San Mateo County
Times and Gazette
June 1, 1889
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Following is the address of J.L. Boone of San Francisco:
Fellow citizens and comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic: Since last we met
to decorate the graves of our honored dead another mile post has been added to those
that separate us from the troublous times of civil war, and the recollection of its
horrors has grown correspondingly dim. Every recurring Decoration Day sees our
living ranks diminished, and the number of graves to be decorated increased until
finally, in a few short years, our deeds and sufferings will only be told in history.
Many comrades who marched to the sound of funeral dirge one year ago today, and
scattered flowers of remembrance over the graves of their departed comrades have
since then been laid to rest and today, for the first time, we who survive will
consecrate their graves by covering them over with flowers. What a beautiful
thought it is that when we are laid away in the bosom of mother earth, after
life's fitful dream is over, our graves will once in every year be covered
with flowers by the hands of those who honor us for our works. Such remembrance
is calculated to bring together in close communion the loyal living and the loyal dead.
It is proper and right that the citizens of a great republic, remembering
the valiant men who faced the storm of bullets and bore our flag aloft to
victory against a brave and stubborn foe, should lay aside their business
and devote one day in each year to those brave defenders who lie in patriot
graves. Let not that day be made a day of feasting and rejoicing, but one of
quiet thought and reverence for the dead. Let it belong to the Grand Army of
the Republic and let the people respect it and deem it hallowed, because it
was for them these brave and devoted dead sacrificed their all. The fruits of
their toil and suffering insure to the benefit of you and posterity in the
preservation of our country.
When we review the past and analyze the desperate condition in which our
country was involved when the proclamation of war made it necessary that
the manhood of our country should go forth to battle for its life, we
cannot help but come to a startling sense of the debt we owe to the men
who preserved the integrity of our government through the struggle of
our civil war. This government was founded upon the principle of Union;
of one country and one flag. How dear to our hearts was the old motto of
"E pluribus Unum." In one short phrase it expressed a world of meaning.
Many States united under one common government-one people covered by one
flag-each State independent and free to govern itself, but yielding where
the general good demanded it; a democratic government in which the majority
ruled and the minority bowed in humble submission. This was our ideal.
This was the form of government that our forefathers founded and hoped
to perpetuate. How startling then was the cry of disunion. The war of the
Revolution was not fought to wrest American soil from British rule that
it might be cut up into independent governments. The army of Washington
did not march through snow and ice with bloody feet to conquer a peace
in order that Jefferson Davis might be President of a Southern Confederacy,
or that a flag called the "stars and bars" might float over on section
of the country, and the "stars and stripes" over the other. Andrew Jackson
in his famous proclamation in 1882 when South Carolina threatened to break
away from the United States, in apt words, said: "In colonial state,
although dependent on another power we very early considered ourselves
as connected by common interest with each other. Leagues were formed
for common defense, and before the Declaration of Independence we were
known in our aggregate character as the United Colonies of America. That
decisive and important step was taken jointly. We declared ourselves a
nation by joint and not by several acts; and when the terms of our
confederation were reduced to form, it was in that of a solemn league of
several States by which they agreed that they would "collectively form
one nation for the purpose of conducting some certain domestic concerns,
and all foreign relations." This was the true doctrine. It met and received
the approval of all true Americans. It was this principle that brought us
into existence and framed our Constitution, and it was this principle
that moved the loyal people of the North when secession attempted to
divide the nation to rush to arms and rally around the only flag they
had so longed served, and the only one they intended should ever wave
over American soil as the emblem of our liberty.
But God is ever mindful of his creatures. The destiny of this
nation was guided by the hand of Providence. It so directed that
Abraham Lincoln, the true and loyal friend of liberty, the wise and
noble President, should stand at the helm while the great ship battled
with the storm. It so directed that Ulysses S. Grant, the incomparable
general, should rise from the humble position he occupied, and command
the armies that marched to success and victory. It so directed that
the great Ship of State came out of the storm with a sound hull,
and with the flag still flying at her mast head, but terribly shaken
and her decks reeking with blood. The contest has demonstrated that
the ship is sound and reliable. The broken and splintered masts have
been repaired, the wreckage has been collected and taken away, and
the ship has been refitted in greater splendor than before, but the
bloodstains remain, and they will remain as long as the ship keeps
afloat, which, God willing, we hope will be to the end of time.
It is possible for us now after the lapse of 24 years to give
a correct estimate of the effect of the war upon the government
and the people who represent it. The effects of a war can only be
determined after the animosities that excited it are softened and
the disturbed channels of government have resumed their ordinary
routine under the new statute established by force of arms. The
first result of war that attracts our attention is the abolition
of African slavery on the American Continent by the emancipation
of 4,000,000 slaves. While this result was incidental, and not
the immediate cause of the war, it established a new relation
amongst the people that required the test of time to determine
its effects upon the autonomy of the country. One thing can be
said, however, of this result, and that is, that it was in the
interest of humanity, Christianity and elevated manhood. It
forever blotted out a dark stain upon our escutcheon that was
inconsistent with a high state of civilization. The result of
this emancipation has been to elevate our government in the eyes
of the whole civilized world and the removal of a disturbing cause
that tended to sectional bitterness and strife; and I believe I am
perfectly justified in asserting that today, with but few exceptions,
the people of the South are more than satisfied with this result. The
next result we realize is one that effects more nearly our future
relations with the other nations of the earth, and that is that we
are able to take care of ourselves; that we need no standing
armies to maintain our position and defend our territory. The
American people are so constituted that each one can adapt
himself to the different circumstances under which he is placed.
