595
Memorial Day. Oration
By
Charles A. Surrmer
'alifornia]
Jional
ility
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
AT LOS ANGELES
D
ay.
ORATION
BY
CHARLKS A. SUMNER,
Of Geo. H. Thomas Post, No. 2, G. A. R.
Dept. of California.
Delivered at the Grand Opera House, San Francisco,
WEDNESDAY EVENING, M/tY 30, 1888.
OBJECTS OF THE GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC.
I . To preserve and strengthen those kind and fraternal feelings which bind
together the soldiers, sailors and marines who united to suppress the late rebellion,
and to perpetuate the memory and history of the dead.
2. To assist such former comrades in arms as need help and protection, and
to extend needful aid to the widows and orphans of those who have fallen.
3. To maintain true allegiance to the United States of America, based upon
a paramount respect for, and fidelity to the National Constitution and laws; to dis-
countenance whatever tends to weaken loyalty, incites to insurrection, treason or
rebellion, or in any manner impairs the efficiency and permanency of our free in-
stitutions ; and to encourage the spread of universal liberty, equal rights and
justice to all men.
SAN FRANCISCO :
JAMES H. BARRY, PRINTER, 429 MONTGOMERY STREET.
1888.
fDemoinal Day.
ORATION
BY
CHARLKS A. SUMNKR,
Of Geo. H. Thomas Post, No. 2, G. A. R.
Dept. of California.
Delivered at the Grand Opera House, San Francisco,
WEDNESDAY EVEJMING, M/rY 30, 1888.
OBJECTS OF THE GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC.
1. To preserve and strengthen those kind and fraternal feelings which bind
together the soldiers, sailors and marines who united to suppress the late rebellion,
and to perpetuate the memory and history of the dead.
2. To assist such former comrades in arms as need help and protection, and
to extend needful ,iid to the widows and orphans of those who have fallen.
3. To maintain true allegiance to the United States of America, based upon
a paramount respect for, and fidelity to the National Constitution and laws; to dis-
countenance whatever tends to weaken loyalty, incites to insurrection, treason or
rebellion, or in any manner impairs the efficiency and permanency of our free in-
stitutions ; and to encourage the spread of universal liberty, equal rights and
justice to all men.
SAN FRANCISCO :
JAMES H. BARRY, PRINTER, 429 MONTGOMERY STREET.
1888,
ORATION.
On being introduced by Hon. Henry C. Dibble, Mr.
Sumner said:
Mr. President, Comrades of the Grand Army of the
Republic, Ladies and Gentlemen: It is right that one
day "of all the weary year" should be set apart and dedi-
cated to the commemoration of the deeds of the civil war;
and especially to the grateful consideration of the record
of those who fought and fell in that struggle, and thus
contributed most indubitably and effectually to the
achievement of the greatest of triumphs for the institu-
tions of civil liberty. It should be a separate time; it
cannot properly be joined with other objects. Our great
national anniversary still largely if not wholly retains its
ancient significance, and all its former precedence; only
enhanced, indeed, by the glory of the valor and the Union
va victories of the later conflict. The birthday of a Presi-
Jg dent or General, however renowned and worthy of special
~ remembrance he might be, could not have been fitly se-
c lected for such a purpose, as undue personal emphasis
| and invidious distinctions would then have been among
is the inevitable and discordant results. Nor is there a sin-
^ gle notable event of the war of battle or decree not
even the issuance of the emancipation proclamation it-
self that so stamps and dignifies the hours, with such
direct and related influences, as to imperatively or justi-
fyingly control this appointment. It must be a day by
itself. And so it is. The pre-eminent propriety of such
a designation, isolated and peculiar, and the excellence of
the judgment that named the day on which we have as-
sembled, and conducted and nearly concluded our exer-
cises, have constituted the frequent theme of felicitous and
sufficient speech.
When the roses bloom all over the land, the long pro-
cession is formed, in city or town, with the regular or
citizen soldiery and uniformed civic associations as escorts
370577
or honoring attendants; at the head or in the midst of
which march the Union army veterans; and so, in sim-
ple but martial line, they go to the graves of dead com-
rades, and cover their dust with flowers.
The ceremony is becoming. It is so as a manifesta-
tion of affection for the heroes gone, recollection of their
labors and dangers and sufferings; and as the strongest
and tenderest of reminders and stimulants respecting our
own continued and bounden duty as surviving patriots.
More than this it is: as testimony before all observing
men and women in this country, in mournful but une-
quivocal celebration of a consummation by campaigns and
battles, over which every true citizen should rejoice in
common with every intelligent lover of liberty through-
out the inhabitable globe. More than these it is: in tes-
timony, instructive, explicit, inspiring and enduring, to
the 1 generations that are with us but coming after us, and
to all the generations that are to come, of the justice of
that cause for which we were originally enrolled in the
Grand Army of the Republic.
And how tit the date, with a retrospect of precisely 27
years ago. We are at the close of the season in which the
war began. How eventful was the spring of 1861! How
great th echangethat then came over the life and thought
of the people during that brief period of time!
Not with standing the rapidly deepening blackness of
the clouds of rebellion that gathered and o'ercast our
country from the Presidential election of 1860 to the lat-
ter part of March, 1861, most reluctant was the vast ma-
jority of the citizens of the northern States, and of some
of the border commonwealths, to admit that satisfactory
compromise was impossible, and that we must accept the
dire arbitrament of arms. To the very last, the hope was
lively and intense in the breasts of loyal men, that actual
war might and would be averted. To the very verge of
craven submission had public pledges and private per-
suasion gone, with a view to mollify and placate the lead-
ers of secession, before the first gun was fired on Fort
Sumter.
