The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-05-31
SOLEMN MEMORIAL SER
VICES.
CONTINUED rom Page one.l

|
or daughters? To such a question would
come the answer in general acclaim,
no, But the answer is that the cere-
mony is not for the individual honor
of the soldier. but for something high
er and better for humanity, and only
| because of this can the ceremony be
justified. 1t could not be justified be-
cause we are in favor of the soldier
at war 1t is not, never has been, the
policy of the great American Republic
to favor war, but peace.
| THE honoring of the graves of the
dead is an ancient custom, budding in
the earliest civilization and in the
worship of the one living God. What
did it all mean? 1t originated probably
| with the innate idea of the Immortality
of the soul and the resurrection of the
| body 1t passed on through the Prince
| of Peace, the same ideas Of consecra-
ton of the graveyard and Of the dead.
| Throughout the world the same ideas
run. All religions agree on that one
| thing-Buddhisnc Shintoism, Moham-
medsm, even paganism, all unite with
| Christianity in looking after the rest
| ing places of the dead with reference
| to immortality of the soul and the res
| direction of the body.
But all this furnishes no reason for
| the Individual honoring of the grave of
| a dead soldier. Let the truth be told.
The great Republic, founded by George
| Washington and his compeers at the
close of the Revolutionary War was
based on individual sovereignty and the
| liberty of mankind. This passed on
| into the organic act, based upon the
| Declaration of independence, and con-
| tinued until 1861. But there was rec
ognized in the constitution of Washing
ton and his great associates the idea
that one man of one race might en-
slave another man of another race.
Slavery existed in the United States.
1t was wrong, wrong in principle and
wrong in the sight of God, and like all
other wrongs, was aggressive and pro-
gressive.
In 1861 the issue consummated. It is
a singular thing that in the history or
the earth the only attempt ever made
in a civilized or a barbaric state to es-
tablish a new nation based on the en-
slavement of man was made in 1861 in
the United States of America. The
first test as to whether slavery could
be made perpetual was then tried, not
in the courts, nor in the counsels or
in parliament, but on the field of Dat
tie. The issue was sharp and long.
About a half a million men on either
side fell in battle or died from causes
incidental thereto.
Some of those who now live within
sound of my voice have witnessed more
bloodshed in a single day of twelve
hours during that struggle of the Civil
War than George Washington and all
his generals and the English saw in all
the battles of the Revolutionary War.
Gettysburg, Cold Harbor, the Wilder
ness, these battles were fought to test
the great question if slavery could exist
in America. There was no appeal from
the decision. War can only appeal to
war and that ended it, Slavery ceased
in the United States of America for
ever and forever, and the Stars and
Stripes were raised to float over none
but the free
THAT was not the only immediate |
result. The Car of Russia heard the |
tramp of the serfs and following the |
Civil War he struck the shackles from
off the limbs of twenty million slaves |
All the world has reaped the benefits |
has gathered the fruits of victory won |
by these now silent soldiers.
"Other epoch marking events have |
happened. In 1898 the United States |
of America declared war against a
kingdom, for the first time in the his
tory of the world one nation making |
such declaration on the sole grounds |
of humanitarianism War was declar-
ed on Spain for her inhumanity to
her own subjects. Never before had |
there been war from such a cause |
and the result was the freeing of some
millions of people.
Now we boast that the constitution
of the United States and the flag of the |
Republic has moved half around the |
world. This is significant or not, de-
pending upon whether that constitution |
is accompanied by the liberty that |
should go with it. Some have at
tempted to define citizenship in the |
United States under our form of gov
eminent. The definition is a simple |
one. Every man is sovereign citizen |
of the United States under our laws
and constitution who stands for his |
own personal individual rights and |
thus standing is willing to concede the |
same individual rights to his neighbor |
All else is merely commentary. This !
means that every man, woman and
child will have an equal chance and
a right to life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness.
We have gathered here to speak of |
those who have fallen in that war or
since. 1t is my privilege to have lived
In that time and to know many of the
great leaders in those events That
great Lincoln, the personification of
all that was best in our citizenship,
standing for no class nor caste and
recognizing the Individual rights of
mankind, our first martyr president. |
He laid down his life just as the war
closed, but lived long enough to peer
through the vista of the years and see
the success which was to come to all
as result of that great struggle.
Grant, the quiet, silent leader of a
million men to battle and success: Sher-
idan, Thomas, Mead and others of the
great leaders, all have gone to join the
great muster of the Grand Army be-
VOnd the