USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Brighton > Oration delivered at the dedication of the soldiers' monument : in Evergreen Cemetery, Brighton, Mass., on Thursday afternoon, July 26, 1866 > Part 3
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our world, took up that holy scripture strain, "Nunc Domine dimittis," " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salva- tion."
Thanks, thanks to God who giveth us the victory ! "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so whom he hath redeemed." Thanks to our able and successful gen- erals and commanders! Thanks to our brave sol- diers, the living and the departed, who, under God, achieved so great success! To both our warmest gratitude is due. What could either have done with- out the other ? Mr. President, I cannot discriminate in these estimates of worth. It is like capital and labor in your own commercial province, each useless without the other. Napoleon without his devoted soldiers of what avail? Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Farragut, without their brave boys, - each alone would for us have been useless, impotent. To both give thanks, through whose efforts went forth that sublime decree, the herald of universal freedom in our land.
Following the Proclamation of Emancipation came the Constitutional Amendment, announced by procla- mation of Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, on the 1Sth of December, 1865, as ratified by the requisite three- fourths of all the States. This forever banished slavery from the land, as the great source of all our woe. This enacted that henceforth and forever our country must be the home only of the free. And
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now, to crown the toil and sacrifice of martyr and patriot, the Civil Rights Bill, which establishes the citizenship of every man born in the country, be he white or black, has secured, though, I am sorry to add, over the veto of the President, the overwhelm- ing approval of Congress. The scene in the Senate of the United States on its adoption, on the 6th of April last, surpassed in sublime enthusiasm and right- eous approbation any which I can recall in parlia- mentary history. Far and wide through the loyal States, the voice of approval has passed on these momentous decrees, in all outward demonstrations of joy and gladness, as in pealing cannon and chim- ing bell, in glad song and inspiring verse, as well as in soundest argument, forensic and popular,- never equalled at least in our own land. I except not even the announcement of the Declaration of Independence, for that was attended with more doubt and uncertainty and anxious forebodings on the part of the whole people than was the ratification of these great measures.
Who shall so well speak for us the patriotic senti- ment of our whole people, while over the land went swelling as a tide the general joy at these public decrees, as our loyal poet Whittier, in his grand "Laus Deo," as his ear caught the sound :-
It is done ! Clang of bell and roar of gun Send the tidings up and down. 6
How the belfries rock and reel; How the great guns, peal on peal, Fling the joy from town to town!
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Ring, O bells ! Every stroke exulting tells Of the burial hour of crime. Loud and long, that all may hear,
Ring for every listening car Of Eternity and Time !
Let us kneel : God's own voice is in that peal, And this spot is holy ground. Lord, forgive us! What are we, That our eyes this glory see, That our ears have heard the sound !
For the Lord On the whirlwind is abroad ; In the earthquake he has spoken ; Ile has smitten with his thunder The iron walls asunder, And the gates of brass are broken !
Loud and long Lift the old exulting song, Sing with Miriam by the sea : HIc has cast the mighty down ;
Horse and rider sink and drown; "Ile hath triumphed gloriously !" Did we dare, In our agony of prayer, Ask for more than he has done ?
When was ever his right hand Over any time or land Stretched as now beneath the sun!
How they pale, Ancient myth and song and tale, In this wonder of our days, When the cruel rod of war Blossoms white with righteous law,
And the wrath of man is praise !
Blotted out! All within and all about Shall a fresher life begin ; Freer breathe the universe As it rolls its heavy curse On the dead and buried sin !
It is done!
In the circuit of the sun Shall the sound thereof go fortli. It shall bid the sad rejoice, It shall give the dumb a voice, It shall belt with joy the earth !
Ring and swing, Bells of joy ! On morning's wing Send the song of praise abroad ! With a sound of broken chains Tell the nation that He reigns, Who alone is Lord and God!
Say I not well then, friends, soldiers, that this Monument shall stand to impartial and universal freedom henceforth consecrate ? Nay, ye spirits of the slain in battle, who, so many voices testify, have not died in vain, answer! Ye, ten thousand times worse than slain, starved, or frozen, or burned ones, murdered by inches in slavery's prison-pens, not
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houses, speak and answer! We know your reply to this our question. But charge us, charge us all, - fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, kindred perchance by any tie with some slain soldier,- charge these school children even, who have given you in these fresh flowers laid on your Monument so fit an expres- sion of their love, and whose sweet voices, in the beautiful and touching hymn of one of our own citi- zens, has sung your requiem,-charge us all that here, at the base of this Monument, we dedicate ourselves anew, as the holiest consecration of your Shrine, to the sacred cause of FREEDOM, PATRIOTISM, LOYALTY !