With remarkable readiness and celerity was the sum-
mons of the President for the respective quota of militia,
under the call for 75,000 troops, answered by the Govern-
ors and people of most of the loyal States. But in the de-
parture to the national capital or " the front," of regi-
ments and companies so required and measurably
expectant of requisition, there was by no means a popular
abandonment of trust and confidence in the ultimate,
speedy, peaceful settlement of the disagreements and diffi-
culties which the chief executive had outlined and de-
plored, with only the sad record of the Charleston harbor
fortress once attacked by and surrendered to a rebellious
foe, and a few trifling skirmishes on the border, to stain
the pages of our national history.
On the 4th of May, 1861, however, the proclamation
of the President for volunteers was issued; the progress
and cohesion of the movement for secession having then
proceeded to such lengths as to exclude any doubt or ex-
pectation against the fact that war had commenced, and
that a desperate and prolonged struggle between different
sections of the Union, already defined by so-called ordi-
nances of repeal and separation, was unavoidable.
Already in every northern city of considerable size
and transportation facilities, the parks and adjacent com-
mons had been appropriated for the barracks of enlisted
men, temporarily housed for the discipline of a week,
or the lodging of a night, while on their ordered way to
the scene of threatened hostilities. Then it was that the
soft music of the piano and viol was hushed or drowned
in nearly every town and village of the northern States;
while the air reverberated with the stirring roll of the
drum and the shrill shriek of the fife and the command-
ing blare of the bugle. Then it was that father and mo-
ther, and brother and sister, and wife and maiden-be-
trothed, bade good-bye to the youthful recruit, as he joined
the awkward squad on the village green or marched down
the main street of his native hamlet for the last time;
with a consciousness on their part, in bitter anguish, of
the almost absolute certainty of a hazard of war decreed
for him on some bloody field of combat. A bastard wit
and humor of this age and country have sought to make
mockery of, and bring perpetual derision upon these tear-
ful and prayerful partings, or their recitals; but we knew
and should here and now with profoundest sympathy
recall and commemorate such heart-breaking sacrifices
and consecrations, then made by the closest of relatives
and the dearest of friends, the irrepressible, attending
signs and demonstrations of sorrow, but serving to show the
strength and earnestness of the wills aroused, and increas-
ing the actual value, we know not how many fold, of the
champions thus bequeathed and dispatched for the pre-
servation of our national integrity and the unshorn supre-
macy of the flag of our Union.,
And as for the raw r volunteer: how fared it with him
in mind and resolution, on the day of enlistment, or at
the hour of farewell to friends and home ?
He who seeks to cast suspicion upon the sincerity or
bravery of the rebellious foe, would but aid in belittling
the severity of the struggle on the part of the loyal forces,
and detract from the honor and the glory of the final tri-
umph. Slight, indeed, if any, was the real doubt or decep-
tion on this score, in the direction deprecated, in the
minds of northern men. It did not require the actual
shock of battle to teach our boys the tremendous delusion
that would repose on such a grave misapprehension. At
the very least, full faith and credit was given by them to
every rational claim for intrepidity and even reckless dar-
ing on the part of the enemy they were summoned to
confront.
Nor did some plain and powerful reasons for an
average disparity in physical and educated adaptability
for the service, at the very outset, escape the thoughtful
and appreciative consideration of the Union volunteers,
and especially of most of those who hailed from the New
England commonwealths. The far greater proportion of
the citizens of the sunny South who had been accustomed
to the use of deadly weapons, thoroughly trained in horse-
manship, and tutored and skillful as marksmen in sport
or on former fields of conflict, was a fact well understood
among our Union soldiers, and the subject of reference in
many of their camp-fire conversations, before the day of
their particpation in skirmish arrived or the thunder of
pitched battle sounded in their ears. Reared in a more
genial clime, and on that and other kindred accounts
having had more leisure and better opportunity for the
species of exercise calculated to render them nearly fitted
for a military service, and with natural and cultivated
tastes and dispositions all in that line of activity, it was
well known, and passed into daily dialogue, that the first
to answer the appeal of the Confederate authorities for
troops, would in all probability be, in the direction indi-
cated and without the slightest offensive disparagement
of our own people of the North the abler occupants of
fort and field. And then there was the greater readiness
for such a strike, born and nurtured in a condition of so-
ciety that Eulogized the duelist, and justified and com-
mended and even commanded the settlement of many
personal disagreements by the single combat, with sword
or gun. And beyond these, and perhaps at first most for-
midable of affecting differences asserted, or sometimes
conceded (to select one other from numerous points of emo-
tional equipment and incentive, that flash in upon us in
such a contemplation) there was the assumption, so
reasonable on the first suggestion, so artfully and studi-
ously impressed the assumption on the part of the rebel
soldier, or in his behalf, that he was fighting, or about to
fight, for the preservation of the sanctity of his own fire-
side and his family honor: an idea which was taken
for a text in the composition of ten thousand calls to arms
in the South, and blazoned on hundreds of banners that
were tautened in every city and town within the bounds
of the confederacy; that formed the basis and substance
of many mottoes and rallying cries, quoted often with
half-concealed, sometimes with undisguised, approval by
the traitorous portion of the northern press, and thus
flaunted in the very faces of the men meditating on their
possible obligation to enlist, or already beginning their
term of service in the ranks. We are not alluding to any
admitted distinction or disparity in native courage. We
are merely touching that which was fully and creditably
recognized and realized in the first months of the rebel-
lion the time of preliminary preparation by the great
mass of Union volunteers, some of whom are now sleep-
ing in yonder cemeteries with your lilies above their heads.
