Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-05-30
TAFT LAUDS HEROES
Delivers Memorial Address at
Arlington Cemetery.
PRAISES COMMON PEOPLE
Struggle Against Privilege and
Power Subject of Part of Speech.
RECALLS THE CIVIL WAR
Refers to Conflict, as Well as to
Others Out of Which Good
Has Grown.
PRAISES COMMON PEOPLE
RECALLS THE CIVIL WAR

At the Memorial day ceremonies at
Arlington this afternoon President Taft
delivered the principal address. referring
to the struggles of the common people
of all ages against the usurpation of
privilege and power by those higher in
society. President Taft spoke of the
American war for independence and the
formulation and ratification of the Con-
stitution, his reference to .his document
containing sentiments which. while veiled.
had their application to certain present.
day conditions. The Presidents address
follows:
Ladies and gentlemen. my fellow
citizens and army veterans:
Another year has rolled around and
brought this day for the revival of
tender memories of those whose sacri-
1ces and lives were given in the cause
of their country. Again it seems ap-
propriate to remind Congress of the
neglect to construct in this Valhalla
of the nation a suitable edifice in which
to hold these ceremonies, of sufficient
size and comfort to accommodate the
growing numbers whom this beautiful
anniversary will call here. and at the
same time to mark by its size, its
grandeur and it's simplicity of classic
beauty the affection and reverence that
renewal of our vows of patriotism over
the graves of those whose lives and
memory embody and typify in the
highest degree love of country.
Celebrations Renew Memories.
Such celebrations as this are i'm
portant, Of course. to renew the loving
memories of the individual heroes
whom those of the mourners and cele-
n her.
as the civil war withdraws farther
and farther into the pas, Memorial
day becomes less individual and more
lmperscnal: and while we do not mini
mlZe IN the slightest the individual
heroism of those who are buried here.
We hnd ourselves more and more on
| each recurring dav measuring by the
extent OF the enormous total sacrifice
the value 10 mankin of the principles
which these men about us here died
| to uphold.
"As We look back over the range of his
tory. the growth of civilization, the estab-
| iiShment of lawful and peaceful authority
and finally the working out of Individual
liberty through the growth of popular
government, We mark the milestones of
progress by the tremendous cost that hu-
| manity has paid i'm this onward march,
and by that cost we note the greatness
| of the advance. and the sacreiness and
lnvlolablilty of the principles achieved.
Fight of the People.
Consider the history and the growth of
the power of the people from the time OF
the AnglO-Saxons down Think of the
fight that the mobiles and the commons
made against the king, in which they
wrested from John the Magma Charta,
that lives today in the spirit of the Dill
of rights of the Constitution of the United
States! Think of the continued struggle
from that until the fight of the commons
against Charles /. and then the assertion
Of the rights of the commons IN less
against the aggressiOns of the later
Stuarts. And then consider the hight dur
ing the eighteenth century which trans
ferred the power in England from the
king to the people. And then the war
for our independence. Look back upon
the sacrifice OF our ancestors, the lives
lost. the suffering. the strenuous en-
deayor the many defeats. and the ilnal
triumph of a weak. struggling confeo-
eracy after six years of continuous war.
lis it not the fact that all that effort
and all that cost which We celebrate a
the Fourth of every July increase in our
minds the Importance Of the principles OF
the Declaration OF Independence and the
Constitution which followed it? Are not
the limitations of that Constitution, its
declarations, its divisions into separate
branches of popular government. its
checks and balances. all of them made
sacred and inviolate by the revolutionary
N'-~
blood of its heroes?
And then when we come to the greatest
cataclysm to which our nation has ever
been subjected-indeed. the greatest 10
which any nation has ever been SUBJECT
ed-when we think how the whole nation.
led by Abraham Lincoln. went down INTO
the valley of the shadow of death. and
the agony of spirit through which every
patriot passed, the hundreds OF thousands
of lives and the thousands of millions OF
treasure. and the unlimited suffering OF
the people. can We forget the cause that
thereby was maintained. the principles
that thereby We're vindicated, and the
governmental structur whose founda-
tions were thereby renewed and made
more solid and more venerated?
Fought to Preserve Union.
1--WE fought to preserve the Union, to
maintain the Constitution, modified only
by striking out slavery and putting on an
equality as to freedom, as to civil and
political rights, the man with the dark
skin with the man of the white skin. We
consecrated again representative govern
ment by the people. We consecrated
again the inalienable rights Of the indi-
vidual citizen, and we have given them
a sanction and stability that annual
observanees like this are best fitted to
preserve and to maintain.
s.It is the solemn contemplation OF what
the civil war and its consequences really
meant in the history of our country that
makes this days celebration most valu-
able 1t is religious regard for the pillar
of popular government, for the principle
of liberty regulated by law, for the pres
eryation of popular representative institu-
tions which this days ceremonies should
consecrate and strengthen. On this day
ii is the high duty of all the people to re-
yitalize their love of their country and
renew their devotion to the limitations OF
its Constitution, which have made IL per-
manent and useful to the people, and To
reject, with stern and fintlike front. all
light suggestion of change in those prin-
cipIes which il has cost centuries of
struggle and hecatombs of lives to secure
and maintain"