Fellow-citizens, I have uttered all too inadequately some of the thoughts which crowd for utterance at this hour. Most grateful has been to me the opportu- nity to speak in this commemoration. Most grateful to me, who along these three-and-twenty years past have so often stood by the bedsides of your dying and over your coffined dead, thus to assist in paying these last public rites to the memory of your beloved ones whose names henceforth are associated with their country's fame. In kindliest sympathy, in warmest gratitude, be assured, that country holds its many bereaved households. In Christian faith and · hope be entreated, ye sorrowing ones, to remember the good thus slain in battle as your treasure and your country's treasure laid up on high. Be assured
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ye have given them in a worthy cause. The nation is richer that they have died, prouder before the world that ye had them to give. Hark to our gifted poet, whose familiar national hymn we shall sing before leaving these grounds :-
" Weep for their memory! would they had not died! Sing for their memory! 'tis the nation's pride !"
Cherishing from the very opening of the strife the most sanguine faith in the ultimate triumphs of my country over armed rebellion, I rejoice with you, friends, in the nation's repose. With old blind Mil- ton, " bating no jot of heart or hope" in her darkest hours, battling not on the field, -shame on us lag- gards at home !- I have battled as I was able with the nation's foes, open or secret, with the faithless, the doubters, the fearful ones, for the nation's finan- cial sufficiency, as for her moral integrity, her God- approving course, her sure victory in the end. Speak- ing ever in utter condemnation of the parricides who went from the nation's Senate, declaring, just before, as did Alexander H. Stephens, ours "the most benefi- cent government of which history gives us any ac- count,"-declaring, as did Jefferson Davis, ours " the best government ever instituted by men, unexcep- tionably administered, and under which the people have been prosperous beyond comparison with any other people whose career has been recorded in his- tory,"-went thus to plunge daggers in their moth-
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er's heart, I congratulate you on their hypocrisy exposed, their schemes frustrated, their armies de- feated and scattered, the nation saved. While sev- eral of the nations of Europe have just become involved in a war, the complications and issues of which no seer arises yet satisfactorily to predict, we sit in peace. We will believe that the years of war which we have suffered are the earnest of richest blessings to our land. With our illustrious loyal statesman, Josiah Quincy, who died those few months only before final victory crowned our arms, - as did his renowned father " Quincy the Patriot," of whom I have spoken, those few days only after the open- ing of the great drama of the American Revolution he so longed to see,-we too will count the war, as he assured me he did, as "the most hopeful sign of the country's future."
We raise these monuments to commemorate alike those who helped and still live, and those who, help- ing, died to save our land. If, through any ungodly allurement, we prove recreant to the exalted princi- ples for which we waged the war, these monuments shall only point our shame. But if we all are true, these silent beacons, radiant with the celestial light that encompasses the departed heroes whose names they bear, shall point to dawning glory for our land, which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived.
APPENDIX.
THE town of Brighton contributed liberally of men and means for the suppression of the Rebellion. More than two hundred enlisted in the service of their country, and twenty-three furnished substitutes. A list of the names may be seen in the Town Municipal Report, 1865. In the war of the American Revolution, few towns manifested a more patriotic spirit than Cambridge, of which place Brighton made part until set off and incorporated as a separate town, February 28, 1808. Something of this earlier patriotism appears to have animated the descendants of those worthies of 1775 in the recent struggle.
Large contributions in money were made, and large stores of cloth- ing and army and hospital necessaries and comforts were furnished steadily through the untiring labors of the ladies of the Soldiers' Aid Society. The burden of bereavement was laid heavily on some of our homes as beloved ones were slain on the battle-fields, or died by disease contracted in the service of their country. Still, the noble end we had in view - the preservation of our nationality, - the supremacy of the government,- the freedom of the oppressed, - the maintenance of order, liberty, law - was deemed worthy the mighty sacrifice. And when, at length, after four weary years of warfare, these glorious issues were secured, in the defeat and surrender of the rebel armies, no town joined more heartily than ours in the triumphant celebration of Peace. None rendered sincerer thanksgiving to Almighty God, who had counselled our counsellors, who had led and blessed our armed hosts and given us the victory. None with more heart-felt joy, or with prouder jubilee, welcomed back their returned soldiers.
But the gratitude of our citizens toward their brave defenders was not yet satisfied. It was felt that a permanent memorial should stand to testify to after ages our regard for our heroes. The subject was brought before the Annual Town Meeting in March 1865, through an article in the warrant in these words: - " To see what action the town will take to commemorate the names of the inhabitants of the town who have lost their lives in the service of the country in the present war."
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A committee chosen to consider the subject reported at a sub- sequent meeting in April in favor of erecting a monument. At the same time the committee was enlarged, embracing in all, twelve, whose names follow : -
CHARLES HEARD, AUGUSTUS MASON,
WILLARD ADAMS HARRINGTON,
EDWARD AUGUSTUS STORY,
WEARE DOW BICKFORD,
LIFE BALDWIN,
GRANVILLE FULLER,
NATHANIEL JACKSON,
CHARLES HENRY BASS BRECK, HORACE WHEELER JORDAN.