There was no reason why the combatants on the Union
side should not have expert--'! to meet at first, armies
at least, equal to their own in nuiiicricjil .strength. There
was reason to believe that the boasted capability of oae
to two or more, so often reported to have been made by
Confederate Captains, had a <had.>w of foundation or justifi-
cation in the schooling or recreations of boyhood and early
manhood; and to the muscle and nerve that were his as a
conscious inheritance, the Yankee lad in the loyal hosts
felt that he would need, and must add, the vigor and en-
ergy that should come from an enlightened assurance of
a better cause, and the strength of patriotic resolution in-
stilled by parental teachings and ancestral example.
But while there were warranted and while there were
excessive misgivings on the one hand in no fashion or
degree due to any inherent lack of manly sentiment or
will there w r ere unsustained anticipations, in the same
line, on the other.*
Nothing is more gratifying for emphasis in the records,
few matters of interest and proper for comment at such an
hour, are more deserving of mention, than the story or
illustrations of the rapid advance on the part of the loyal
volunteer in his proficiency in the art of war. But
stranger yet and strange that it has not been made the
subject of published reference and remark ere now was
the almost metamorphosis, where there was stamina for
such a change, from the actual or seemingly weak to the
indisputably rugged man. If age, or chronic or organic
ailment, had seriously impaired the natural animal powers
of the recruit, there was, of cour>e, a quick relief from
active duty at the front, a discharge for disability, or a
detail to clerical or culinary service in the rear; but the
vitality adequate for building up a strong constitution
being latent, the campaign experience in the Union
ranks, in this "unjust and unnatural rebellion," as
General Winfield Scott described it, in hi- brief letter of
resignation, often had its immedjate individual bene-
ficence, its personal, physical compensation, at the very
beginning of life in tent and trench. The bloom of sturdy
*"You have proved that Union men, fighting for the preservation of our Gov-
ernment, are more than a match for our misguided and erring brothers " Gen
George B. McClellan.
9
health not infrequently came speedily into the face of the
new recruit, who, late a pale and cadaverous student be-
neath the midnight lamp in his college room, would have
afforded infinite amusement to the lithe and sinewy gen-
tleman of the Confederate forces, could he but have seen
his future antagonist when signing the company roll. So
looked, and so went forth William F. Bartlett, from the
halls of Harvard University; a stripling that barely
passed the examination of the recruiting surgeon, so
frail of physique did he seem to that medical adviser. Yet
he lived and toiled in the service, to thrive in body and
in soul. He lived to participate fiercely in numerous skir-
mishes and battles, from Ball's Bluff to Port Hudson; and
again in Virginia before Petersburg, where he was se-
lected to lead an assaulting brigade on the occasion of
the celebrated mine explosion. He lived to receive and
at least to partially recover from three dreadful wounds;
hastening from hospitals, half healed of his horrid blows,
to assume new regimental commands coming from his na-
tive Massachusetts; eager to take their fighting orders
under the gleam of his martial blade. With crippled
limbs and lacerated breast, which periodically bled
afresh, he survived the war for more than ten years; an
especial marvel of vitativeness to those who saw him
when he first shouldered his musket; dying and borne
to his tomb amid the aching heart-throbs of all who knew
him, and who loved him for his many virtues and his
valor.
So went forth and physically recuperated, and fought
and bled and conquered, and gained deserved promotion,
during countless risks and Hurts by shot and sword, un-
numbered others, of like apparent delicacy of frame and
amiability of mind. The brawny sons of hardiest toil
were at first most desired, best approved, and as a rule at
first most efficient at the front; but the spindle-legged
"counter-jumpers," and sedeutaries of every honorable call-
ing that lightly taxed the muscular part of man, soon came
to fairly rival the accustomed laborer of the farm and the
workshop, with their agile and thorough and persistent
performances in the most exacting line of soldierly duty.
And the stalwart comrades of the 69th N. Y., from its
10
high and acknowledged plane of matchless physical en-
durance and unsurpassed bravery, with noble candor were
soon among the first and foremost t,o confess and cheer
the exhibition of whip-cord toughness and tenacity, given
in the hottest of contests, by the dandy 5th.
It has been the long-time custom of many Union
men, soldiers and civilians alike, to speak with a sorrow
largely mixed with severest censure and only so to speak
respecting officers and troops engaged, or ordered to
take part, in the first battle of Bull Run Only within a
closely recent period has the familiarly summarized ver-
dict of competent and disinterested foreign critics " A
well planned and stoutly fought battle on the part of the
Union forces " been listened to with any patience or
tolerance by the majority of our people who pretend to
have any intimate and analysing acquaintance with the
reports of the action, or any intelligent judgment upon the
entire conduct of the fight. But it has been and is
now to be noted, that from the dates of that series of
skirmishes which bears the one name mentioned, there
was no repetition of that vaunt of man to m/tn superior-
ity coming from any reputable military rebel source.
That fact itself should be enough to vindicate the par-
ticipants from every reproachful taunt and every base
insinuation.
