The Republican journal., 1914-09-10
E. W. WILEY,
E. F. ANDERSON, ; Com
H. A. Rogers.

II. A Rogers.
Report accepted.
The committee on time and place reported:
Next meeting to be held at the church North
Belfast. October 1st.
Report accepted.
Honorary member Mark Howard, Master of
Union Harvest Grange, then gave the follow
ing address of welcome:
Mr.. President, Members of Waldo County
Veteran Association: We wish to greet you with
few words of welcome. In behalf of Union
Harvest Grange and the people of Center
Montville, bid you welcome and thrice well
come.
We are pleased to stand in the presence of
our nations heroes, and again welcome you to
our grange home.
1t is more beftting that we keep silent than
attempt to recount the trials and privations,
long marches and weary halts, fierce battles,
wounds and Imprisonment which you endured
to save our native land. Today we meet to
honor your heroism and bow to your deeds of
yalor on the battlefield, the like of which the
world has never seen.
A conflict on a larger scale than the world
has ever known has begun between the armed
hosts of the most powerful military nations of
Europe, and we in America cannot but be
thankful that are united nation. one
country and one flag, the government of the
people for the people and by the people, the
home of the oppressed of all nations. The
student of history in the study of America is
reminded of the drama. Hidden from the
gaze of civilized man for more than fifteen
hundred years, its discovery gave promise of
wealth and power, and empire, to thousands
of adventurous men. No one can dispute that
our Republic was divinely planted amid the
groans and tears, hardships and prlvatlons OF
the Pilgrim Fathers, on the sterile soil of our
beloved New England. That they could have
succeeded amid such adverse circumstances
was little short of miraculous. Our Republic
has also been dvinely kept. 1t has had perils
within and perils without. England was not
satisfied with the Revolution. We had to
fight the war of 1912 and show to the world
the courage and supremacy of the American
soldier and sailor before she would be civil
The disease of slavery was preylng on our
vitals like a cancer, and 1T required heroic
treatment to expel the plague You veterans
whom we honor today are among the survivors
of the soldiers and sailors who broke the
shackles of four million slaves and enforced
the doctrine of the declaration of lndepend-
ence that all men are created equal.
Two hundred and fifty thousand heroes sleep
in southern graves and as many more found
their eternal resting places in northern ceme-
teries to enforce the doctrine of equal rights,
and to disprove the heresy of State sovereignty.
Let US pause for a moment and consider the
man who was foremost in the work of wlplng
out slavery, who removed this terrible stain
which obscured The stars of our flag We
have often contemplated his life. Born IN
cabin in Kentucky of parents who could scarce
ly read, boatman at three years amid the i'm
peteous currents of the Ohio, and at 18 in the
vast and tranquil waters of the Mississippi.
| Later.a woodman with axe and arm telling the
trees to make way to unexplored regions for
his band of wandering workers, reading only
the Bible and a very few other good books, a
| child of Nature.
By one of those miracles only comprehen-
sible among tree people he in due time be-
came Freedoms foremost champion, and was
sent by his fellow citizens to Congress, and
later was chosen President OF the United
States, And then, when the evil grew more
virulent, when Shareholders uttered tnelr war
cry and the slaves their cry of despair, the
woodcutter the boatman, the son OF the great
west, ascends the Capitol. the greatest moral
height of our ,ime.
Before him the rebel army eager for battle.
hostile Europe behind him, England favoring
the South, France encouraging reaction IN
Mexico-ln his hands the riven country.
He arms two millions of men, gathered half
a million horses, sends his artillery 200 miles
in a week from the banks of the Potomac to
the shores of Tennessee: fights more than 6OO
pitched battles, renews before Richmond the
deeds of Alexander, Of Cesar, and after nav.
ing emancipated four million slaves, that
nothing might be wanting. he dies in the mo-
ment of victory, like all great redeemers, at
the foot of his work.
"His work Sublime achievement! over
which humanity shall eternally shed its tears
and God his benediction."
Heroes of the Civil War, we are proud tc
welcome you. All hail! ye noble men, we
bare our heads to do you honor, such men
l never die The human frame may shrink ano
waste, but your manly virtues, your deeds Of
valor, your victories won and trlumphs achlev-
ed can never perish.
The response was by Comrade George L
Merrill of Searsport. Then followed Schoo
exercise by Mrs. Frank Hall and children; rol
cali by the President. thirty veterans respond
ing; song by Comrade Smith, who responded te
an encore; remarks by Comrades White, Con.
ant and Rogers; song by Comrade Anderson
who also responded to an encore; recitation by
Mrs. Frank Hall; interesting remarks by Com
: raie John O. John. on of Liberty, an officer ir
the navy, who said he was a friend to Ger
many, because in our time of need Germany
showed herself friendly to US, when some OF
the other nations did not.
A rising vote of thanks was given Union
Harvest Grange for courtesies.
citation that the wife of President Crockett anG
Mrs, Fred L. Palmer were both critically i'll
and it was voted that the secretary pro ten
! express to President Crockett and to Comrade
Palmer the deepest sympathy and regard o1
the Association. Oracle BOWEN,
Secretary pro tenn.