Soldiers' record, 1869-08-07

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ONI] FLAQ, ONE LAND, ONE RE ART, ONE HAND, ON K NATION, EVERMORE!
YOL. II. HARTFORD, OOOT., SATURDAY, AUGUST 7, 1869. NO. 5
i o u r s a t i o m c .
HEROES.
In rich Virifiniiin woods
The scarlet creeper reddens over graves,
Amongst the solemn trees enlooped with vines;
Heroic spirits haunt the solitudes—
The noble souls of lialf a million braves—
Amidst the murmurous pines.
All ! who is left behind,
Earnest and eloquent, sincere and strong,
To consecrate their memories with words,
Not all unmeet?—with litting dirge and song
To chant a requiem purer than the wind,
And sweeter tiian the birds 1
Here—though all soems at peace,
Tlie placid, measureless sky serenely fair.
The lau"-htor of the breeze among the leaves,
Tiie bars of sunlight slanting through the trees.
The reckless wild flowers blooming everywhere,
The grasses' delicate sheaves,—
Nathless each breeze that blows,
Each tree that trembles to its leafy load
With nervous life, revives within our mind,
Tender as flowers of May, the thoughts of those
Who lie beneath the living beauty, dead—
Beneath the sunshine blind.
For brave dead soldiers these :
Blessings and tears of aching thankfuli'oss,
Woft flowers for their graves in wreaths en wove—
The odorous lilacs of dear memories,
The heroic blossoms of the wilderness
And the rich rose of love.
But who has sung their praise
Not less illustrious, who are living yet
Armies of heroes, satisfled to pass
Calmly, serenely from the whole world's gaze,
And cheerfully accept, without regret,
Their life as it was
With all its petty pain,
Its irritating littleness and care:
They who have scaled the mountain with content
Sublime descend to live upon the plain;
S'.edfast as though they breathed the mountain air
Still, whereso'er they went.
They who were brave to act,
And rich enough their action to forget—
Who, having fllled their day with chivalry.
Withdraw and keeii their simpleness intact,
And all unconscious add more lustre yet
Unto their victory.
On the broad Western plains
Their patriarchal life they live anew—
Hunters as mighty as the men of old ;
Or harvesting the plenteous yellow grains.
Gathering ripe vintase of dusk branches blno,
Or working mines of gold.
Or toiling in the town,
Armed against hindrance, weariness, defeat,
With dauntless purpose not to swerve or yield.
And calm, deflant strength ; they struggle on,
As sturdy and as valiant in the street
AB in the camp and fleld.
And those condemned to live.
Maimed, helpless, lingering still through suffering
years—
May they not envy now the restful sleep
Of the dear fellow-martyrs they survive ?
Not o'er the dead, but over these, your tears,
0 brothers! ye may weep.
New England fields I see,
The lovely, cultured landscape, aving grain.
Wide haughty rivers and pale English skies ;
And lo 1 a farmer ploughing busily.
Who lifts a swart face, looks upon the jjlain,
1 see in his fraidc eyes
The hero's soul appear.
Thus in the comn»on iields and streets they stand ;
The light that^on the past and distant gleams
They east upon the present and the near,
With antique virtues from some mystic land
Of knightly deeds and dreams.
Lippiiicolt's M(«jazine.
of the adjutant general of the National en"
carapment, that although the Department
of Connecticut is among the least numeri-cally,
yet she stands among the first in the
promptness and efficiency of her working
organization, and that although unrepre-sented
at the recent encampment she was
not forgottCT), and Connecticut's chosen
son, that excellent soldier, patriot and
statesman, Joseph R. Hawley, still re-mains
one of the three highest officers at
the head of the Grand Army ; and it may
be a mai.ter of honorable pride that this
same comrade from our own little State,
was called to preside at that convention
which put in successful nomination that
accomplished soldier who is novv our
chosen Chief Magistrate.
The important work of the National
encampment was the institution of the
three degrees, and careful, complete, and
I think you will find upon perusal, suc-cessful
revision of the rules and regula-tions.
Initiation in and constant famili-arit
with the new degrees will commend
them to your approval better than any
words of mine. Let me however, venture
a few words upon them. Members of the
Grand Army, as in actual service, are
divided into the three grades of Recruit,
Soldier and Veteran, and those grades
have connected with them three underly-ing
principles which embody the sum and
substance of the objects of the organization
and 1 would thiit these principles might
be proclaimed aloud in the hearing of
every American citizen, whether he l)e an
enemy or fj-iend of this order ; they are
Fraternity, Charity, and Loyalty. Fra-ternity
is connected with the grade of re-cruit,
m the first, most natural, and I
might say, instructive principle. We are
simply brethren and comrades now, as
when we stood shoulder to shoulder, and
moved forward together with but a single
purpose to crown the old flag with victory,
or to die beneath its folds.
