Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-06-02

| ,~IMehhrlal DAY was appropriately OBJ
served in Gardiner under most favor
able auspices,
In accordance with the program
previously arranged, the exercises be
gan shortly after 8 O'Clock, when tn,
Sons of Veterans paarched to the High.
land avenue burial grounds and con
Quoted services. A delegation from
the Grand Army and the Sons of Vet
Grams went to South Gardiner in the
forenoon and Co. A. I'd Regt, N. G
S. M, went to the National Home I,
do escort duty.
Shortly after l p. NJ, Grand Army
Union Veterans Union, Spanish Wal
Veterans and Sons of Veterans march
ed from Grand Army hall to the Coli
scum
With but little delay the exercises
| began. The large audience was call
ed to order by Comrade John T. Grant
Adjutant Smith read the general or
ders and Mayor Charles H. Gray was
introduced as the presiding officer OF
the afternoon. A fervent prayer was
offered by Rev.~L. II. Clarke.
After selection by the Gardiner
Band Mayor Gray spoke briefly, pay
|
of the men who defended the Union.
He then introduced the orator of the
day, Rev. Malry Kearney OF Augusta
Mr.. Kearney spoke in part as follows:
Forty years have passed since the
din of war fell upon the ears of the
American people, since the smoke
cleared away and since the awful
events of the great Rebellion passed
into history And again our hearts
are ccmfOrted, our patriotic spirits set
on fire anew as we come back to q
realization of how we were thrilled
by the intelligence that Sumpter had
fallen and $4,000 men were wanted at
the front Immediately.
Then mothers looked upon their
boys, wives upon their husbands, low
ers upon those whom they so fondly
cherished, sisters upon their brothers,
as they had never looked before. They
were to them surely no less dear, but
the flag and one country were dearer.
I'VE are here not simply to honor
our dead-they have already been hon
Orad; not to perpetuate their memory
they have already been embalmed.
But we are here, fellow citizens, to i'm
press upon the minds and transmit to
the future some sense of the cost of
the liberty enjoyed today by the
American people and the spirit of
loyalty that possessed the hearts of
those who left their homes to defend
the nation at the point of the bayonet.
Our country We look upon a ter
ritory vast in many respects and only
fourth in extent to any other country
Of 1ric
/ say, in extent. reaching from ocean
to ocean and from the Great Lakes to
the Gulf of Mexico, embracing one
seventh of all the land upon the face
of the globe. We glory in our re-
sources, our mines. our lumber, our
soil, our climate, our rivers We glory
in the sublmity and grandeur of our
country. our mountains, our valleys
orr Yosemite. our Niagara; we glory
IN our 96.O00.O00 population and our
| 100, 900 900, 600 Of real and personal prop
erty.
And shall it be, as has been many
times prophes:ed. that our light so Drill
liant shall so out in darkness? Shall
| it ne that the flag of our nation shall
cease to wave in the breeze of heaven :
From the graves of nearly million
men who have borne it through fire
and smoke, from the homes of thou
sands Of widows and orphans. from
the North and from the South, from
! the East and from the West. every
where. is heard a grand concert of
(yOic.s that swells to 96,000.O00 strong
and rends the heavens: NO. never,
never shall our flag cease to wave.
"Many are the remembrances, If we
will but consider them, of the cost OF
-Four Rebellion. 1t is stamped upon oui
national banner 1t stands out promi-
nently uron every soldiers monument
4 that has been erected in their honor
IT'S voice is heard from these grave:
which today YOU have been deco
rating.
"Slavery never found Welcomes
ionr country. All the elements of ou
nature conspired against it. Freedom
liberty silently dwelt IN our Constitu
tiou for black and white. rich and poor
thigh and low, cultured and ignorant
and waited 100 years to assert itsel
land gain it's rights. The acknowledge
lment of God-without this, l ask
|where are we as nation! Inc yer!
germ and life of our Republic l be
lieve, is embraced III inns Single SCH
ltence. In God we trust Comrades
hook at it as you will. believe it as yol
may. intemperance and infidelity are
1.-The most gigantic enemies with which
the nation grapples today.
I But the question is being asked
i what did the war accomplish and wha
are the benefits accruing from so iont
land bloody a conflict and the eXpendi
tire of so much money? My friends
look ut the nation today. strong ant
y powerful, and our flag without a sta
dimmed or a stripe. obliterated. un
[ Hurled to the breeZes of heaven.
but again. slavery was abolished
And was this small or trifling mat
i ter? Four millions of the blacks ant
seven millions of whites heard tn
4 Emancipation Proclamation. Go il
peace The poor whites of the soutl
suffered slavery as much as the poo
|blacks-the slavery Of ignorance. licen
tiousness and vice. The sword dirpet
lin blood cut the bands asander ant
wrote the proclamation of their inde
pendence and set them at liberty"
| At this point the speaker said tina