Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1908-05-28
MEMORIAL SERMON.
Rev. w. S. Bradshaw Addressed u. S.
Grant Post, G. A. r.. at Baptist
Church.

rev. w. =. 0F6O30dW AOoFeSB0o ~. =.
Grant Post, G. A. r.. at Baptist
Church.
| The Baptist church was hung with
flags and bunting and sweet with apple
blossoms for the Memorial service that
was attended Sunday afternoon by U. S.
Grant post, the Woman's Relief corps. as.
sociate members of the post and patriotic
citizens. The Relief corps formed the es-
cort and its color bearers were Mrs. N. G..
Greene, Mrs. Lizzie Smith, Mrs. F.
A. Bruce and Mrs. c. d. Sanborn.
Twenty-Five old soldiers were in line,
headed by Commander Norman Nichols
and preceded by the flag in the hands Of
Color Bearer M. V. Chadwick.
Never has U. s. Grant post listened to
| better Memorial sermon than that de-
livered by Rev. w. S. Bradshaw from the
text Micah 4:3-ssApd he shall judge
among many people, and rebuke strong
nations afar off; and they shall beat their
swords into ploughshares, and their
spears into pruning hooks: nation shall
not lift up sword against nation, neither
shall they learn war any more"
In one sense, in large sense, this is a
funeral service; for today our thoughts
are with the dead, with those splendid
men who did deeds of heroism, whom
you comrades have known in peace and
war. AS you have laid them to rest. it
has been with feelings of sadness because
OF their deeds, because for long years
they and you bad walked together as
members of the Grand Army of the Re
public and because each year marks for
all of you few more steps towards the
grave. Memorial time grows in sadness
as the years go by; for we realize that the
end of the Grand Army is near at hand,
except as the succeeding generation holds
its memory in reverence.
As we look back over the war, we see
that it was something that the world had
never witnessed before. People of the
North and South, people of the same
family, rose up against each other, and
we cannot but believe both were honest
in their views. We recognize that the
people of the South were honest in what
they did; they were American citizens
with high ideals. Prayers were said in
the churches of the North that no star
might be lost in that field of blue, and in
the South prayers were said for success to
crown the efforts of the boys in gray who
went forth to fight for their country,
their ideals of liberty, for their state in
situations.
Some of the great soldiers and states
men of the South were not in favor of the
war. Alexander IL. Stevens opposed it
with all his power, but when the crisis
came he chose to remain true to Georgia.
That splendid loyalty to state is the same
kind of stuff as loyalty to the nation.
Robert Z. Lee did not admit any neccessi-
ty for the conflict but he said, sWith all
my love for the union cannot find it in
I. he.
state, my family, my Children and so
he became leader of the Confederate
| forces. There was a Misunderstanding
between North and South on the ques-
tions of the war. The South failed to I'M
derstand what the North was doing.
They thought Northern people were
simply interested in money-getting, that
New England was simply seeking riches
| for New England's sake. There was also
misunderstanding on our part, and the
South was misjudged in those days CT hot
feeling. One of the Southern senators in
Congress, on quitting that body, said
they had left the national government a
corpse; but sometimes people find out
that what they think a corpse is not dead
after all. When the call went forth for
volunteers, what crowd poured down
| the mountainsides of Vermont and New
Hampshire singing, "We are coming,
Father Abraham, 800, 600 strong"
The men who fought on both sides
were not machines, not men who had
been trained to machine-like precision in
the art of war, but they were men who
went forth from their farms, their shops,
stores and mills because principle was
at stake for which they were willing to
sacrifice even life itself. They were bay
4 Oh xx-ft hros rc 4
man, not machine against machine; it
was matter OF intelligence, of the spirit
| of patriotism. Beecher, when interrupt
ed in a speech he was delivering in Eng
land by the question-"Why didn't you
Yankees put an end to the Rebellion in
so days?" quickly, because
we are fighting Americans, not British"
| When the Northern soldiers laid down
their arms and went back to their homes,
/ they were received with rejoicing
speeches were made, cannon doomed and
cheers were given for the splendid results
they had achieved. In the South it was
far different. The soldier smarting from
defeat, broken in spirit, returned to a
ruined home, an impoverished state and a
disappointed people. In the National
cemetery, the names and graves of the
nations dead are kept green, but in
many a Southern cemetery briars and
thorns are growing over the Confederate
soldiers, markers are broken or tumbled
down; and yet those Confederates we're
just as brave as the Northern soldiers,
just as loyal in what they were doing.
1t is nothing to them, but it shows to us
that here lie the victors, there the defeat
ed who went down in death doing the
things they thought were right.
| oit RI
the nations of Europe. A call went out
for rs, 900 men. They came, were drilled
and sent to the front. Another call for
800, 900 men and they came and were
drilled, and SO on, until we had 1000, 900
men on the field acting under orders. 1t