Mr. Heard declining to serve as chairman, Mr. Bickford was chosen, and Dr. Mason served as permanent secretary.
Under the judicious direction of this Committee, the work was prosecuted, and arrangements were finally concluded for dedicating the Monument, Thursday afternoon, July 26, 1866, at half-past three o'clock.
A platform erected on the north-west side of the Monument (the right as appears in the engraving) for the speakers, Committee and invited guests, was tastefully adorned with flowers and flags, the floral deco- rations being the grateful offering of Mr. and Mrs. Winship. Seats facing the platform were provided for a large congregation, and it was estimated that more than a thousand persons were present.
The occasion had been announced in several of the Boston papers. The weather was most delightful, sunny, clear and cool. The returned soldiers of the town assembled at Mason's Hall on Washing- ton Street, corner of Harvard Place, at half-past one o'clock. The school children with their teachers were arranged on Market Square, opposite the Hall, at two o'clock. The procession, embracing these bodies and such of the citizens as had not already assembled at the Monument, attended by the Cambridge Band, marched through Wash- ington, Foster and South Streets, to Evergreen Cemetery. The imposing gateway on South Street, in Egyptian architecture, is sur- mounted with an entablature, bearing on either side the name and date of the consecration of the Cemetery, and those hallowed words : -
" Now is Christ risen from the dead."
" My pcace I leave with you " :-
The Christian's song of triumph on bearing in his dead, and the Saviour's precious legacy for the bereaved on leaving the grounds.
The whole gateway, on this occasion, was beautifully draped in crape and flags. Passing beneath the gateway, the procession wound through Central Avenue, and on the left side of North Grove to Chapel Grove, in which the Monument stands. Marching around the Monument, each soldier deposited a sprig of evergreen, and each pupil
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a spray of flowers, upon its base, to the memory of the deceased heroes, and, under the direction of Sergeant Calvin Rice, and William Augustus Putnam Willard, Principal of the Bennett Grammar School, took the seats reserved for them.
After music by the band, Mr. Bickford, president of the day, made the following address :-
FELLOW-CITIZENS :-
We are assembled to-day to consecrate a Monument erected to the memory of the patriotic citizens of Brighton who lost their lives in defence of their country in the late Rebellion.
It is now nearly six years since the conspiracy to break up this great confed- eracy of States, to destroy our Constitution, and even our nationality, broke out in open rebellion against the general government. But the echo from the first gun that was fired upon Fort Sumter was heard in every hamlet of the Free States. It awoke an enthusiastic love of country and of our institutions, that had, apparently, been sleeping for more than a quarter of a century. Our citizens rushed to arms from every station in society, leaving business, friends, wives and children, with a full determination to put down the rebellion and save their country.
The fire of patriotism that was kindled at the first attack upon Fort Sumter continued to burn with increasing lustre during all the years of the struggle. At every call for volunteers by the President of the United States, men came forward with unprecedented enthusiasm to fill our regiments and form new organizations, until our armies in the field became invincible in numbers as well as in patriotism. This enabled us, under the leadership of our able generals and the judicious management of the government, to subdue the rebellion and restore peace to our distracted country.
Many of our volunteers are here to-day, happy in the consciousness of having done their duty to their town and their country, to participate in this conse- cration. Some lie buried in the hero's grave, having died from disease incident to camp life, or fighting gallantly for their land. To their memory this Monument has been erected.
The Committee, in discharging their grateful service, have had no sinecure work to perform. But if their efforts prove satisfactory to their fellow-citizens, they are amply rewarded. When this Monument was first contemplated, but few such had been erected. Some of these were examined. Architects were invited to submit designs and stone-cutters' estimates. After many meetings of the Committee and due inquiry as to the durability and expense of different kinds of granite, it was decided to adopt the Quincy granite and the design furnished by George Frederic Meacham, Esq., of Boston. The models for the eagle and the shield were carved by William II. Hastings, ship carver, of Boston. The contract for cutting the Monument was given to Messrs. Adam Vogel & Son of Quincy. Messrs. A. C. Sanborn & Co., of East Cambridge, furnished the curb-stone and steps, and the laying of the same was by Mr. Haslett, of Cambridge.
The Committee would congratulate the inhabitants of the town on the very liberal subscriptions which have been made, and on the general and cordial response of all classes, including the teachers and pupils of the public schools, to the patriotic call.
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And now, fellow-citizens, in behalf of the Committee of Arrangements, to whom you entrusted the construction of this Monument, I surrender it to your care. And I particularly charge you so to cherish and preserve it, that it may be handed down to the latest generations, that the future may know who of the men of Brighton have died in this eventful crisis that their country might be saved.