From the official reports of the respective command-
ers, each speaking for its own side, there was a combined
force of 18,000 Union soldiers thrown against 27,000
rebel troops; both sides equally well equipped in arms,
but the latter fighting always, of course, with the advan-
tage of a thorough knowledge of the country occupied
and contended over, and with the added and larger ad-
vantage of breastworks and tree-shields for musketry
defence, and masked embrasures for ambuscade artillery
practice. The difference in numbers of killed and
wounded, taking the reckoning from similar authorities,
was so small, as to demonstrate that under the circum-
stances with less number of Union men and disadvan-
tages of position, and cavalry deficiency, and with open
presentation the greatest execution relatively, by far,
was done by the "raw, undisciplined" Boys in Blue, on
11
whose heads so much of unmerited obloquy has so long
been showered.*
The onsets of the 69th New York made so widely
familiar by accounts from both sides, that tally with ex-
actness and the twice re-formed in the midst of fire, and
thrice on-hurled of the 79th New York, with the daunt-
less Col. Cameron rallying with the cry of "Come on
Scots" at their head together with the scenes of the
deaths of the two commanding Colonels on the field
form separate pictures from authentic history that live in
vivid colors in the proud but sorrowful memories of many
to-night one close and interested spectator, now the
head of this military department, being here with us, to
recall at this instant the battle and the heroism; pictures
or outlines whose full portraiture and landscape shall be
faithfully laid on many a brilliant canvas of the future.
Over the graves of more than 500 of the killed and
wounded who fell at Stone's Bridge and on the edge of
Manassas Plain, our comrades in the East, in Washing-
ton, and elsewhere on and in the Virginia border,' have
this day laid their floral offerings and fired their honor-
ing salutes.
And there and then rebel as well as Union prisoners
were taken, and rebel as well as Union regimental ban-
ners, were seized and held. The prisoners were subse-
quently exchanged. The battle flags were not.
Another, one other record of similar import, coming
from the other and hither side of the region of regular hos-
tilities between representative combatants for the Union
and for the Confederacy, one out of the thousand be-
sides, is at hand, for the very briefest glance, to-night.
With such discretion committed to him by Abraham
Lincoln, President of the United States, Frank Blair, on
*Gen. Beauregard, in his official report, puts the number of his force on the
1 8th of July, at 17,000 effective men ; and on the 2ist, 27,000, which included
6,200 sent from Gen. Johnston and 1,700 brought up by Gen. Holmes from
Fredericksburg Tenney's History of the Rebellion, page 79.
" We crossed Bull Run with about 18,000 men of all arms." Official Report
of Mayor Gen. McDowell.
"Rash it certainly was to attack Gen. Beauregard on ground which he him-
self had selected and elaborately fortified." New Orleans Delta, July 28, 1861.
12
fch :;i>,h of May. 1861 exactly 27 years ago this night
drew from liis pocket and properly presented an order,
which placed at the head of loyal troops in Missouri,
Nathaniel Lyon, a native of Connecticut and an officer
in the regular army.
Subsequently stationed near Springfield, southwest-
ern Missouri, on the <.th of August, 1861, Gen. Lyon
learned of the junction of the forces of Generals Price and
Ben McCullough the last named rebel officer being a
man of great experience in military matters, and of dis-
tinction as a cunning planner and a plucky fighter and
also ascertained that the consolidated troops, aggregating
23,000 men. were only ten or twelve miles distant. It
was notorious that this rebel host was composed of "the
very best western and southwestern fighting material"
such having been the common newspaper boast of disloyal
editors in Missouri, before the junction; which signified,
of course, a combination of most of the elements that go
to make up a bold and determined foe.
Coming to the conclusion, after as full and careful a
review of the situation as the information he possessed
and the time allowed for deliberation would permit, that
it was hi> duty to at least make a "strong feint" of an at-
tack upon this formidable enemy, Gen. Lyon did not hes-
itate tu march to the encounter; although his own force
amounted to less than 5,300 men, all told; of which
number Gen. Sigel who did not directly participate in
the main action that followed had more than 1,300.
The enemy's position was on Wilson's Creek, along a dis-
tance of four or live miles, and in the ravines and on the
1 its adjacent. The assault was made under the ini-
ate direction of Gen. Lyon, and for three hours was
continued, with varying fortunes, but with no movement
needed repulse or retirement on the part of the entire
body of the audacious assailants. In the fourth hour, after
being thri.-e wounded severely once having his horse
killed under him, at the same time that he received a
.-hot in the right l-g and while engaged in re-forming
the :M Kan-a- and leading it to a fresh onset, fell Gen.
Nathaniel Lyon. with a rebel bullet in his heart. Of him
Major S. 1). Stnriris, who succeeded to the command,
13
wrote from that evening's camp: "Wherever the battle
mos't furiously raged, there Gen. Lyon was to be found."
And in his formal, official report of the battle, after nar'
rating events up to the happening of this great calamity,
the same commanding officer proceeds: "Thus gloriously
fell as brave a soldier as ever drew a sword; a man whose
honesty of purpose was proverbial; a noble patriot; and
one who held his life as nothing when his country de-
manded it of him." What words could be added to these,
to rouse to keenest pulse our reverential tribute of
memory and affection for the spirit of such a man!
And of the battle of Wilson's Creek itself, the authen-
tic and now undisputed record says: "The Confederates
twice in its progress came up to the Federal lines with a
Union flag flying; [the Union forces that were thus ap-
proached then momentarily expecting the coming of Gen,
Sigel and his 1,300 men,] and thus deceived the Federal
troops, until they could get so close as to pour a most de-
structive fire upon them." And yet even this "ruse" as
the rebels playfully named it on the part of the Confed-
erate commanders, produced no panic and little confusion
in the Union ranks.
During three more hours, after the fall of Gen. Lyon,
the contest was continued, at the close of which time the
enemy was fairly forced from its advantageous positions,,
back to its camps ,and even still farther to the rear.