The second principle, which is connect-ed
with the grade of Soldier, is nothing
less than Charity, and -^liere is nothing
greater thiin that virtue. Yes, Charity,
of which that brave old Roinan Soldier,
St. Paul, who never threw down hissword
but to take up the bauner of the cross,
said so eloquently that eighteen centurie.s
have gladly listened, and his words will
never die,—that it "believeth all things,
endureth all things, hopeth all things."
And now ye who love the cause of liberty
and recognize the duty of christian char-ity,
behold a million of American Soldiers
who gave the best years of their lives to
battle in the cause of right and save the
life of the nation; among whom were
divided no lands of a conquered territory,
no confiscated estates ; whose pay was
I sufficient and only sufficient to purchase
! tlie necessaries of life for themselves and
' tiunilies; many of them disabled by
j wounds and sickness, returning to their
' homes the most oliedient of their country's
I citizens ; not of the wealthy class of the
ADDRESS OF THE GliA^'D OOM-
^VJJI^XI-IJO^ MANDER I of their comratles and their own sacred
! honor were pledged to the payment of
Delivered before the S(Mi-Anrni(d Encamp-' Qy^^^ dollar of a burdensome National
ment of the G. A. li. Department of Con- j (jebt. And when tne tardy and scanty ap-necticut,
on Wednesday, My 2'^th, 1869. p^.^^pj.jations for the care of the widows
Comrades of tho Grand Army:—In the • and orphans, and their sick and disabled
absence of the Grand Commander of this i coinradcs proved insufiicieiit, behold them
Department, his duties devolve upon mo, | as comrades of the Grand Army of the
and although my personal service may fail j Republic furnishing from their own limit-to
be characterized by his w e l l - k n o w n a-1 od resources the means for a searching
bility and energy, yet let me say that with : and boundless charity. Be assured the
the assistance of Ins most efficient staff, Grand Army will endure as long as its
I not only perform those duties willingly, charity ; for "charity never faileth."
but am grateful for the privilege. i With the third grade of "Veteran" is
Wo are cailed upon to-day to do our | connected the principle of Loyalty. It is
own work, the work belonging to the De-! not loyalty in any narrow or partisan
pai tment, and that laid out for us by the j sense ; but it moans simply the sworn obe-recent
National encampment, at which it i dience of every veteran to the laws of the
is t o be regretted we were u n p r e s e n t e d . i land ; willingness to assist ia their exe-
You will have laid before you the regular ' cution when called upon, and the mainte-reports
of the Department, to which I ! nance of the Government of the United
simply ask your earnest attention. ' States in all its integrity against treason
It is gratifying to learn from the report or rebellion.
Let those who think this
an empty form merely reflect that it is
the sworn duty of half a million of veter-ans,
who in the same cause hesitated not
at the baptism of fire in the day of battle.
Let those who love their country know
that these veterans are to be found every-where
throughoufthis land, and that they
will be as true to law and order and the
cause of liberty, as ever they were in the
battle years from '6 1 to '65.
Such is the Grand Army of the Repub-lic
in its principles and purposes, and this
country must still look to her veteran sol-diers
for strength and support.
To day they are leading in her coun-cils
and executing her laws, while many
are receiving under the government the
places of trust which they so richly de-serve.
For one I have never feared that
the veteran would be crowded aside to
make room for the mere politician, and
experience confirms -that belief. It is a
law standing on, no less than divine au-thority,
that they who are faithful over a
few things shall be made rulers o vc
many things, and those who were faithful
to the end in the battle for liberty and
law, shall stand in the future as they do
to day in the forefront on the page of
American histiuy.
I know it is constantly said that the
soldier i.s good in time of war, but the
citizen is better in time of peace. Yes,
but the good soldier makes the best citi-zen,
no less certainly than the most ter-rible
war brings the surest peace. It
may be a mysterious law that purity and
peace shotdd come of stormy commotions
and that long continued peace should
breed the tempest. Yet it is a law, and a
law of the nif-ral as well as the physical
world. Why, the principle of individual
liberty and fidelity between man are the
offspring of the military lile of those war-like
hordes who filled the northern foi'-
ests of barbaric Germany. Whence
come these millions of peaceful homes
resting in the arms of a law that always
protects, but never invades. Why, they
were developed in the darkness of the
middle ages ; under a feudal system ; in
the fortilied castles of mountain fastnesses,
at a time when might alone made right.
And so it is in the light of history and
civilization; that conflict becomes the
very law of progress, and a necessary
step in the onward march of freedom.
