Year: 1877

| The Roman poet whose words we have


quoted afiirms that it is sweet and honorable
! TO die for ones country. To-day we may with


proprietv affirm that it is equally sweet and


honorable for people saved by the valor and
devotion of its patriot sOdiery tenderly to


remember how nobly they acted and how re-


sicnedly they died. So far rs their fragrant


memories survive them they may be said still


to live, for they yet exist in our affections and


conquer death in the Immortality of their fame.
When they surrendered the life Of the body,


they gave into our keeping the life of the soul,
and they trusted to us that the memory of


their self -abnegation and persistence should be
! transmitted from generation to generation SO
long as the Republic which they rescued from


ruin might continue. 1t was a part OF the


solemn contract, when they enrolled them


selves rs soldiers of the Union. that dying in


its cause the nation itself should be their mag


nifcent and universal monument This trust
the ceremonies of to-day will recall. OF this
duty every flower which may glow and blush


upon the marble or the greensward will be


teacher. Our decoration is a new vow OF
fidelity to liberty. Our visits to cemeteries
which have become shrines are solemn re-
affirmation of our reverence and of our graft
tude.


1t will be well, as we recOilect that these
gallant citizens died, TO remember not only
how but for what they fell. Ii seems hack
neyed to say that they perished for the Union
Of these States, but that Is precisely what 1t


becomes us to keep freshly in mind 1t is
bitterness to recall the unwelcOme truth that


long after these devoted soldiers, having given
M life for the nation, were buried where those


who marched with them will to-day find their
graves, the perfect Union which was their ideal


of government came not altogether back with


returning peace. How long have her victories,
| "not less renowned than those of war;" been


delayed Often has this anniversary been OBJ


served while the political skies were yet dark
encd, and the rupture seemed. SO far as all
practical results were concerned, as wide as
ever. But to-day the skies are brighter.
The people of the United States have


declared at the balOt-box, as they did by the


verdict of the war. for something better and
stronger than a forced association of the


victors and the vanquished. They have
avowed that the reign of great and eunobling
sentiment should 10 longer be postponed.


They have now reason to hope that misguided


States will see, even if they do not acimowl-
edge, the error of their ways, and that after
some years of the worst government in the


world the disciplined South may taste the
benefits of the best. 1t is this which makes


these ceremonies specially significant. 1t is
this which reScues them, they should be,
from the rcproach of sectionasm. Ii is this
which renders the Decoration religious so far
as it promotes fraternity, and polite so far as


il strengthens the devotion of the people to
the Union, and the whole Union.


The feeling which prompts the simple and
touching services of this anniversary is nobler
than any possible words in which it may be
described. The public heart may well be left
to its own estimate of the beauty and the sig
niicance of the occasion. Its instincts are
truer and more trustworthy than the utmost
cunning of craftsmanship more so
than the devices of politicians. We all recog


nize divided duty we are TO forgive but we
are not to forget are to welcome back the
errant to the fold, but we are, for their sake
as well as our own, to remember how they
once deserted it. There is nothing irrecOn-
cilable in these feelings; and every year we
NAV continue the observance of Decoration
with less and less traces of the bitterness
which the war cngendercd, until the de-
scendants of those who stood face to face as
inexOrable foes with our dead soldiers may
Join with us in paying "a tribute to their
memory.