. a
ospitals and institutions of learning o
re multiplying, and millions, from Z
ne four corners of the globe, are a
ocking to our shores. Yes, the coun- u
y that you saved is that which is yet y
, be-how great and when, and by
hat means, God only knows. One W
prophetic vision has described our I
)ming land as Bounded on the ~
orth by the Aurora Borealis, on the IL
,uth by the Vernal equinox, on the al
lst by the rising sun, and on the west %
: the Day of Judgment" "
Were any to ask if the cost was too =
eat, / am sure that, from Antietam, /.
Id Gettysburg, and the Wilderness, OF
ON Libby and AndersonviHe, and RI
cry other place of suffering and IN
crifice. would rise one unanimous m
orus, Had | a thousand lives to ii
We, My country, they should all be RI
ine." vi
You recognized a duty to the col We
ed man, and we have a duty to him an
II. When a great orator, lifted out 1T
the slum and mire of another coun- ua
: into American citizenship rises in ir'
J strength to denounce native born an
nerican citizens, and demand their th'
1t is fitting that we to'
,et the challenge. What the negro !
nts is a chance. And when this is -,
zen him he takes his place by the I'm,
e of other men, in all the walks of a
!. What he needs is protection an
! education. and these we are bound Ii.
give him. Our duty to the Indian me-
ugh of a different origin. is no less cor
We have taken their ~ ~
ds. and driven them almost of the e.. g.
ltinent, so that almost the last one ing
nds on the western heights. and sor