Major Sturgis in the concluding portion of his report
declares, that the best eulogium he could pass upon the
3,700 Union soldiers engaged in this encounter, was by
narrating the facts: that after a fatiguing night's march,
they attacked an enemy outnumbering them by over -six
to one 23,000 to 3,700 and after a bloody conflict of
six hours at the expiration of which the rebel forces re-
tired from their original line, and ceased to contend
withdrew at leisure to their base of supplies, near the
town of Springfield.
In endeavoring to estimate and fairly consider the
debt due the Union soldiers of the Civil War, especially
to be recalled and reviewed this day, with a foremost
purpose of begetting or invoking a mood for earnest and
profound thankfulness toward those who fought and fell,.
14
or otherwise suffered unto death in the holy cause,
what better, what more suggestive and impressive act of
reference is possible, than that which places before you
the map of the country that would have been authori-
tatively outlined and printed, if the Rebellion had been
successful ? Think what your children, coming home
from the Public Schools, would have recited to you, this
week, from the lesson in geography that is now embraced
in a single national title and subordinate enumeration !
See the dark red line, dotted with fortress hexagons,
across our dear mother country's breast. Instead of
telling of the one great Republic with the boundaries
that were and are, comprehending the Thirty-eight
Commonwealths, beginning with the precious names that
cover the territory of the glorious Old Original Thirteen,
your children must have answered with a description of
a Union and a separate " Confederate States of North
America"; the latter responsively announced as com-
posed of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas,
Arkansas, Tennessee, and probably Kentucky, and pos-
sibly Missouri; with a shameful accornpaning historical
record of a bloody dismemberment and divorce. Con-
template that division, this night, with the mingled sen-
timents of aversion and of gratitude that it must evoke;
horror at the thought of such a separation, and a grate-
ful sense of the measureless obligation under which we
rest, to those who gave or periled their lives for our
country's preservation !
Inclusive of Kentucky, the number of square miles
in the Southern Confederacy would have been 789,382;
on which territory there is to-day a population of
14,629,662 persons. This area, embracing in great pro-
portion some of the fairest and most fruitful lands on the
face of the globe, with a small amount of non-arable
acreage, and much of that bearing beds of coal and iron
and even precious metals in its breast, aggregates a sur-
face measurement equal to the added areas of France,
Germany, Austria, Hungary, Great Britian and Ireland
and Belgium; which European countries now contain a
population of over 161,619,600 inhabitants. Weigh for a
15
little while, under such a computation and attendant
comparisons, the improbabilities of re-union, and the al-
most certain renewal of strife between the people of the
different governments, lately under one flag, and the
prospect of a constantly harrassing guerilla warfare!
Two propositions were distinctly and frequently pro-
claimed by those competent and authorized to speak of
the object and purpose and scope of the secession move-
ment two propositions announced as of cardinal char-
acter: the one, that the institution of negro slavery
must be preserved, and the other, that the boundaries of
the Confederacy, with slavery guaranteed as a constitu-
tional right, should be extended until the continuous soil
of the new government presented a long shore or beach
line on the Pacific Ocean; hardly disguising or affect-
ing to conceal a plan and determination to absorb the
entire domain of Mexico and, perhaps, California; and
until at least the main isles of the Caribbean Sea were
brought under the governmental authority of the "stars
and bars," by actual annexation or a practically equiva-
lent protectorate. With foreign countenance and influ-
ence and aid arising from causes we have not time to
specify, and exerted in ways adapted to every exigency,
and the most powerful abetment England with an old
grudge against us, and an everliving monarchical dis-
like; with her colonial possessions of slender tenure on
our north, with her hated rival France in the halls of
Montezuma with the hundred and one patent reasons
springing out of such a condition of things to go no
farther nor elsewhere for contributing causes and co-op-
erations, does any intelligent observer or thinker doubt
for a moment that the territorial enlargement indicated
was or would have been more than probable.
Such extension would have given the Confederacy nearly
double the land surface already stated, with incalculable
treasure for enlightened Caucasian development; mak-
ing the square mile jurisdiction over 1,583,000, with a
population of over 29,000,000 of people.
But let the boundary lines and the jurisdiction of
the- Confederacy stand and remain as they unquestion-
ably would have been drawn at the close of a supposed
16
termination of the war, in 1865, with the Union forces
defeated, (if you can bring yourselves for a moment to
tok- rate such a supposition); and then meditate upon the
inevitable antagonisms of interests and personal and
state ambitions that would have abided and grown and
intensified, after the cessation of hostilities, under any
possible treaty of peace ? And out from the gloom of
that contemplation and under the sunshine of our saved
and sanctified Union be thankful this day, and ever
more.
The war of the Rebellion was a war for slavery, on
the part of the insurgents. The war for the Union was a
war for liberty. The former was avowed. The latter
was involved, and developed into statements of particular,,
aggressive purpose, and actual achievements for freedom,
of which we never dreamed at the hour when the tocsin
was sounded.
In her proclamation at the commencement of the
Secession movement that which may, perhaps be
termed the first overt act of official speech South Caro-
lina declared by the mouth of her Governor: " In the
Southern States there are two entirely distinct and sepa-
rate races, and one has been held in subjection to the other
by peaceful inheritance from worthy and patriotic ances-
tors, and all who know the races well know that it is the
only form of government that can preserve both, and
administer the blessings of civilization with order and in.
harmony. Anything tending to change and weaken the
government and the subordination between the races,
not only endangers the peace, but the very existence
of society itself." These words of this proclamation
were never in any manner or decree questioned or quali-
fied by any member of any convention of any of the
other seceding states, when they subsequently joined in
the unholy combination for the overthrow of the Union
and the establishment of an independent, so-called Con-
federacy; on the contrary, these words were often quoted
or referred to, in such conventions, by leading members,
with the highest emphasis of endorsement and approba-
tion.
