Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1886)
THE WEST SHORE. 178 MEMORIAL DAT. IN EVERY state and territory of the union lie buried the nation's dead, those who gave up their lives that " government of the people, by the people and for the people might not erisli from the earth." Under the auspices of the Grand Army of the Republics the thirtieth of May is obsorved aa a memorial day, ex cept when, as is the caso this year, it falls upon Sunday, when the following day is observed. This Iwnutiful custom was established by General John A. Logan, in 18(18, when, as commander-in-chief of the G. A. R. he issued general order No. 11, in which appeared tho following paragraph: " The thirtieth day of May, 18(18, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise deco rating the graves of comrades who died in defence of their country during tho lata rcliellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet church yard in tho land. In thin observance no form of cere, inony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting service and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit" This was followed by an eloquent tribute to tho mem ory of the dead comrades whom he thus desired to honor, and with a hoe that the observance thus inaugurated would become a perpetual ouo. At the national encamp mont hold in Washington, May 11, 1870, memorial day was formally established as a poriotual custom. , The day selected was chosen simply because it is the time when nature makes her fairest floral offerings. Ry legis lative enactment in several of the states memorial day has been mado a legal holiday, and it should also m mado a national holiday by congress, to lo observed by the nation forever, as are now the fourth of July and the day annually apxiinted by the president for national thanksgiving. Memorial day was observed in the various cities and towns of tho Northwest on Monday, tho thirty-first of May, and the usual ceremony of decorating graves by the G. A. R. and citizens was ierformod. In Portland, tho observance of the day was general. The G. A. R., escorted by the various military companies, paraded the streets and then repaired t Ino Fir cemetery, where tho usual ceremonies were oouductod, and details dec). rated the various graves there and elsewhere. In tho evening a largo concourse of jtnoplo listened to an ora tion snd the rendition of an appropriate programme of musio and reading. Sunday evening the O. A. It at tended the Congregational church in a body and listened to a memorial address by Rev. T. E. Clapp. The brave are always chivalrous, and the heroes who wore the blue were the first to forgive those who wore tho gray, to honor them for their valor ami to ac. knowledge tho full measure of their devotion to the cause for which they so bravely but miigtiidedly fougjit With this spirit they have made it a custom to derate the graves of the few confederate dead who lie in North trn coinatericM, wlrils in Hit Boutrtfhsr formally assist in the ceremonies held by the wearers of the gray in memory of thoir fallen oomradoe. Only a narrow and unforgiving spirit can oondemn this graceful and proper act, a spirit not embuod with true patriotism, since it should be the enmet desire of a loyal hourt to cement together by every possible means tho once hostile sec tions of the union. Such people are those referred to by General Grant as men "who did not get fairly warmed up to the war until it was over," men who began fighting when words, not bullets, became the missiles of destruction. Happily their numliors decrease yearly, and tho spirit of sectional hate is dying with them. Throughout tho Southern states the custom of deeo. rating with flowers the graves of the fallen bravo of Ixilli the federal and confederate armies, is liocomiug yearly more general. Tho people of the South are rapidly learning to look upon tho success of tho union cause and tho complete overthrow of slavery and tho oecession doctrine as the greatest blessing that could have Wn bestowed upon them. With the exception of a few, now rapidly passing nway, whoso disappointed ambition and embittered feedings have blinded their eyes to the bene fits their country hits reaped from the failure of the cause for which the men of tho South so bravely fought and heroically died, the sentiment of loyalty to tho re. stored union has become as deep-rooted and fervent as was that more contracted loyalty which mado them take up arms for their native state ngaiust the government which alono had made that state possible. With this feeding, while honoring tho memory of those who with and for them wore tho confederate gray, they also strew flowers on tho graves of those who wore tho blue. They lie together, the blue and the gray, in the Inhcoiii of mother earth; one common sward covers them, one com mon Hag floats over them, aud the people of one com. moii ami united country gather to honor their memory and seal anew tho compact written in their blood, that never again shall the brothers of the union rise up in arms against ouch other. That the decoration of the graves of fallen soldiers of Mb armies tends to soften the feelings of hostility, to knit closer the Isinds of union and draw nearer in a feeding of common sytupa thy and brotherhood the iieoplo of the North and Mouth is too evident to lw denied. Should occasion require it, that same spirit of loyalty, contracted and inverted as it then was, which sent the sons of the South out to fight for their native states, will bring them again to the front, musket in band, to defend tho integrity ami honor of the whole union, where shoulder to shoulder with the sturdy men of the North, they will stand as a bulwark of defense against violence from within or without IA as then, as the years go by and the veterans fall Ixifora the sieklo of the great reaper, take up their work, and in every city, town aud hamlet in the union gather on the thirtieth of each succeeding May for all lime to come, and place our floral tributes upon th grave of our sol diers. Iu doing this wo kep alive that spirit of martini ardor and honor to the bravo which will 1 the nation's ruck of salvation in timet of truubla.