The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-05-30
THE DAY OF MEMORIAL.

called Decoration Day. graves ar
strcwn with flowers. appropriate cNcI
ciscs ere held in memory Of those VIII
have given their lives for the Republic
aud the thoughts Of patriotic men an
women are turned irrcsistiblv toward TIN
terrific struggle through which tho Ma
tion passed in order that it might pre-
serve itself To most Of the prcscp
generation there is no personal know
edge OF that war, and its overwhcImn.
| uphesvals, its tremendous struggles, il
grand triumph. are mere matters OF his
tory, and moi Of personal knowledge o.
feeling And vet many hundreds OF
thousands have the knowledge Of thai
lime in their hearts, and from time tr
time, and especially on this day. theu
memories 60 back TO those times OF
peril and of strenuousness when act and
deed necessarily had to carry forward
the meaning of the vote and thc force
Of the opinion.
So the loya! States rallied their
young men and called them to battle,
when secession raised its ugly head.
In the four years that the war lasted.
there were troops furnished TO the
Union army amounting IN the agCre-
gate when reduced 10 the three years
standard, Of 2,3l9.272 II we should
apply the ratio Of men furnished TO the
Union cause to our own State, = com.
parison with two States having as near
as possible in 1850 the population that
Utah has now, we would sec what the
tremendous drain on the virilc re.
sources OF these States the war made.
Thus. New Hampshire. with n popula.
tion in 1860 of 326.073. furnished to
the Union armies 33,349 men, Yer
mont, with a population in 1860 OF 3l5,-
09s, furnished 10 the Union cause 90
06S men At that same ratio. Utah
with her present population Of 373,35l.
would furnish in like proportion $4,000
men. This comparison viii give a fair
idea of the exactions which the great
War of the Rebellion made upon the
loyal population Of the country. That
population furnished on the average
over one in ten Of its total population
TO the service of the Union cause.
To those who may imagine that this
tremendous aggregate of young men
was merely an array Of figures, it
should be worth while TO note that on
he Union side there were killed in bat
lie 61,362 men; there died Of wounds
'4,77S, of disease 1s3,2S7; there were
missing in action (probably killed and
ost sight off, 6749 men; 4o,154 died
n hostile prisons, and altogether the
ieaths OF the war aggregated fully $780,
J0O men. In the Confederate army
10000 men were killed, or died of
and disease; 476, 169 were cap
,ured in battle, and 24S,599 paroled on
he field; but no doubt these figures
ire incomplete. But altogether they
ell OF tremendous activities; they are
he great reckoning which the Nation
'aid because of the attempts of few
o dissolve the Union. We present these
'igures, not by any way of recrimina.
ion, but In grief that so many men
hould have died and suffered for the
yreat sin involved In the secession pro-
yramme.
And so we mourn today for those
Tho died in the line Of their duty that
he Nation might live. We honor their
memory, we cherish their glorious deeds,
md we are comforted with the thought
hat If like emergency should arise
our own time, the men of this day
would prove themselves Just as patri-
'tic, just as worthy, and Just as de-
serving of cherished memories and hon.
'red observances as were those who
served in the tremendous war which
ended forty-seven years ago.
We give, therefore, today to the
he proper and fit observances Of the
memorial. Appropriate exercises will be
leld, flowers will be strewn upon
graves, and the day will be one Of
sorrow and Of glorious memo
-ies. And we also recognize that. as in
other realities of life, that which is
set apart for one purpose is often de-
voted to another, accordingly this day
of mingled sorrow, triumph, and graft
Lude is commonly made the day from
which the summer festivities are on
Resorts open from and after this dav,
and the warm season s ioyousness be.
yins. While this might have been other
wise, we recognize in it certain ap-
in that the Joy by rea-
son of the restored Union follows natu-
rally upon the triumph wrought by the
deeds of those who died,
and as the day opens with a memorial
Of grief, just as the war carried such
bitter sorrow, it closes with the Joy Of
deeds well done and the opening of
summer OF festivities precisely IA the
close Of the war set the Union on It's
course of Joyous and triumphant pro.
oress towards the position of grandeur
which il now holds among the nations
Of the earth.