Our Fathers would not so much as permit the word
17
slave to appear in the Constitution for the Union. But
with its derivatives we find it no less than seven times in
the organic act of the Southern Confederacy; and always
there with protectful and propagating significance; save
as respects the importation of negroes, free or bound,
from " any foreign country," which was forbidden.
One of the " new provisions " adopted by the con-
stitutional convention which assembled and held its ses-
sions at Montgomery, Alabama, had this affirmance of
the "corner stone existence" of negro slavery: "The
citizens of each state shall be entitled to all the privileges
of citizens in the several states, and shall have the
right of transit and sojourn in any state in this Confeder-
acy, with their slaves and other property; and the right of
property in said slaves shall not be thereby impaired."
And again: " No slave or other person held to service or
labor in any state or territory of the Confederate States,
under the laws thereof, escaping or lawfully carried into
another, shall in consequence of any law or regulation
therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but
shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such
slave belongs, or to whom such service or labor may be
due."
And looking east and west, (and mayhap north ?)
this constitution went on to declare : " The Confederate
States may acquire new territory. In all such territory
the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the
Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected by
Congress and by the territorial government; and the in-
habitants of the several Confederate States and Terri-
tories shall have the right to take to such territory any
slaves lawfully held by them in any of the states and ter-
ritories of the Confederate States."
And in this relation, consider the sympathy and
opinions of a large minority in the Northern States, as
indicated during the earlier months and years of the
rebellion as well as prior to that time not only favor-
ing aggressively, and outside of any alleged deference to
our constitutional guarantee, the undisturbed and un-
challenged continuance of slavery in the Southern States,
but avowedly anxious for the introduction of that insti-
is
tution into our unstained or self-cleansed common-
wealths. What would have been (lie taunts, and the
overt ell'orts by speech if never by arms of citi/ens,
many and able and energetic, in our remaining "Union,"
to harmoni/e " by the comity of transit rights for
" slave property," so-called if no more? What the con-
sequent fretting and demoralization taking the least of
embitterments and assaults upon freedom even suppos-
ing that it did not result in a practical, partial establish-
ment of slavery in the North had not the soldiers and
sailors of the North scourged and utterly defeated the
armies of the South?
Our Fathers bequeathed to us a government hitherto
unequalled and unapproached in its intrinsic excellence,
as a comprehensively drawn circle of means and methods
for ensuring freedom, substantial progress, and govern-
mental perpetuity So far as forms are concerned, they
endowed their children with political institutions that
provide a perfect right of legislative representation; with
a -ystem of courts for the trial and adjudication of all
questions of deference in the legislative enactments to an
incomparable constitution, and the determination of dis-
putes between states and individuals, and between one
citizen and another; and with an adequate, many-handed
power of lawful execution. This government of our
Fathers having stood the test of more than a century, is
no longer an experiment. Any one in our midst may
yet as many have done in the past argumentatively
nt and insist upon the alleged beauties and compar-
ative advantages of another and different system of rule;
and, indeed, in this, and one other license to which I
shall allude, the very largeness of our liberty may be
healthfully exemplified; but the audiences for such
advocacies have grown less and less, with regular decline,
after the first novelty-hearing of voice and text; and from
the following of fanatics and fools, promise to dwindle to
the inarticulate echo of the silly speaker's words. With
a remedy for every wrong appointed for our assertion,
and with never any cause for complaint in that respect
the administration of the laws, at times, being alone at
fault there is absolutely no excuse for revolution or
19
rebellion; and treason is the baldest of treachery, and
disloyalty dishonor. All serious expressions of favor for
the latter should be promptly confronted by the neigh-
borly patriot with appropriate deprecating and admoni-
tion; and the known, well understood, invariably inflicted
penalty for the former should be death.
By their service in the Union Army or Navy during
the Civil War, our comrades were the true defenders of
the homes and firesides of their foes. The battles won
under our flag were never sectional or personal victories;
triumphs which in exquisite illustration of the proverbs
of heaping coals of fire on an' enemy's head, were thrice
blessed for and unto those who in ignorance or malignant
passion stoutly, indeed, and with splendid courage
maintained for so long a time the wicked cause of the so-
called Confederate States of North America.
Now, whatever may be said or written, in and of the
truth, or in an indulgent and partial temper of affection,
for the leading captains or councillors of the rebellion
who have deceased in behalf of the memory of superior
types of men, pure in their private life, intelligent and
gallant as officers, and the like let it be carved on mon-
uments, or beneath statues, or within the mouldings of
portrait frames that are to hang in public halls, or let
such loving testimony be printed in memorial volumes
for general circulation; but whosoever shall seek by such
record, or its extension, or by ceremonies of dedication
or unveiling of shaft or figure or painting, to uphold or
defend the cause of the Southern Confederacy or the offi-
cial conduct of its founders and managers," as such, com-
mits a gross offence against the Republic, and is morally
guilty of a fresh crime of disloyalty and treason against
the government under whose blessed shadow he thus
shows himself to be utterly unworthy to longer remain.
