The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1904-06-09

sea and landed on rock-bound coast
and where amidst untold hardships
founded our country where they could
dwell in peace and worship God as
dictated by their souls. The Union
soldier had no king or queen to bestow
upon him the rank of knighthood for
his patriotism. A nation the freest
and grandest that God had ever be.
queathed to his children was in peril.
Like heroes they answered at liberty's
call. There was nothing but love Of
country in their hearts, the country
they loved and the flag they we're
ready to die for. From 81 to '65 they
Tough, on many bloody field. Four
years of awful conflict and then liber-
ty arose, pure, unspotted and unde-
filed. 1t was war of humanity. The
great idea of liberty for the oppressed
was in their souls, and an idea once
planted, If it be one of patriotism,
can never be uprooted. 1t may be
smothered for time. Mountains
may press 1t down, the sea overwhelm
it, but sooner or later it will heave
both ocean and land aside and like a
volcano burst forth and flame up to
heaven. Slavery and dis.union meant
eternal war. 1t destroyed parties,
desolated the fairest patrons of our
land, brought mourning to thousands
of homes and at last it ended in the
triumph of the Union soldier at APP
pomat
To-day, the brightest gem in the
great constellation of the nations of
the earth honors her heroes and pays
tributes of love to her illustrious dead.
Nations have risen for time and
then passed away. Empires have
crumbled because they had not the
patriotism to maintain what their
forefathers had achieved. Greece to-
day kneels at the crumbling statues
of her fallen great while France bows
at her tomb of Napolean. History
tCShc Will lto hNioNc Vi tbS PooN a So'
but our hero is of the present. He
lives here in our midst. He fought
| for our flag. He has seen the fields
strewn with the mangled dead and
heard the cries of his wounded COM
rades, for they did not all come back.
/ Thousands we're left wounded and dead
upon southern soil, where among the
withered leaves their life's blood
slowly ebbed away, and it matters not
whether they sleep beneath monu-
ment OF marble or in the hill sides of
the sunny South where their COM
rades laid them, their souls are with
God and their names are written in
fame's proud temple for the princi.
piles for which they died are eternal.
1t seems hard to realize that the
forts over which your battle flags
once waved are now crum mbling in the
dust. That the fields that once were
plowed by shot and shell are now
smiling beneath their coverings OF
flowers, and where you once pitched
your tent and left your comrades
peacefully sleeping the golden grain
softly rustles over them. To-day,
where bullets once flew and heroes
died, the grass is covered with falling
dew. Drums have ceased beating, and
in the narrow trenches where thous.
ands sleep, loving hands sweet gar.
lands strew,
And to-day, forty long years after
that great struggle, we meet to honor
not only the living, but the heroic
dead. The immortal dead whose
graves you covered with beautiful
flowers were rocked in wars stormy
scenes and at last lulled to sleep by
the angels songs. They climbed the
heights of life and went slowly march
ing down its slope. They heard the
waves of eternity lashing the shores
and saw the outstretched hands o.
comrades who had gone before wait.
ing to welcome them after they had
crossed the dark river. They wore a
badge in life that future generations
will cherish and now wear a crown OF
glory where angels sing. To remem.
Der the dead is our duty. 1t is inter
woven in the history of Nations for
all Nations, hence its illustriGus dead
while we to-day clothe this custom
with a comrades love. Like flowers
that bloom and die our heroes live
again and in our hearts we cherish
their memory.
But for the dead comrades whose
deeds we honor to-day ! would not see
before me this vast audience. 1t Il
the memory of the dead, not the liv'
ing, that brings you here. Some.
where in Gods great universe our
dead heroes look down upon us and
see they are not forgotten. One by
one the soldiers of the Civil War are
passing away, and the grave that re-
ceives soldiers body bears witness
of his love for the Union, and If nc
monument marks his resting place
the snowy mantle Of the silent hills
will constitute his drapery and gentle
spring will weave for him a mantle OF
her richest verdure. If there had beer
no war our country would now be
filed with thousands of blacks wear
ing the shackles of slavery. If there