Next followed on the printed Order of Exercises a selected hymn from the pen of Miss Anna II. Phillips : -
Our Father, all thy glorious carth Is consecrated ground; For everywhere, on land and sea, Thy life and love are found : Yet, by thy special blessing, Lord, To us may hallowed be This place of sleep for our beloved, Whose spirits rest with Theel
(, Father! guarded by thy love And hallowed be each grave W'er which the snows of winter fall, Or summer's blossoms wave; And let thy tenderness enfold The mourner by the dead,
Thou who dost number all our woes, And every tear we shed !
Oh, teach the bowed and stricken heart How beautiful is deatlı, -
Teach it the glory of that life Succeeding mortal breath ; Reveal that " many-mansioned " home Whose gates shut out all pain, Where we, in thine eternal light, Shall know our loved again !
Selections from the Scriptures were then read, and prayer offered by the Rev. Ralph H. Bowles, pastor of the Baptist Church, Brighton.
Ist SAMUEL XXXI. 11-13.
" And when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard of that which the I'hllistines had done to saul, all the vallant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Saul, and the bodies of his sons, from the wall of Bethshan, and came to Jabesh, and burnt them there. And they took thelr bones, and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days."
ad SAMrat, 1. 17, 19-27.
" And David Inmented with this lamentation over Saul, and over Jonathan, his son : The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places : how are the mighty fallen! Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon, lest the daughters of the Philis- tines rejolee, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. Ye mountains of Gillboa, let there be no dew, nelther let there be rain upon you, nor tickls of offerings: for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil. From the blood of the slaln, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back, and the sword of Saul returned not
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empty. Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided : they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions. Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with other delights; who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel. How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle ! O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thy high places. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan : very pleasant hast thou been unto me; thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished ! "
PSALM XVIII. 36-43, 47-49.
" Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip. I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them : neither did I turn again till they were consumed. I have wounded them that they were not able to rise; they are fallen under my feet. For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle; thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me. Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me. They cried, but there was none to save them ; even unto the Lord, but he answered them not. Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind; I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets. For thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people; and thou hast made me the head of the heathen : a people whom I have not known shall serve me. It is God that avengeth me, and subdueth the people under me. He delivereth me from mine enemies ; yea, thon liftest me upabove those that rise up against me; thou hast delivered me from the violent man. Therefore will I give thanks nnto thee, O Lord, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name."
PSALM XXII. 3-5.
" But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee; they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee and were delivered ; they trusted in thee and were not confounded."
ISAIAH IXI. 1, 2, 4.
" The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn. And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations."
1st CORINTHIANS XV. 20-22, 51-58.
" But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump : for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stead- fast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord."
PRAYER.
O Almighty God, who art a strong tower of defence unto thy servants against the face of their enemies; we yield thee praise and thanksgiving for our deliverance from those great and apparent dangers wherewith we were compassed, and that thou didst lead our armies, and time our checks and successes until we were ready for the accom-
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plishment of thy great and good purposes, and then thou didst vouchsafe us a complete victory over our foes; that by thy providential direction the war, begun to perpetuate and nationalize slavery, resulted in its overthrow and in the emancipation of millions In our land, who had long borne the oppressor's yoke; that thou didst give us loyalty, patriotIsm, patience, perseverance and self-sacrifice equal to the fearful exigency ; that thou didst raise up for us leaders, able and true; and for all that thy good hand hath wrought in us and by us. In particular, we thank thee that so many of our fellow- townsmen, who took their lives in their hands and went out from us to fight the battles of their country, have returned in safety, and are here to share with us to-day in a tribute of respect to their departed comrades in arms. And as they read this record of the names of the departed, and remember when those now sleeping were alive and with them in the camp or on the field, may a sense of thy goodness that spared them constrain them to give themselves up to thee and thy service. May the remembrance of tuils endured, and service performed for their country in her need, be a satisfaction to thein as long as their lives endure. May thy favor ever rest upon them. Make them all good soldiers of the cross, - give them moral courage and spiritual strength to tight the good tight of faith, and in thy heavenly kingdom acknowledge them conquerors, and more than conquerors, through Him that loved them and gave himself for them.
( Most Merciful Jehovah, who doth not willingly atilict or grieve the children of men, who art the widow's God and the Father of the fatherless, we most earnestly beseech thee to regard with tender compassion those whom this war has stricken and bereaved. Mitigate their sorrows and heal their grief's by the communications of thy spirit and the gifts of thy grace. We especially commend to thee the surviving friends of those whose cherished names this Monument bears. May they be comforted by the thought that their loved and departed have not lived or died in vain; that, though they tell, the righteous canse of liberty und humanity was strengthened and upheld by their fall; that, though they rest from their labors, their works do follow them. Wilt thou have these stricken mourners always in thy tatherly care, and provide for all their wants. In every time of their loneliness and grief, may they hear their Saviour say, " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
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