Henry Ward Beecher

“ Sit not in darkness, nor sorrow, whom a nation honors. Oh, mourners of the early dead! They shall live again and live forever. Your sorrows are our gladness. The nation lives because you gave it men that loved it better than their own lives. And when a few more days shall have cleared the perils from around the Nation’s brow, and she shall sit in unsullied garments of liberty, with justice upon her forehead, love in her eyes, and truth upon her lips,—she shall not forget those whose blood gave vital currents to her heart, and whose life, given to her. ”

“ Every mountain and hill shall have its treasured name, every river shall keep some solemn title, every valley and every lake shall cherish its honored register; and till the mountains are worn out and the rivers forget to flow, till the clouds are weary of replenishing springs and the springs forget to gush and the rills to sing, shall their names be kept fresh with reverent honors which are inscribed upon the book of National Remembrance. ”

“ And buoyant children shall pause in their noisy games and, with loving reverence, honor those whose hands can work no more and whose feet are no longer able to march except upon that journey which brings good men to honor and immortality. ”