Again I say, the largest liberty should be and has been
illustrated in the freedom of speech extended to and pre-
served for disputants in behalf of other forms and insti-
tutions of government, for which greater happiness and
prosperity may be claimed in behalf of citizens or sub-
jects. And that freedom of utterance should be suppor-
ted thoroughly, to outermost lines already indicated
20
even and ever permitting the surviving soldiers and
statesmen of the Confederacy to orally confess and parade
their unchanged opinions, for the maintenance of which
they manfully strove; provided they invariably join an
acknowledgment of complete and irreversible defeat.
Such has been and is the prevailing charitable disposi-
tion of the Union soldiers and sailors who participated
in putting down the Kebellion. The authors and sup-
porters of the late insurrection against our Republic,
have not and and never have had any shadow of reason
to complain of lack ofgenefous and liberal consideration
on the part of their triumphant foes. For every man
who was an officer in the Confederate service, military,
naval or civil, and who now holds a commission from
the general Government at Washington as, for one, I
rejoice to know that thousands of them do is a living
monument of the unsurpassed if not unparalleled mag-
nanimity of the Union victors.
Lord John Russell, in his history of the English Gov-
ernment and constitution, curtly and with wise and sum-
mary precision and dismissal, said: "Many definitions
have been given of liberty. Most of them deserve no no-
tice." In such, almost contemptuous, manner did he
dismiss a vast volume of synonyms and comparisons and
contrasts. Neither our few remaining moments of in-
dulgent time nor any expediency for instruction or sug-
gestion, admits of our dealing with the attempts to com-
prehensively explain, in brief and satisfactory phrase,
the meaning of the precious letters as they spell that
word as we in our hearts understand it, when said or
sounded in prose or song. But as to something of the
practical definitions, written in the blood of our heroes
during the civil war, it is our final privilege to speak
this night.
Our children are to be calledmpon to remember at this
time, that before the Civil war the grossest form of slav-
ery existed in the so-called Confederate States; and that
its malign influence demoralized and debauched com-
munities and eiti/enship, in the Northern as well as the
Southern commonwealths, to that degree that it had be-
come a doubtful question to all thoughtful observers,
21
whether its baneful effects upon the individual master or
slave was to be equally deplored with its emasculating
influence upon national politics. To us contemporaries,
all this is sadly, wearisomely familiar. But we should
testify respecting it, when it is being sought to contra-
dict or wholly cover it from a righteous recollection.
We know what the war for the Union did by way of
literally extirpating the curse of human bondage; and
this is one of the days in the year when no one should
feel restricted to nodding or whispering about the terri-
ble evil, and all its clusters of inseparable, malarious con-
comitants and consequences. Well said the famous
Irish orator and emancipator, O'Connell: "Slavery is
the sum of all villanies."
And it came to pass, that with respect to the actual re-
lation and rule of serfdom, the war for the Union de-
creed Liberty.
Liberty to labor. It cut the iron shackles of the ne-
gro slave, and for him, and for the use of his emanci-
pated hand, it caused the severed links to be melted and
moulded into implements of husbandry and the tools of
free, wage-returning toil.
Liberty to learn. The lines of the primer at which
comparatively few of the race enthralled had even dared
to take a stealthy glance, or over whose pages in hidden
solitude the curious and ambitious slaves had only been
able to see a blurred surface of indecipherable signs, was
opened and outspread upon the lap of the Yankee school-
marm, now duly installed in their midst. And around her
knees gathered a motley group of black, curly-pated
youngsters and straight-but unkempt haired juvenile
representatives of the "poor white trash" of the district;
while over her shoulders peered the Sambos and Dinahs
of the neighboring plantations, young and old all alike
anxious to be taught in the mysteries of the alphabet
and the art of orthography. And soon, to these almost
equally benighted pupils, the leaves of the little book or
chart of instruction became luminous with the light of
intelligence. And the eyes of the African, once endowed
with the power of reading-discernment, were quickly
transferred by him to the pages of the long coveted vol-
22
nines, wherein they could see for themselves the printed
song <>i' Mo-es, and the apocalyptic description of the
beautiful City of God.
And with respect to both master and man, in material
atl'airs, there came with the success of the Union arms,
Liberty of enterprise. Hitherto there had been in the
Southern States an almost entire and exclusive devotion
and dedication of large labor interests in the department
i)j' agriculture, and its first, raw market preparations;
and these confined principally to two great staples; with
a neglect and apparent dislike towards the perfecting arts
of manufacturing skill, which to most observers was very
singular and surprising as indeed it was inexplicable
except on grounds that took in a sense of ease and suffi-
cient opulence, and a secret fear of an infection of dan-
gerous enlightenment by the training of the serf in the
craft of the skilled arti/an and the chemist. The day of
emancipation and national victory, fully ushered in, saw
tin- beginning, small indeed at first, but definite and res-
olnte, of the opening and extension and diversification
of domes! ie and community mechanical industries; the
laying of foundations of pioneer houses for the refiner
and the loom which have since been multiplied at such
ratio as to promise a day close at hand, or not very far
distant, when the factory upon or adjacent to the won-
derfully productive fields of the South shall be adequate,
with vat and jenny, for their every cane of sugar and the
fibrous blossom of their every cotton plant.
