The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-05-31
REV. DR. KIDD'S ADDRESS
DELTTERED AT THE GENERAL
 PUBLIC EXERCISES

Nar Veterans of '61-HOnors fOF
 Their MemOries-The Lesson of Pa
 trIOtism.
 Rev. Dr. Kidd's address in part at the general public Memorial exercises at the New Haven theater was in part as follows:
 "A new separation holds the field The war of the eos is fast becoming only history for all of us. Days of ex- perience grow fewer, words feebler, with halting step, the ranks march where but shortly ago hero strength and daring moved a world to wonder. The sons of '61 have short roI-cah for the million or more whose bounding hearts and tingling blood urged 'on 10 Richmond!" A new generation has coma. and what of it? That was no surface work these fathers did; the pIoughshare turned deep furrow. Over the rills of blood and graves ot heroes the voilet and buttercup and daisy join hands in a festival of oblit- eration; peaceful slopes and laughing valleys sing away the awful ruin or those days of war; silver streams chat ter and ripple their chorals forgetful of blood and grime; and what of the new generation? Are they too happily conditioned, too festive, too gay, too money-mad to remember their eblfga- ton to the men whose deeds we cele- brate tonight?
 Let us not fear that these heroes will be forgotten or their graves neglected in the coming years. The giddy multi tude may rush to pleasure as has ever been the case, but that thoughtful, in- telligent remnant that always holds the leadership of men will give the call l to a truer celebration. One of the en- couragfng signs of the day Is the re- demption of our anniversaries from merely holiday observance. These Me morial day exercises and parades em- phasize the fact of patriotic devotion | before the eyes of millions to whom military life has been only the insignia of royal tyranny; they learn the mean" l ing of the day. the voluntary sacrifice off the heroes, and without doubt one ay when America needs another repur- chase for human liberty, these adopted sons will bare bosoms to the sword and i die as willingly as the martyrs whose ] patriotism we celebrate tonight.
 i Walter Scott makes Old Mortality 1 pay an annaul visit to the graveyard off the old Coyenanters to clean the moss from the tombstones and to chlsel anew the fading inscriptions. Shall redeemed nation do less? Let no neglect nor ravages of time testify to coming generations that we forget the cost of a free country! Their deeds alone would count for little, only as these become the opponents of principle for which they were done. No man too frequently recalls principle The day we celebrate is not the anniversary of deeds of bloody daring and self-ab- negation; off these is every war re- plete; but of those principles that marked new era in human progress. Shall a nation of the people, by the : people and for the people perish from the earth, that an oligarchy of slave masters should dictate the discount of manly worth? That a man may have his chance to play the mans part. with a mans privilege among his fellows these men fought and bled and died. We celebrate the fact that such mag. nificent and magnanimous sacrifice is worthy of highest encomium. Recog- nizing the claim of these soldiers upon us, we shall also appreciate the worth of the nationality of which We are a part. A monumental day Is as full of I lesson as one of bronze or stone. The | towering shaft may tell its chiseled | story to thoughtless minds, but the tiny flag waving over the dead points a | narrative that more nearly strikes the heart. The monument may ornament a
 square or lofty height, but the little flag marks grave, He who reverent-
 ly visits a soldiers grave to place a
 flower thereon receives an inspiration
 for loyalty and patriotism.
 For such a set of principles these men gave up all that was dear III"
 suppressed was the delight of kings and emperors when the first shot at
 Sumter rang out to their ears. They hailed it as the death-knell of the boasting freedom of the young repub- lie. Not tried until now, they were
 sure that the youthful innovator could
 not withstand the onset. No great
 army to uphold the government; how then shall government stand? Here in the north many face blanched, and many a heart stood pulseless. War had come in spite of all protestations
 to the contrary; how should it be met? The pictures off the old minute-men ] were dusted, the memories of Lexing | ton and Concord refreshed, and soon from the shop and store and farm the l sons of the old-time heroes were pour ing upon the capitals until the leaders were breed to cry Stay, we are 4 enough" From the old battle-fields of Bunker Hill, Ticonderoga, Brooklyn l White Plains, Brandywine, Princeton Trenton, Valley Forge, they rushed like floods to the rescue of liberty, while rom the valleys and plains of the | newer empire of the west other floods
 were issuing, until an astonished world
 beheld an army in a day, whose backs would bear no mark of urging whip
 whose heart would need no liqui6 courage for the clash of war. And so
 too, in the years to come, if the need
 be- will floods and greater even, too, ot
 noble men, dedicated to the same mag
 unanimous principles, pour themselves
 upon the altar of heroic sacrifice.
 Bright the day when that chill De.