Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1906-06-06
MEMORIAL EXERCISES
Address by Rev. W. |. Cossshall
of Ionia-Opera House
Crowded.
ALMA FIFE AND DRUM CORPS
Head Procession TO Riverside Gene
terry Where Exercises Were
Concluded.

May 80, Decoration Day, was fittingly
observed in this city. Business was sus-
pended during the afternoon, aud our
citizens attended exercises at the opera
house in honor of the departed heroes,
and later in the day marched to the
cemetery and strew flowers over the
graves of the heroes of 1S6l-65. In his
address at the opera house Rev. Cogg-
shall said in part
Ladies and gentlemen, Comrades Of the
Grand Army, and fellow citizens:
The nation stands this day at the
graves of its dead This is Memorial
Day. This is not baseball day neither
is it football day nor horse race day;
this is not fsherman's day-this is Mem
orial Day. And, while we, Of course,
cannot feel the sharpness of grief which
we once felt, as kindly time has in some
measure, at least. healed some of the
wounds that we all experienced after the
close of the great struggle, nevertheless,
there are women who are thinking of
the past years when the call came for vol
uuteers, and out from those homes went
boys, who migut perhaps have been the
stay and support i'll the declining years
of those women.
Never in all history had more men
been slaughtered in the earlier days of
the Republic and in the days of the Rev
olution, than i'll the days of the great
Civil War. The world had never before
produced OF seen such struggles. Gods
hand has been directing this nation in
all its history.
The War of 1S6l-65 was fought because
the North and South failed TO under
stand each other. The men on both
sides declared they were not in rebellion,
that they were only exhibiting loyalty
and allegiance to their country. The
giving up and surrendering Of their indi-
vidual lives was the bond that welded
the nation.
The crowned heads of Europe would
have reioiced in the downfall of the Re-
public, but the sympathies of the COM
mon people were with us.
Spain and France were ready to build
up an empire in Mexico. Mr.. Lincoln
said, zone war at q time, please" Then
Mr.. Lincoln wrote letter to His Majes-
ty,Napoleon the Little, of France. The
letter began with the protestation of the
love and friendship that existed between
the United States and France, and that
it was the desire of this government that
the feeling of mutual affection should so
continue to the end of time. The letter
closed by asking Napoleon to evacuate
Mexico. Napoleon concluded it was
best to relieve the sensitiveness of the
American people by complying with the
request, realizing that the United States
was a great nation.
The king of the future is the man of
toll, he who helps in the up lift of men,
and who defends the rights of men. l
declared in the beginning that this was
not baseball day, but still we must not
blame the young people too much, for
they do not understand and can't under
stand these feelings of the older people.
Our nation is united again. Sons of
men who wore blue march with SONS of
men who wore gray. Today we stand
on the summit of nations, on the very
summit of centuries. We stand facing
a great future, and our hands are the
keys which will unlock that door.
Ours was more than struggle between
the North and South. 1t was the last
great struggle of men, which settled
whether self-governing nation might
continue to exist.
Those men who fought are dead. We
visit their graves, and we strew flowers
upon the land which they watered with
their blood. We shall soon turn away
from these graves once more, but we
shall never forget that these men TO
whom we pay tribute gave more than
we can give, and we can never Danish
them from memory or the achievements
of the Divine purpose in the uplifting of
humanity. We feel the inspiration of
our God from the Northern border to
the South land, and still pray that God
will bless our native land, and make all
the people see the excellency of his pur-
pose.