E472 ,W9S 013 789 084 7 peumalipe® pH8.5 E 672 .M95 Copy ^ GRAM MEMORIAL ADDRESS. 1)ELI\ KKKI) AT LANCASTKli. ()., AUCiUST 8lh. 1885. :0: i;V JI'lXiK SILAS II. WKKIIII', WluMi :i <:reat man dies tlio whole workl sudors Idss. Our coiinhy, tenilonally enibraeinji all climates and exlendin*; Crom sea lo sea, is to day as a siiiirle stale, as a county, a township, a precinct. Tlie distinction of lines is lost. The eminence ol' ca|)it,al.-i is leveled. The i)oor and the rich this day stand upon common •:round. The distinguished and the unknown strike hands, and festoon the porticos (»f palaces and the porcljes of cotta^zes with hadiies of mourninj:. All the hlack si nils of commerce are in reqiiisilion. There are more «larkenealer conse- (pienci', oi' higher Iclicil ation. I am not far enough removed Irom (Jrant to understand him. He never well understood himself. — He was uni(iue without "knowing it. There wa.s something like gravitation about him that does its voiceless but inevitable work. The great man is a still man. He mouths it no(. 'J"he concpieror of (he turf comes to the scratch temperate and composed. 1( is he who surprises the second hand of chronometers or makes i( sJand still lor the accomplishuii-nt of exploits fit lor history. "I will fight it out oii ihis line if it takes all summer." This sountls like a repeater, a four mi er, a race horse ol" battles. There is no sounding brass in (his, no tink- ling cymbals. It looks like a theorem nearly demonstrate'' in advance. It smacks of West Point and Scotland. Jt is wes(- ern and inoves like the Missis- sippi. The mighty line passed from lip to lip all over the land. The Rebels, if 1 may call them such, at least our much erring and mistaken brethien across (he river, felt cold ^steel enter their bosoms at the point of these wortls. They have gone into a proverb and sound to the ear as fathered l)y old cendiries. Uur language would have been inef- fectual wiljiout (hem. They are a resource and support when all other phrases fail. They are counseling and consolilory in stringent times. They come to us in dreams. They animate us in despair. They capitalize our energies and lilt us cil)ove our- selves. We can bank our weak- ness on these W(^rds. Tin.e has taken hold of (hem and willed llieni as subslanlial property to eternity. Tjie i'aniier quotes them in reference to weeds and crops. The covv-bov calls them to his cattle. They siiorlen the way of the wanderer. They prop tiie pioneer. They swim with ships the wide ocean. 'J'hey (•f,me to the keels of canal boats to er.courage their captains.- - They go afoot, on horseback, every way and every wiiere. — These words are incapable of < jileam m them, elections approve them, I'residents sprout froni theiri. GianL has been called the sphynx, so voiceless was he. He might, but for a f nv phrases, have been born speechless. He could have done his appointed tasks by a motion of his hand. His fingers could have declared the line of march for armies and the awful moment of onset. A lew pages will embrace his dispatches. A Jew columns of a small book will record his addresses. Volumes will be given to his acts. He was, I think, the most impassa- ble, impervious and impenetra- ble man that ever lived. He was insensible to danger. H" ever the earth had opened at his feet, and yawned to its red and firey cer.- tei-, he would have stood compos- ed ;;nd complacent and ti])ped his cap to destruction. He may not have been a very tender man — he was too matiiematical lor that. The science of compara- tive columns he understood to perfection. Numbers were his weapons. He put men into the breech as it they were marbles or billiard balls. He knew that the true soldier enlisted to die, not to live; and he put him ac- cordingly. A mown swath of men touch.ed him only remotely; his mind was made up for that; but a blistered shoulder, a frac- tured limb encountered unex- pectedly, moved him as deeply as the tenderest and most sym- patiietic. His profession made him a. soldier ; but for that and the times th:it called for him, he would have gravitated to the til- lage of the lields. How a herd of grazing cattle or colts, with subdued heads would have cap- tured his fancy. The strong, fleet, but not over last horse had the benediction of his eyes. He would have fed his Berkshire pigs with as niucii composure and pride as to approve some parch- ment of Congress. PIis big oxen laboring with a load of wood would have brought inexpress- iible salisjaction. I know nor, whether it is so, but 1 guess, that complicated machinery and great engines must liave been the (ien- eraTs delight. I suspect that he was an inventor, though tl e Pat- ent rolls mav not be graced with his name. His keen sense of fa- vors bestowed, disarmed him of suspicion and sometimes tinctur- ed or twisted his judgment. He stopped not much to enquire of motive. The act. if on its face and forehead, was generous, tliere was no underpeeping to find fraud. 