The Ely miner., 1930-05-23

or neglect, no ravages OF time, testify
to the present or to the coming genera
tions that we have forgotten, as a peo-
pie, the cost of free and undivided
republic.
If other eyes grow dull, and other
hands slack, and other hearts grow
cold in the solemn trust, ours shall
keep it well, as long as the light and
warmth of life remain to us.
Let us, then, at the time appointed,
gather around their sacred remains,
and garland the passionless mounds
above them with the choicest flowers
of springtime; let us raise above them
the dear old flag they saved from dis
honor; let US, in this solemn presence,
renew our pledges to aid and assist
those whom they have left among us
sacred charge upon nations grati-
tude-the soldiers widow and orphan.
ii. 1t is the purpose of the COM
mander-in-chief to inaugurate this OBJ
servance, with the hope that it will be
kept up from year to year, while
survivor of the war remains to honor
the memory of his departed comrades.
He earnestly desires the public press to
call attention to this order, and lend
it's friendly aid in bringing ii to the
notice of comrades in all parts of the
country in time for simultaneous COM
pliance Herewith.
III. Department commanders will use
every effort to make this order effec-
tive.
BY order of John A. Logan,
Commander-in-Chief.
Official: n. P. Chapman,
Adjutant General
AS a result Of this order formal
exercises were held at Arlington, Va.
Qater the site of the present Arling-
ton National cemetery on May 80,
1868, the principal ceremony being the
decoration with flags and flowers of
the monument to the Unknown
Dead" a memorial that had been
erected to the memory of 2,111 un-
identified dead found on the fields Of
Bull Run and the route to Rappahan-
mock. The principal address was de-
livered by James A. Garfield, twelve
years later elected President of the
United States. AS yet the term
Memorial day, or Decoration day, had
not been linked with the observance,
and his address, afterward printed
in pamphlet form in Cleveland, Ohio,
was simply entitled: "Oration of
Hon. James A. Garfield, delivered at
Arlington, Va, May 80, 1868. on the
Occasion Of Strewing Flowers on the
Graves of Union Soldiers"
The idea spread rapidly and at the
ceremonies held by the G.. A. r. in
Monument cemetery in Philadelphia
on May %. 1875, it was recorded that
''the annual floral decoration of the
graves of our dead soldiers has be-
come national custom" For 1t was
doing much to heal the wounds of the
war and, in uniting to honor their
dead, the North and the South were
forgetting the bitterness of few
short years before. One Of the most
significant bits of evidence of this
occurred in Brooklyn when on the
eve of May 80, 1877, great throng
assembled in the Academy Of Music
to hear the chief orator of the day
Judge Roger A. Pryor, formerly brig
adler general in the Confederate
army.
"In soliciting the participation of
Confederate soldiers in the solemni-
ties of this day." he said. "you mean
to tender them an overture of recon-
ciliation, to avow your goodwill to-
ward your recent adversaries, and to
proclaim your desire for the prevail
ence of peace and fraternal feeling
between the belligerent sections.
"By no token more touching and
impressive could you make manifest
those liberal and patriotic sentiments.
To proffer your former foes a share
in the simple but pathetic ceremonial
by which, on this hallowed anniver-
sary, you symbolic the perennial
bloom and fragrance associated with
the memory of your departed COM
rades, and allow us to unite in the
homage you render to the fallen
heroes of the Union, is indeed so af-
fecting a testimonial of your kind
ness and magnanimity that we unre-
servedly yield ourselves to it's benign
influences and reciprocate, with all
the warmth of our ardent Southern
natures, the inarticulate but heartfelt
aspiration for the reign of peace and
goodwill over our agitated and
afflicted land"
From that time on Memorial day
celebrations were increasingly SYM
boil of nation reunited. Especially
was this true of those which followed
the Spanish-American war, in which
sons of men who had worn the Blue
fought and died beside sons of men
who had worn the Gray. And it was
even more true of Memorial day cele-
brations since 1919. The World war
left America. this heritage-a Mem
orial day of broader and deeper mean
ing than 1t has ever had before, one
which knows no North, no South, no
East, no West, one which honors the
fighting men of no particular war,
but of all wars. 1t is day for all
Americans to pay reverent tribute to
the memory Of their honored dead
the American soldier.