It is in conflicts and battles that God
tries mens' souls. He draws from the
very midst of the fire when he would
mould a nation or make it free ; and so
he makes a free nation and free men to
preserve it at one and the same time,
and by the same process. Beyond the
definite laws ot states j beyond interna-tional
laws established between states, is
War, the highest appeal. An appeal to
the only supreme law ; for then Infinite
Justice holds the scales, and true, men
walk with a sublime faith on that higher
plain, never doubting what the end shall
be. Liberty always anticipates her own
progress, and calls good men and true to
light her battles ; and she has given Amer-ica
in the fulness of her blessing all the
patriot heroes of'76 and '(U. I claim
then, obedience to law and faithful exe
cution of law as the result of true soldier-ly
training. Lot me point, without rais-ing
questions political, to that represen-tative
American Soldier who now stands
at the head of the nation. Has he not
executed, and does anyone doubt but that
he will faithfully execute the laws of
this country?
Take the neutrality 1 iws as applied to
;^pain. Why, nine tenths of the Ameri
can people sympathize with the Cubans
in their struggh) for liberty. 1 know
certainly that my own sympathies were
never more deeply enlisted ; the popular
branch of Congress has in a resolution
declared its sympathy ; but (irant, the
soldier President, the man of war who
could send an army and navy to certain
victory, whose sympathies no one doubts
are with the natives of that beautiful is-land,
lying almost in sight of our shores,
executes the law as it is, faithfully and to
the very letter, commanding the admi-ration
of the civilized world, and giving
every American a renewed assurance in
the strength of this Republican form of
Gov^ernment. Let it be our first duty in
Loyalty to strengthen the hands of him,
the yeteran soldier, who so faithfully exe-cutes
and obeys the laws of this land.
. Were the Grand Army established but
to remember, as on oui- decoration day^
those of our Comrades AVIIO died that the
nation might live., and to draw thence a
new incentive to patriotic devotion, it
were enough to bind us together. But
when we add a charity that is boundless
in extent, and which like the gentle dew
distils through all the darkest hours, re-freshing
many a desolate and lonely heart:
and a determined loyalty to a goverament
than which, with all its human imperfec-tions,
there is none better on the face of
the earth, what nobler work, tell me,
could be given for each and all of us to do.
What more worthy of our devotion than
that organization which seeks these ob-jects
and these alone.
Comrades, let us ever recall our battle
years, that heroic dream of the past when
we seemed to stand upon a higher level,
above the turmoil of political strife, a-waiting
before a higher than any human
tribunal the momentous issues of the life
and liberty uf the nation. On that high-er
plane of duty let us all strive to stand.
Let our h;gh purpose shut out all other
below, until in the full performance of
duty, the trumpet calls us. to be marslial-led
on brighter plains, in that Grand En-campment
where are gathered the hosts
of those who in all ages have given their
lives to the cause of liberty.
GOOD NIGHT.
Good night 1 nh ! no ; the hour is ill
Wiiicii severs those it should unite ;
Let us remain togetlier still,
Then, it will be—good night!
How can I caH the lone night good
Though thy sweet wishes wing its flight ?
Be it not said, though understood.
Then, it will be good night!
'J'o hciU-ts whieh near each other move.
From evening close to morning light,
The night is good ; beenuse my love,
They never say—good night!
LOVE AT SEVENTY. •
A Boston correspondent tells the fol-lowing
:—
Here is a touching little romance.
Halt a century ago two young people—
youth and maiden in a country village—
loved each other. Unkind tVite persecu-ted
and denied the legitimate reward of
mutual affection. Both married and liv-ing
in widely separated towns. Children
grew up about each, and the cares of life
came upon them, but the spark of that
early love burned in both bosoms. Once
iit a'great while they exchanged letters.
At hist his wife died ; his children grew
up and went to the bad, and he was left
a lonely old man, poor and conitbrtless.
This summer her husband died. Soon
as tlie blessed tlefunct was put comfort-ably
tinder the sod, the widow packed up
and started for her lirst love. She arriv-ed
one afternoon and was directed to his
house, but its nnister was absent. Noth-ing
daunted, slie went in, and sat alone
till he returned. Innigine the meeting of
the tend(U' old creatures of seventy, who
had been faithful to each other through
fifty years. She remained in his house a
few (lays, then they Avere married, and
the neighbors say t h a t never did luunani-ty
attbrd such a similitude of two very
sentimental turtle, doves as in the Aved-ded
bliss of these absurd old people.
They are living now, stee^ied in happi-ness,
it Avould seem, and, no doubt, fully
believing in the nnixiiii "Better late thaii
ueA'er."
Pay as you go—especially if you go to
the printer.