Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 May 1901 — THE PASSING ARMY. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE PASSING ARMY.

The Irresistible Conqueror Is Thinning the Ranks of the Veterans of the Civil War.

IT Is now thirty-six year* *lnce the fort flower* were strewn upon the r*re* of the men who (iTe their Sfei that the nation might Ur*. Observes at flnt In a email way by isolated •seemaeities, thl* decoration of the gnaay mound* ha* com* to be recognls*A as an established custom and MemoNal Day has long hsd a fixed piece In Iks calendar. With each successive anal* vaseary the day has gained a wider ob—Ttsbi s and has been made the occasion Mr many appeals to the patriotism of the ytspi*. The verdure of each returning Mrtag covers more deeply the scars of MtUe which once seamed the hillsides S valleys of the sunny South. On this «fl precious memories it is well to reth* sacrlflces of bygone years, tnd It h alas fitting to express the hope that Mass who tr* now charged with the gsMaar* of our national destinies will partaaas their duties patriotically and vail

When (he gray-haired veterans of the gseat war for th* Union meet together in Masai observance of Memorial Day, few Ml hear In mind that the day Itself, as ■ part es th* national life, le the result 3 Me Inspiration of one of the greatest all th* volunteer soldiers wbo fought iff the flag— th* late Gen. John A. Logan «fl llltecl a Few, Indeed, of those not •■sedated with th* organization of old Mlfllers will remember thle. The soldlcrgtatanui who won his spurs In actual Aokt and refused to accept peaceful honSSB while th* war was still ou—oue of Jhs first, If not the first, of the list of Mvertd comrades who headed this orgaafisetion—was the originator of the day gfl aarrewful remembrance of the bravery Mfl virtues of those who fell In battle (fi sh* have crossed the dark river since Ms ceaflk-t ended. Ike apple tree of Appomattox never fifiMesesed eo full and to fair as to-day, MB Mwere tnd Its fruit were never to Ma sad fragrant. Th* Union which ApItMtlM sstsbllshed and cemented was St»i» ea strong and glorious. Its sacred MBA* have been welded, not merely by M> mataal pledgee of devotion, but by As Mb es heroic service, eld* by aids, amflar the common flag, on a distant soli, ■■A May aevsr before bound up so much m aatleaal pride and hope and high aejbifon Iks great chlsftains—Grant and I/**. ■Mibrkaas products of the same national sAsal at West Point — met at AppomatMb with mutual respect sad honor, tnd M tWk generous and chivalrous coming ■apethev typified the spirit of a reunited ppntry. That historic hour dates a new MA which la now a true unloa el ■Mi aad hand* that non* can saver. ■a laap as t)i* flag remains anfurlad ■ammrtal Day cannot eeaa* to be a grant wafl Baader memory. Bach anulveraary laenaaaa more pathetic from the fact Ma* many es th* "boys In blue” are pesetas «way to Join th# vast army In the Ml land. Every year the ranks as Mn vetavaai on this side th* river grew MAanan and th* atop* of th* marchers Mn Within twenty-five year* nearly fiß nM have joined their regiments on

the other side. Bat their deeds can never die. Future fenerations will read them, deep cat, defying the tooth of time, on the marble of the coantry’e greatness. They will bleu on the pillars of the Union and in the springtime of each year a grateful people, bearing choicest flowers—nature’s sweetest emblem of love and affection—will decorate their graves; for those grassy mounds will be known as shrines forever more; shrines so long as the republic shall endurs; shrines where patriot kneea will bend sad patriot eyes will weep so'long as freedom has a worshiper and equality of rights a devotee.

Grant and Lee are no more, and Sherman nnd Stuart, and Jackeon and Hooker, McClellan and Hill, Early and Meade —all are gone, and the great spirit of change broods orer th# scenes of their former activities The gross grows green on the deserted battlefields, and all Is quiet along th* banks of the Potomac. The James and tha Chickahominy, the Rappahannock and th* Hapldan, wind their course to th* sea undisturbed by war's rude alarms. The former turns the earth in tha fertile valleys which drank the blood of the flower of American chivalry; th# feathered songsters of the wood mike melody in the tangled thickets of the Wilderness; but the great captains and many of their devoted fol) lowers have departed. They pitch their tents on other camping grounds not beneath the stars that shine on Southern scenes, but above the stars on the failfields of ISlysla. There they commune and there they hold eweet intercourse. We may not know their employments there; wo may not conceive the rapturous delights that attend them In that blissful station; but of this we may be assured; they are not unmindful of th# comrades who tarry here, and they have no higher Joy than th* realisation that the peace they set up at Appamattox has grown Into a perfect peace that has overcom* all obstacles and th* doubts and perplexities which first attended it —a peace whose blessings fall to-day upon oar land Ilka th* rail upon the mown graes and Ilk* th* dew upon the mountains of Lebanon. And s* It Is that In th* decoration of th* graven of th* heroic dead human hands and tinman hearts have reached a solution of th* vexed problem that baffled human will and human thought fo* three decades. Sturdy sons of th* South have said to their brothers of the North that the people of th* Booth long alnco accepted the arMtrameat of the sword to which they had appealed. And likewise th* est-repeated message has gone forth from (he North that peace and good will reigned, aad that tha wounds of civil dlasoaaiea wane hat sacred mem orloa. Tha e sat sat that followed th* end of argument hotweaa two giant civilisations wan, whfla It tested. the greatest and bloodiest a i equal dure ties la tha anth an Rested annals ad tha race and tha most dastvasttve swan waged hy men. It lasted fear years; It annihilated six hlll-

ions of property; it overthrew the rebellious governments of thirteen States; It called four millions of men to arms; it was fought on 2,800 recorded fields; it filled 700,000 graves from the sword and shot and shell and pestilence; the silent sleepers went down on mountain aids and in tangled wood, In dismal swamp and on sunny plain; where the rivers rolled and the wide-waved ocean stretched they found sepulcher; and at last one civilization, with its garments rolled in blood, passed away to the shades forever; the other, victorious, raised a spotless ensign in the sky, its stairs washed brighter with the glad tears rejoicing humanity that the greater government of and for and by the people had not perished from the earth.