Jason Elmer Hammond

“ Do not forget those that will no longer respond to our greetings in our own halls, but have laid down to rest with life's burdens for a pillow. Gather the children together to be present or to take part in the services of the day. It will be to them an exemplified lesson of patriotism; teach them the day is to be held sacred to the Grand Army of the Republic as long as courage and liberty are held sacred by the American people. ”

“ Deck them with garlands, those brothers of ours;
Lying so silent, by night and by day,
Sleeping the years of their manhood away;
Years they had marked for the joys of the brave,
Years they must waste in the sloth of the grave. ”

“ Before he was yours; he is ours. He has died from the family that he might live to the nation. Not one name shall be forgotten or neglected: and it shall by and by be confessed of our modern heroes, as it is of an ancient hero, that he did more for his country by his death than by his whole life.
Neither are they less honored who shall bear through life the marks of wounds and sufferings. Neither epaulette nor badge is so honorable as wounds received in a good cause. Many a man shall envy him who henceforth limps. ”

“ So strange is the transforming power of patriotic ardor, that men shall almost covet disfigurement. Crowds will give way to hobbling cripples. and uncover in the presence of feebleness and helplessness. 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.
Oh, mother of lost children! Sit not in darkness, nor sorrow, whom a nation honors. ”

“ 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. ”

“ There were silent factors in that war—heroes whose fame it is not the custom to sing—soldiers outside the ranks who never bore arms and yet bore all the burdens of war, soldiers as much beloved by those in front, and more than the commander-in-chief himself, and whose sympathy and courage and work in the war was a strong support and aid in its successful issue—I allude to our loyal women. ”

“ For the best part of two days we stood and watched the filing on of what seemed endless battalions, brigade after brigade, division after division, host after host, rank beyond rank; ever moving, ever passing; marching—tramp, tramp, tramp—thousands after thousands, battery front, arms shouldered, columns solid, shoulder to shoulder, wheel to wheel, charger to charger, nostril to nostril. ”

“ Who can estimate the courage of the wife who held bravely back the feelings of grief as her trembling lips spoke to her loved companion her last words of cheer, and held aloft the babe to wave farewell—perhaps eternal, as he turned on the hill-top to take one more look—perhaps his last. ”

“ He covers the Southland with his choicest verdure, and plants with lavish hand the wild flowers among its grasses. He bids the song birds thrill their sweetest notes in out-of-the-way places. So, throughout the year, every day is God's Decoration Day for those that sleep where they fell. ”

“ With tenderness in our hearts let us remember those who sleep where no loving hands can bear them a garland of memory. But whether their requiems be sung by the restless waves of the ocean or by the sighing winds through the Southern pines, they are all on God's roll call ”

“ Let the rising generation be inspired with an ardent love for their
country, an unquenchable thirst for liberty, and a
profound reverence for the Constitution and the
Union. Let the American youth never forget
that they possess a noble inheritance
bought by the toils and suffer-
ings and blood of
their ancestors.
—Story.
Keep fresh in the hearts of the rising generation a reverence for the ’Stars and Stripes‘—— the only Flag. —Gen. John Palmer.
EVOLUTION OF THE FLAG.
By courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Goff, authors of “The United States and Her Neighbors.” ”

“ Commanders on horses whose manes were entwined with roses and necks enchained with garlands, fractious at the shouts that ran along the line, increasing from the clapping of children clothed in white standing on the steps of the Capitol, to the tumultuous vociferation of hundreds of thousands of enraptured multitudes, crying Huzza! ”

“ When the husbands and fathers and brothers were away in danger, down in the camp in wood and swamp and field, she, with a power of body and mind unthought of, raised the crops and cared for the family, laboring under the constant dread lest the next mail that came from the lines would tell of the death of her loved one. ”

“ That shall bloom in the land of liberty,
In the homes of American men.
HOW THEY CAME BACK FROM THE WAR.
T. DEWITT TALMAGE.
I never realized what this country was and is, as on the day when I first saw some of these gentlemen of the army and navy. It was when, at the close of the war, our armies came back and marched in review before the President’s stand at Washington. I do not care whether a man was a republican or a democrat, a Northern man or a Southern man, if he had any emotion of nature he could not look upon it without weeping. ”

“ God will reward those dead heroes of ours,
And cover them over with beautiful flowers.
PATRIOTIC TRAINING IN OUR SCHOOLS.
(From the Department)
All business should be suspended and the day devoted to commemorating the memory of the union soldiers living and dead. Let the citizens turn out and make the day one long to be remembered as it day of patriotic education
Let not the sacredness and solemnity of the occasion be marred by games and other sports, but let us all consecrate ourselves anew at a common shrine of patriotism. ”