He can trade and barter. He can manufacture and till the soil.
He can carry on gigantic mercantile and commercial enterprises,
but when necessary he can also shoulder his musket and become a
trained soldier, and it does not take long for him to have the
word "Veteran" stamped opposite his name. This fact has impressed
itself on other nations, and it will always serve instead of a
standing army to prevent any encroachment upon our territory or
our rights. Once give a man or a people the reputation of being
brave or courageous and others will hesitate to give him or them
offense. The war instead of crippling our progress as a great
commercial people has actually benefited it. It started into
existence our wonderful lines of transcontinental railroads.
It encouraged and built up large manufacturing industries which
never would have succeeded had it not been for the aid of military
necessity. Even the South itself has prospered and is now prospering
in a much greater ratio than it did before the war under the
enervating influence of African slavery. Undoubtedly the war generated
bitterness in the minds of many whose interests wee effected by its
results. Nothing else could be expected, but even this is fast disappearing.
The rising generation will soften and ameliorate this feeling and before
many years we will find a greater accord between the people of the
different sections of the country than could have possible existed
under the old order of things.
The men against whom we contended wee of the same stamp and
metal as ourselves. They also knew how to shoulder the musket and
face the storm of bullets. None can better judge of their valor
than we who met them on the skirmish line, or in the fray of battle.
It was Greek meet Greek, and a victory was never won without leaving
its mark behind. We are not ashamed to own them as fellow Americans.
When Hercules entered into Heaven the first thing he did was to render
homage to Juno, his worst enemy, whereat all heaven and Juno herself
was astonished. When asked why he thus rendered homage to his enemy
before all others he replied "Because it was per persecution that
caused me to perform the deeds that brought me to haven. Why, d
o I not owe more to her than to all others?" In the same spirit
we can praise the bravery and gallantry of our contestants in the
late civil war. It is due to tem that posterity shall know how
their prowess was regarded by the men who overpowered them.
Their dead lie mouldering in the same soil that contains ours,
and although they died in a cause which we regarded as unjust,
we must, like Hercules, remember that the beneficial results of
our war could never have been obtained had they not been obtained
through the death of those who fell on the other side, as well as
of those who fell on our side, and we will not emulate the cruel
Horatius who stabbed his sister to the heart because she mourned
the death of her lover who fell fighting for the cause of the Albans
against Rome, but we will rather emulate the sister and weep over
the dead of our conquered foe, because through their death we were
enabled to reach a higher plane of civilization and remove one of
the stumbling blocks to the future perpetuity and happiness of
our nation.
And now one word about our noble organization. The idea of
forming an association of the veterans of the war first broached
between two army officers while on Sherman's march from Atlanta
to the sea near the close of the war. It was evident to all at
that time that the backbone of the Confederacy was broken, and
that the war was near its close, that the time was near at
hand when the grand army of the union would be dismembered, and
each one would return to his home to resume the duties of a
private citizen. It seemed wrong that this great body of men
who had espoused the cause of freedom, who had marched and
faced death in a hundred battles as comrades, should sink
back into the commonplace walks of life and lose their
identity the one to the other, and it was determined that
as soon as the war was over, an organization should be effected,
by which the fraternal feeling that had grown up amongst these
old comrades should be perpetuated and cemented as long as any
of them remained. Shortly after the war a few comrades met in
Indianapolis, Indiana, and laid out the ground work of the
order, and formed the first post, around with, as a nucleus,
other posts were to be organized, and thus gather into one
organization all the old comrades. This original post was
composed at first of eighteen charter members. It soon grew
and other posts were organized until now we have a net work
of Grand Army Posts extending all over the country, and its
membership amounts to half a million old comrades. Up to the
present time the Grand Army of the Republic has collected and
distributed over a million and a half dollars amongst the poor
and helpless widows and orphans of old soldiers. Its motto is
Fraternity, Charity and Loyalty. Fraternity of the souls of men
who stood shoulder to shoulder in line of battle, and faced death,
when death was in the very air they breathed. Charity to the widows
and orphans of those who fell in the cause we defended, and Loyalty
to the flag that floated over us in the storm of battle, and that now,
thank God, still floats over us as the emblem of our nationality.
Fellow citizens and comrades: We are fast receding from the shore
on which our soldier deeds were performed. Already the land has
grown dim to our vision, and our bark is drifting further and
further away. It is a cheering thought to us who yet live that
the living and rising generation entertain for us the fraternal
feeling that already they have began to build monuments of stone
and marble to the memory of our dead. Even here in your beautiful
town of Redwood City the fraternal feeling has prompted you to
erect a beautiful monument devoted to the heroic dead, and today
we will dedicate it to the sacred purpose for which it is
intended by covering it over with flowers in humble memory
of the valiant men who sacrificed their lives that their
country might live. This monument will stand when all who
participated in that struggle have been laid away in the
ground with those who fell on the field of battle, and future
generations will point to it and say: this monument commemorates
the deeds of those who preserved to us the integrity of our
government, and maintained our flag unsullied through the
frightful struggles of a civil war.
And now, my comrades; thankful that the Great Ruler of
the Universe has permitted us to see this day, while so many
of our comrades have been laid away to rest, and fully realizing
that before another Decoration Day rolls round, we may also be
laid beside them, let us proceed with the duty we have taken
upon ourselves by again placing upon their graves the living
emblems of our fellowship and love-the beautiful flowers of
the earth, emblematic of life first appearing in the bud;
then blooming to the full bloom flower but withering a
day when severed too soon from the stem that unites them
with Mother Earth.
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