Norwich bulletin., 1920-06-01
PAY TRIBUTE TO THE NATIONS DEAD

2d Conn. Heavy Artillery, died Dec. Is, 191s
 Henry S. Gay Co. M 2d Mass. Heavy Artillery, died Dec. 27. 1919.
 Charles F. Geer, Co. c, 18th c. v, died March 26, 1920.
 Luther Harris, Go. l. 2sth Reg Inf, -Colored Troops, died April s, 1920.
 Capt George R. Case Co. F, 18th C.. V., and Capt. of 73d U. S. Colored In- | fantry, died May 19, 1920.
 Memorial Day Address.
 The Memorial day address was by Rev. Alexander H. Abbott, pastor of the United Congregational church, whose ear nest words made deep impression upon his hearers and he was warmly applaud ed as he concluded his stirring message.
 Rev. MT. Abbott spoke in part as fol- lows:
 For more than fifty years we have been celebrating our Memorial days. We have rightly paid sincere respec1s to those men who broke tae chaine shar We're binding our national life. The farther we get away from the sixties of the last century, the greater seems the magnitude cf the labors Of those critical years. For we have learne1 to measure a human struggle partly in terms of the
 
 l terms of the economic changes produced | partly in terms of the mat arial ard l physical directions thereby created but even more than these-in terms uf the moral and intellectual powers hat were 1 freed for brilliant deeds. Consequently | those Americans who quickenad our pas sion for national unity, bequeathed to us one more gift in the long series of legacies for human freedom, and. in | both victory and defeat. person:fied the challenge of the Common Good--taose l Americans measure large in personal stature. We measure their labors sacri- fees and continued influence by the re- suits upon the national life of their mor- al and intellectual effects. And. because we have found these to be memorable we do well to say, Let the habit of memor- alizing these men never dier'
 Today I would remind you of just two of the many gifts bequeathed to us by these veterans. First of all. they left us one never-to-be-forgotten truth that the worth of national solidarity depends up- !. on the nature of its moral purpose We have been told many times that
 the first great issue of the Civil War was the preservation of the Union Deer differences had arisen. Some were econ. I omie, due to the problems involved ir the production> of cotton in the south
 and those involved in the increasing in.
 dustrialism in the north. Some were so- cial, magnifying the generations of land.
 ownership and slavery on one side and
 emphasizing capitalism on the other
 Some were political, with the advocacy ot ' the doctrine of ''laissez-faire" ove1 against the doctrine of change. Ant
 these social economic and political di
 vergances had constituted a house di
 vided against itself which could no
 stand" Unity must be preserved So I h riff h. T
 Of the struggle say all the agencies O
 the land combined, in the one case tt rebuild, in the other to disrupt the an
 cient solidarity. This we have been tolt
 many times.
 1 One thing. however, we ought to re
 member is this that the wisest of ou P forefathers saw that unity itself is flu
 tile without compelling purpose. Tn
 fact of possessing national solidarity i
 no guarantee of national permanence
 Only as that solidarity is builded upon c high moral purpose can the minds ant
 spirits of citizens be stored to high en
 deavor Iss not this the great fact lief to us by these veterans. What was a . first merely economic became a mora 5 struggle. What was at first to keep tn
 states united, became a contest to keer > the states united for a moral purpose d They changed their warfare from some r thing mechanical to something chivalriC = Honor and justice and freedom infuse n virility into machines and human bodies e and their spiritual tides flowed full an 1 with broad embracing sweeps Whel h Lincoln threw down the gauntlet wit T his great human gesture for huma : emancipation, he interpreted the ne1
 American solidarity in terms of it's mora
 purpose. And here today are these mem
 orable men who remind us of the vas u host who carried on that work of ir T. depreciation, by sacrifcial deaths as we 't as dedicated lives. From their lives W g have received this first great gift: th
 truth that the worth of national soiidal 'r ity depends up the nature of it's nor; 'i purpose.
 nj A second gift these memorable me Id have bequeathed to us in this compl IS mentary truth: that the best defense n a nation is the moral advance of i le citizenry. All the periodic struggle le which every nation has to endure. prov, l. that fact Without such moral advan, r. nations enter upon their deaths Matur IS ty is always a mar<(Sng forward. Of years but most of all in experienc