1 think the General might easily have been cheated in a horse trade, especially ''sight un- seen." He never cared to be our President. He had not consider- ed or respected politics or politi- ci{ ns. 8ome small office would have pleased him as much as the Presidency. He would have served a writ of restitution to a small property with the like feel ing as setting his name to a veto. It alarmed him when called to a second term. He despised the conspiracy that attempted to lug him into the third. Grant esteemed it a kindness to be defeated. He thought well of the American people on that account. The American people thought well of themselves on that account. There was unan- imity and concordance in that behalf. If any man since Wash- ington deserved three terms it was Grant. He would not, could not have harmed the country. — Our country has immunity from injury. No single administra- tion, iiowever bad, or many bad administrations cannot mar us. We have bone and sinew and re- cuperative energies almost in- calculable. Let pride rear i's snaky head, let faction assail us, let ambition plan in secret places, the brave men of the plains and the Hiliicans, as they are called, will come to a rescue. We all stick to our parties ; organization and colaboration :ire natural and pleasing to man. U all work for tiie best, the end will come in al- ternations and in periods. No one man is better than all other men. No one party in this part of the world has a signature for unlimited succession. 'I'here is no patent for perpetuity except honesty and decency, and they both are fond ot shift and change. They like new residences. Bad odors come from long tenancy. — Th'j ash bins must be cleaned ; lime must be sprinkled t even blood must be let at times. But human blood is a precious thing. Its globules are more than gold- en. It is entitled to its full span. It has a right to run the rounds ot the heart for three score years and ten. But in some strange way, by some mystery beyond man's ken, deatli seems to be the way to life. Grant's death is somewhat more pronounced and vicarious than even Lincoln's. — Lincoln had to die the death he did to make the South sorrowful, to make the North a unit. 'I'here was perhaps no need of Gar- field's sacrifice ; yet it went far to drape all doors with a common symbol of sadness. A crazy tool. an irresponsible mndinan sliot liini. God may have pulled the trijijrer behind Gitteau's back. — Old John Brown's head was shaped a;,d furnished somewhat as his. But Brown's soul is march- ing on. The weak things con- iound the strong. P'ord's theatre will be a shrine for pilgrims north and south; the bloody spot in the Baltimore depot at Wash- ington will take the eye of the moving, traveling world, and Mt. Gregor will be resplendent with light and love as long as j our flag floats or a State lias a written Constitution. ' ! I would not be hypercritical, | scarcely even critical as to the! spot in which our dead leader's ^ bones are to rest. It matters lit- 1 lie where any human dust is laid, i The wild trump of the last day i will collect it, however widely dispersed. The tenement that is fit for ihe soul must abide and last as the soul. To be buried in tlie sea is doubtless a sweet en- tombment — tiie clear waters scouring and whitening flesh and bones. But who can find the body ? Where shall friends go to pray? To be lost in space, to be intangible, to be unapproachable, solitary, is full of discomfort. — "Even in onr ashes live their wonted flres." Graves are hud- dled together, not for want of space, not to save expense, but on account of a sentiment of neighborhood and society. Single burials will never com- mand (he suff'rages of the living; The dead are more urban than the living. They quarrol not; the soul iscitizen and the body serene — "And there while so quietly lying it fan- cies A holier odor, about it o( pansies — A rosrmary odor commingled witli pansies. With rue and the beautiiul Puritan pan- sies." I will not undertake to impress my sentiments at this late day upon the public. I never have tried too, and could not it I would. But it lias come to my mind these tew nights past that as Grant went to the war from Illinois, as his career commenced there, and as Lincoln, that superb hunianitsirian and im- partial statesmen rests at Spring- field, that Grant ought in the eter- nal iitness of things, find repose close by his side. P^aihng in tiiis, I proteiit against all Parks; River- side or Central has no claim to such sacred dust. West Point (las some right to ask for him. He was it « son. Perpetuity clings to its soil and rocks. One great soldier would have dignified all tofts and crofts forever. But West Point as- ide and Springfield not having been selected, my hand and my heart are for the place ot his birth — Point Pleasant, down in glorious old Cler- mont of our incomparable Stale of Ohio, Under the chimney of the cabin in which he was born he ought to have been hurried. The Ohio can sing as good a requiem as the Hudson. A son of Ohio ought to reht in ilssoil. As some one in the Brooklyn Enge says : "JNIount Vernon and Washington are not dif ferent terms to the mind. The place and the man are complemen tary. The home and its founder reciprocaily suggest one and the oth- er. The Mount is as calm and be- nignant as the character of him who lived on it and whose body its bos- om encloses. * * * *^o too where Abraham Jiincoln lived is Abraham Lincoln hurried. * * * And the other free son of the Weston whom the fate of faction fell out of the blue, died on the threshold of great designs for his country, to be laid in Lalco View by the waters which reflected to his young eyes and murmured to his young mind the story of all noble doings =*= ='= In llie same spirit of local selection, Quincy holdH the remains of tho Adamses, men as granite in their character, as the produce of her querries. Monticel- lo which rejoiced Jefferson in life claimed liim in death." This day, this 8th of August will remain mem- orable forever. The bells of cities and of hamlets have been clanging since the dawn. The Great General goes to rest. He only pro- ceds others by a .short date. Reb- el and loyalist will all soon settle their contentions and quarrels — There is an Appomatto.x above as well as here below. "LET US HAVE PEACE." LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 789 084