IN MEMORIAM.
TRIBUTE TO THOSE FALLEN IN THE NATION'S DEFENSE
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Eloquent Address Delivered by Lieut. Governor W. A. Northcott of
Illinois --
Soldiers' Graves Decorated.
"Love and tears for the blue,
Tears and love for the grey."
Memorial Day was observed In Clinton with appropriate exercises, under
the auspices of General N. B Bak&r post, No. 88, G. A. R. Many of the
private residences, places of business and public buildings were.
decorated with American flags and national colors. Business was
generally suspended at noon.
At 2:15 o'clock the parade was formed and proceeded on a lime of march
being from Sixth avenue be tween Second and Third streets to Fifth on
Third street, then west to Sixth street, south to Seventh avenue and
east to DeWitt park, where the address of the day was made by the Hon.
W. A. Northcott.
The parade was formed as follows:
Police in platoon,
Marshal and aides,
Danish Cornet Band.
Hart Co. No. 29
Knights of Pythias, Clinton,
Garfield Co. No. 2,
Knights of Pythias, Davenport,
Foresters Robin Hood Camp, No. 31,
M. W. A.
Foresters Horse Shoe Camp, No. 702,
M. W. A.
City officials in carriages,
Speaker of day's carriage,
SECOND DIVISION.
Twin City Canton, No 24, Patriarchs
Militant, Clinton.
Spanish-American soldiers,
Gen'l N. B. Baker Post, No. 88,
G. A. R ,
Albert Winchel Post, No. 327, G. A. R.
Fire Department.
At DeWitt park the band stand was draped in national colors, while
seats' had been arranged around it for the comfort of the large
concourse gathered to listen to the eloquent and patriotic address.
The exercises at the park began with prayer by Rev. H. H. Morrill of St.
John's Episcopal church, following which Adjutant Howard of Gen. N. B.
Baker post read the orders of the day issued by the commander-in-chief
and adjutant general from the headquarters of the Grand Army of the
Republic. Dr. J. S. Lowell, commandor of Gen. N. B. Baker post, then
introduced the speaker of the day, esteeming it his pleasure and
privilege to introduce not only the lieutenant governor of the state, of
Illinois, but also the head council of America's greatest fraternal
insurance order, the Modern Wooodmen of America.
Mr. Northcott, in part said:
"Oh, I love the old republic, bound by the seas, walled by the wide air,
doomed by heaven's blue, and lit with the eternal stars. I love the
republic; I love it because I love liberty."
My theme today shall be the American Republic. This Is Memorial Day,
when our people with one heart and one mind, bring, wreaths of
immortality to twine round the memory of those who died that the Nation
might live; a day on which to look back across the years to the birth,
struggles, and glorious achievements of the greatest republic the world
has ever known.
These bright-eyed boys and girls can here catch the inspiration of the
past and drink from the fountains of patriotism. In this busy age it is
well enough for all of us to take our eyes off the almighty dollar long
enough to look at the flag of our country.
How inspiring the theme, and how inspiring the audience! The stars shine
upon no greater people than those who live here in the valley of the
Mississippi river; greater than the Tigris or Euphrates; greater tnan
the Nile, that flowed by the homes of the Ptolemies and Pharohs, and
upon whose banks sit grand, gloomy and peculiar, the everlasting
pyramids; greater than the Tiber of ancient Rome, from whose banks the
imperial Caesars ruled the world; greater than the Rhine, in whose
valley contended the Teuton and the Gaul for the supremacy of Europe and
the world; greater than all these because it flows by the home of
freedom.
No where else on God's footstool is wealth, happiness and intelligence
more generally distributed among the people than here in this great
northwest. The strength of a nation is not in its army and its navy, but
in the number of happy homes throughout the land. Out here more people
know how to read and write, more people have three square meals a day
and send their children to school, than anywhere else under the sun.
Out of the dim past of four hundred years ago, from the background of
the middle ages, arises the figure of the Genoese sailor, we can almost
hear the Santa Maria bearing Columbus on his voyage of discovery as it
grates upon the new world; looking back across the years today we stand
with Balboa as he catches the firs glimpse of the great Pacific; we
press on with Cortez to the very halls of the Montezumas or drag our
weary feet through the southern forests with the brave but unfortunate
DeSota.
Nations are not made, they grow; In the beginning of this republic our
forefathers left two great questions for future generations to solve.
The first found an early expression in the Kentucky and Virginia
resolutions of 1798, inspired by Jefferson. They formulated the
contention that the right of the state was above the right of the
Federation. Jefferson— the liberty-loving Jefferson—who had just come
from under the shadows of monarchy, knew no centralization except the
centralization of personal government. He did not understand that in a
representative government the greater danger is not in centralization,
but in disintegration. Calhoun, as the disciple of Jefferson, carried
this idea to its logical conclusion and advocated the right of
nullification and secession, and closely connected this question with
the other great question of human slavery. This contest brought into
action the ranscendent eloquence of Daniel Webster, whose defense of the
supremacy of our federal government will always be a part of our
national his. It found its most dramatic incident when Andrew Jackson
faced South Carolina in its nullification and, with uplifted hand, swore
by the Eternal that the right of the Federation was above the right of
any state. And thus commenced the contest that ended only in the civil
war.
Then the storm which had been gathering for more than half a century
broke with all its fury and violence. The first gun fired on Fort
Sumpter was the voice of destiny calling on the young republic to do
battle for its life. No great army was in the field to answer to the
challenge. It was not to be a mortal combat between the equipped and
mobilized armies of two great foreign powers; but under the dark cloud
of impending war, loyal citizens asked themselves, "would the Nation
die," or "would the nation live?" By your friends, with prattling
children upon their knees, with the tearful eyes of wives upon them, men
sought to resolve their duty. The call was answered from the plow, the
workshop, the hill and dale, from country and city the people flocked to
arms.
