The Republican journal., 1908-03-12
The Waldo Go. Veteran Association

The Waldo Go. Veteran Association
The Guest of o. Gardner Grange at
West Winterport.
The most enjoyable session in the history
of the Waldo County Veteran Association
was held in the o. Gardner Grange Hall at
West Winterport on Thursday, March 9th.
President Alfred Stins0n of North Sears
port presided. When Hermon Clark, the
chorlster OF 0. Gardner Grange, gave the
bugle call large gathering of comrades,
their wives, children and friends were
present. The grange choir sang s'Marchinp
Ihro' Georgia." everybody joining in this
well known veterans song, and the usual
routine business was transacted. Secre.
tary Lorenzo Jones of Brooks then read
the report OF the two previous meetings in
Waldo and Belfast, which was accepted.
Upon motion it was voted that Comrade
Isaac Cook of Monroe present the adonted
resolutions OF respect on the death of
Comrade Henry H. Dawson to Mrs. Daw-
son.
President Stinson then made most inter-
esting remarks relative to the Association
ana Grand Army Posts, especially empha-
sizing the extreme harmony that exists in
all the meetings and the good fellowship
that prevails. He said: "We old fellows
sometimes in daily life disagree in regard
to political and religious matters, but there
is one subject on which there is never apy
argument, and that is good old fashioned
baked bean dinner" s'And custard pie"
chimed in One of the old comrades, who
knew the speakers one great weakness.
Dinner was then announced and 1877
enjoyed the repasJ, with its convivial ac-
compartments of wit and sociabillty. AL
though the tables were reset three times
to accommodate all, the noon hour passed
quickly away and when the meeting was
called to order for the afternoon session
it was estimated that the new comers had
swelled the assembly to two hundred
souls, more or less. Mr.. Hermon Clark
gave the bugle calls a soldier hears from
sunrise to sunset, which were much en-
joyed. All then joined in singing, sThe
Battle Cry of Freedom" which was fol-
lUN ou Uy d pIdyCl ny CUuuAdu0 COI6S OI
the George D. Davis Post, No. "a, G. A. R.,
Brooks Maine, who served in the Massa-
chusetts Heavy Artillery. A cordial ad-
dress of welcome was delivered by Mrs.
Ada Dyer Curtis as follows:
Mr.. President, Members of the Waldo
County Veterans Association and Friends:
If ever, think, one feels the tide of patri-
OtlSm swell in their veins. together with an
overwhelming sense of their own inability
and littleness, it is when one attempts to
speak fitting words to the heroes of our
country. To those whose blood was shed,
whose lives were spared or lost, as God
wi]led, upon the battefeds of our Civil
War-the worst form of war in which man
could possibly engage. A war in which the
armies facing each other were of the same
race, the same country and spoke the same
language war in which friends fought
friends and brothers slew brothers; but
such was necessary to prevent the unmak-
ing of the grandest Republic in it's deeds
and possibilities that has ever existed.
1t is time to stop the babble of men who
who fought in the war that saved the Union
tends to keep alive the animosities ofthe
past. Honor to loyal soldiers keeps alive
patriotism, and that only.
We can regard the Confederate soldiers
as martyrs, misguided, perhaps, but none
the angels of Heaven never locked down on
a sadder scene than the bodies of two
soldiers, the one in blue, the other in gray,
sleeping their last sleep, locked in each
others embrace. For at death we are all
equal. con why should the spirit of mortal
be proud
When you, heroes of the north, returned
to your homes to receive the welcome you
had so richly earned, the Confederate SOL
der wrung the hand of his comrades in
silence and turning his tear strained face
southwark found his home in ruins, his
trade destroyed, his money worthless, his
slaves freed, and the greatest problem
which ever confronted the human intellect,
and one which is yet to be solved, that OF
establishing legal status for the vast body
of three million, helpless, untaught, unfed,
unclothed slaves. Did he despair, this
hero in gray no, not for an instant Surely
God must have stretched out his hand in
pity, for this glorious old Government, God
prosper it, did all in its power, and that was
much, to alleviate the temporary distress.
Never was a nobler duty performed than the
uplifting of the bleeding south, an uplifting
that must still go on, with what success the
the future years, filled with careful thinking
and foresight, may bring. When our flag
was again insulted and our State Battle
ship destroyed, did the south cherish ami
and south stood shoulder to shoulder. Texas
and Maine, Florida and Washington! Sub
line achievement, this unifcation of the
United States, over which humanity shall
eternally shed its tears and God bestoW His
banedictons
Let US not forget ia these strenuous days
OF peace and prosperity that you gray hair
ed veterans, helped to bring about, that a
small degree of honor, at least, is due the
race for whose emancipation you so bravely
fought. / recall story Of the first negro
color bearer in the Union Ranks, a soldier in
the Louisiana Brigade. In reply to his cap
tain, who charged him not to dishonor the
colors in action, he said: Il will carry this
flag into the fight and bring it back in honor
or report in Heaven the reason why" 1t
cannot be the American people will desert
the race from which spring such a hero in
black.
When the first gun was fired at Fort
Sumter and you bade your loved ones a
sad but fearful farewell, there were others
who, too, heard the call.
There was one who paid her own expenses
to Washington, visited the sick and wound
ed, held the reviving cup to many parched
lip, wiped the death damp from many a
cold brow, and after all was over wrote
home to the dear ones the last words of
their noble dead. That one was Clara Bar
ton, president of the American Red Cross
Society. But she was not the only woman
who helped to win the battle for right, for
many of the gentler sex followed in her
footsteps.
1 will say in behalf of the 0. Gardner
Grange and the loyal citizens of West VIM