And alfecting (lie people both North and South es-
pecially, of course, the latter far beyond anything
which it has been customary to concede, there came to
this country, with the final overthrow of the Rebellion,
Liberty of thought. With respect to which maybe
instructively considered not only or merely that which
wa> audacious and boldly defiant among men in the
States that sought to secede which was matter of sur-
face and commonplace observation; but that liberty of
contemplation winch was not permitted, which was kept
from or stamped out of mind, so to speak, by the thor-
oughly informed and acute leaders and controllers of
society, who saw or understood what ought not to be
23
even mentally challenged or doubted, if a perfectly safe
uniformity of belief and conversation and action was to
be obtained or preserved. And here it was, that thou-
sands of honest minds and hearts among the middle
classes and in every division of the-white population of
the Southern States, were fully possessed by a prejudice,
carefully cultivated and guarded in them, to that inten-
sity that made them fiercely intolerant of the slightest
hint or manifestation of a dislike towards the institution
of slavery; to say nothing of a cultivated readiness to do
battle on such a basis, and a justifying conviction in
favor of the quickest and most cruel methods of suppres-
sion and exiling against any who would presume to
speak distinctly and fully in behalf of the freedom of all
men and the enslavement of none. And in the North,
not a few were saturated with the same satanic feeling
and impulse; sincere and conscientious supporters of
their political or ecclesiastical colleagues of the Confed-
erate South. The Avar and the winning changed all this.
Liberty of speech. How could there be any in the
South? How much must it have been hampered and
impaired in the North, under the conditions already out-
lined? Liberty of speech, of course, of course, there was
not, nor anything approaching it, in the States that at-
tempted to secede, and in portions of the bordering
States, when the war for the Union began. Liberty,
privilege there was not there to even speak her name, or
invoke her presence or slightest blessing, in audible
voice. The very license of the orator on the national
anniversary platform in the South, was something of
studied and extremely sensitive solitude; a caution and
carefulness unwritten, indeed, but none the less well un-
derstood among those who might and did with promi-
nence and general approbation occupy that position in
that portion of our country on that natal day. And as
for the common communications of the masses of the
people, the mere pronouncing of the word or one of its
unmistakable synonyms, in many Southern localities,
was certain to rouse hateful suspicion against the
speaker, or was a sufficient signal of itself for overt and
summary acts of indignity or castigation or banishment.
371)577
24
Liberty: it was nut .-<> much as to be named amongst
them!
Nor time, nor ixeed to choose from the chapters of
outrages in the North, punishing and forbidding free
speech for freedom: often i-nlminating in the destruction
of the press, the dwelling, perhaps the life of the valiant
champion. The war for the Union embraced the cause
of free speech, North and South. Let us proclaim its
victories, and preserve them.
0, sweet ^pirit of Liberty! We would not pause to specu-
late with the philosophers and the schoolmen, in efforts
to distinguish with verbal precision the breadth of the
lines or the exact depths of the gulf that separates thy
dominions from those presided over by the evil genii of
lieentiousnes.- and anarchy. We may not ascend and
dwell upon the mountain tops with the poets, who seek
with fartherest vision to scan and to picture. Of the
might v landscapes over which thy beneficence broods,
and whereon it should always descend and forever rest,
fanned by the soft zephyrs of thy love and lighted by the
benignant glow of thy celestial fires. Poor, weak earthy
creatures, that we are; incapable of more than a momen-
tary appreciative glimpse at the perfect realm of freedom.
But one thing WQ do devoutly hope. One thing we do
religiously believe. One thing under thy Heavenly in-
vocation we even dare to proclaim. Within the unbroken,
uncontracied boundaries of this great American com-
monwealth, for all time to come, with amplest room for
every enlightened and enlightening thought, with invi-
tation for freest utterance by every conscientious mind,
and despite expecting desiring the temporary, per-
sonal, partisan alienations of the hour, all rational plans
and problems, claimed to be promotive of self-govern-
ment, may be heard and tested if at all, with us with
peaceful practices and loyal hearts.
Beyond the geographical confines of this republic,
which must never be diminished, our political sympa-
thies shall outflow, as the example of our administra-
tions, in proportion to their fidelity to our governmental
principles, must edify and inspire; but as we have no
authority beyond, we can assume no responsibility, and
25
entertain no absolute faith . Within, within our coun-
try's boundaries, we are resolved, gracious Spirit, that
Liberty and Union shall abide: the written constitution
of our fathers, with all its powers and limitations, and
the amendments thereunto, being inviolably maintained.
And with this trust and vow, who shall most, who best
shall labor and fulfil ? Who watch with keenest sight
and steadiest vigil? Who shall be .wisest to guard? Most
willing to sacrifice, in order to enhance the glory of the
Nation and the happiness of all the people? Who else
equal to, if not before all others, during the few re-
maining, swift-fleeting years of the nineteenth century,
who else, if not the comrades of the Grand Arrny of
the Republic ?
\
MEMORIAL DAY COMMITTEE,
SAX FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA,
FOR 1888,
Ki>\\. S. SALOMON, Chairman. PHIL M. BELTON, Secretary.
II. T. HOBBERT, Treasurer.
Lincoln Post, No, 1.
II. J.Brady, II. F. Randall, T. C. Masteller,
M. Murphy, E. B. Harris,
II. T. Hobbert, F. derrick, II. C. Dibble.
Oeo. H. Tlnniiri* Host, No. '!.
F. F. Chever, I'. I.. Turpin, Wm. Healey, M. L. Culver,
Joseph Simonson, T. J. Scoville, W. W. Magary.
.las. A. Oarfleld Post, No, 84.
Kihvard S. Salomon, John Clynes,
|. II. Eustice, Albert Brown,
J. H. Babbitt.
.! H. Riley,
Col. Cass Post, No. 46.
R. E. Dowdall.
B. Kenney,
<;. . Weade Post, No. 48.
Robert Graham, {> f. J. Cahill,
P. M. Belton,
F. B. Griffiths,
Liberty Post, No. 1.
M. Lane.
G. \V. Irelan.
l ^^^i4
1
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PAT JAN. 21, 1908