"They came as the waves come when
armies are landed,
They came as the winds come when
navies are stranded."
And above the thunder of the muttering storm was heard the voice of a
lion-hearted people, crying to their leader:
"We are coming Father Abraham, one hundred thousand strong."
You all remember those days—how the firing on Fort Sumpter aroused the
patriotism of the people. You remember the news of the defeat at Bull
Run and Chancellorsville; how the splendid army of the Potomac wasted
with disease and inaction. Then it belonged to you soldiers from the
cornfields of the west to look, with Grant, into the fiery mouths of the
cannon at Fort Donnellson, and give to a faltering cause the courage of
a great victory gained. It was your stubborn courage that changed defeat
into victory at Shiloh. You waited with Grant in front of Vicksburg
until that place gave way before your grim determination. And then came
the glorious news of Gettysburg; how Meade threw shrapnel into the ranks
of Lee's defeated army. Many of you were with the boys in blue amid the
clouds at Missionary Ridge and when they met the storm of leaden hail
and death at Chickamauga. Some of you remember Logan at Atlanta; how
after McPherson had fallen he rode to the front with his long, black
hair streaming in the breeze, his eyes flashing, his sword drawn that
caught its brightness from the princely gleaming of his soul, "a mailed
warrior, a plumed knight" who plucked victory from defeat, even at the
cannon's mouth, and with the ferocity of a tiger, compelled submission
from bended knees. There may have better trained generals, but there
never was a braver soldier than John A. Logan. He was the hero volunteer
soldier of that war. Some of you veterans marched with Sherman to the
sea, "and the stars of our banner grew brighter as Sherman marched down
to the sea."
Then Grant, who never lost a battle, joined in the last death struggle
with Lee in the wilderness; and then was heard the glad acclaim of the
people, when the bottom dropped out of armed rebellion upon the field of
Appomattox.
You soldiers from the cornfields of the west joined in the grand review
at Washington, marching down the streets of the national capital,
cheered by all Christendom. And no braver, better soldiers ever formed
the phalanx of Caesar or followed the eagles of Napoleon.
Then was lifted into the forum of the constitution to shine forever and
ever like a star, the great principle of equality of all men before the
law. Then the shackles fell from four million slaves and they were
lifted from chattles to the rights of American citizenship. Then this
river in its joyous march to the gulf, and from the gulf to the sea,
told no story of Iowa, sang no song of Illinois, in it was not heard the
name of any state, but in that ceaseless murmur between two great oceans
was heard a grand anthem to the American republic; in It was heard the
voice of a nation proclaiming the will of the people. It now flows by
the home of no slave and no bondsman.
Through the blood and tears and suffering of that great war, there was
breathed into this nation the breath of a broader national life. Human
slavery was abolished, state sovereignty was dead, and the liberty of
thought, of speech, and cf publication were established.
Standing with a new generation today, looking back, we see the clouds of
war lifting. We see our republic entering upon a career of progress
unequalled in the history of nations, and yet in the forenoon of its
greatness. Seeing all these things, remembering the precious price that
has been paid for this heritage, let us not forget the words of the
immortal Lincoln, as he stood upon the famous field of Gettysburg: "Here
let us highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain, that
the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that the
government of the people and by the people shall not perish from the
earth."
Then came the explosion in Havana harbor, "which lifted in the sky an
exclamation with which history closed one epoch and began another." Then
this republic lifted up its proud head among the nations of the earth
and heard the challenge of destiny ringing clear as a bugle call on the
line of battle. Then an army was mobilized that came from the southland
and from the northland. Joe Wheeler, who had worn the confederate grey
was clothed in the Union blue and he was given the sword of the
republic; and upon the hills of El Caney and San Juan, with the sun so
hot that the boys could scarcely hold the riile barrels, marched side by
side those who had worn the blue and those who bad worn the grey, the
black man and the white man; the old slave and his former master; and
amid the heat and dust and blood and tears they fought until they had
torn down the Spanish flag, never again to be hoisted upon the western
hemisphere, and hauled up the stars and stripes, the emblem of freedom;
and under the burning rays of the sun of liberty, the lash of
superstition and darkness that came from the middle ages, melted away
into oblivion. Under the rays of that common victory melted away forever
the hate between the north and the south.
On that May morning when Dewey sailed his fleet across the mines of
Manila harbor and sunk the Spanish ships, we set the confines of liberty
further out into the dark confines of the earth, even unto the gateway
of the world.
God never gave us this heritage of liberty and enlightenment that we
might sit at home In idle enjoyment. A resistless destiny moves the
American people onward and forward, and you and I cannot measure the
length and breadth and depth of that great destiny. I only know that
nations, like individuals, are permitted to take one step at a time, and
that no human force can withhold or erase the future record that destiny
has written for the American republic.
"The scroll of the century is rolled together. The work is done. Peace
to the memory of the, fathers! Green be the graves where sleep the
warriors, patriots and sages! Calm be the resting place of all the brave
and true. Gentle be the summer rains on famous fields where armies met
in battle! Forgotten be the animosities and heartburnings of the strife!
Sacred be the trusts committed to our care and bright the visions of the
coming ages! "
Following the address which was delivered with all the earnestness and
fervor of a true patriot and with the mastery of an orator, three hearty
cheers were given in honor of the speaker.
The veterans present then formed and marched to the post headquarters
where an informal reception was held and where luncheon was served by
Clara Barton circle, Ladies of the G. A. R.