MEMORIAL DAY EXERCISES

The annual Memorial Day exercises, held yesterday in Sanders Theatre, were opened--with a prayer by Rev. S. McC. Crothers, D.D., h.'99, after which the Glee Club sang "Fair Harvard." Professor G. H. Palmer '64, the presiding officer, introduced the speaker of the occasion, Mr. F. B. Sanborn '55, of Concord, who said in part, as follows:

"The young look back on history, recent or remote, as all of one piece, for such it is to them. But those who have lived through a potent period of history, such as the Civil War, cannot take this distant view of their own achievements and misfortunes. Yet there are many Americans who misconstrue the events of the war, or who seek to minimize its issues. That great struggle was the trial of an indictment against human freedom under the disguise of a contention for the disputed right of secession. But behind that long maintained and often honestly supported right to secede was the desire to continue the outgrown and detestable institution of chattel slavery. But for that too long tolerated refuge of oppression no secession could have occurred, and the real cause for that military and political conflict of ten years' duration was the existence of negro slavery in a democratic republic. The first issue of the war, however, was not slavery, but the maintenance of the Union, the federal compact established under the Constitution of 1787. At the north it was claimed that the Union must be upheld, even with slavery left untouched, or still worse, guaranteed from political extinction in future. At the south it was less confidently claimed that the Union must be dissolved because we had elected a northern president with northern principles,--for the first time since John Quincy Adams' administration, 35 years before. The reason alleged, however, was that southern rights were no longer safe, although one of the most conservative men ever raised to the presidency was to hold the balance between the two contesting sections of civilization.

"This was the situation while the slave states were seceding one after another, and while politicians and capitalists were counseling submission to the claims of the slaveholders, in order to retain them in a Union which they had grown to detest, because they no longer controlled its central government. But when the northern states saw the south rushing into rebellion against our government, in order to set up an aristocracy of color and section, that deep instinct of self-preservation brought the north almost unanimously together in defense of the imperiled nation. Its instantaneous effect was to scatter the temporizing plans of old politicians. Those who previously had denounced and persecuted the anti-slavery minority, suddenly felt drawn into this wave of national sentiment, and now denounced the slaveholders and their allies of the north. Impelled by this tide of enthusiasm, Fietcher Webster, son of the most conspicuous enemy of the anti-slavery crusade, took command of a Massachusetts regiment and later died on the field, fighting to re-enact the law of God, which his eloquent father had refused to do--I name Colonel Webster, not for the sake of reviving an old controversy as to the patriotism of his illustrious father, but because of a peculiar incident of his command in the summer of 1861. During the dull weeks of army drill his regimental bandmaster had recalled a Methodist camp-meeting hymn with the resounding chorus, 'Glory Hallelujah!' He adapted the air to his military instruments, and it had become a well-known marching tune in the regiment. Some unknown poet composed rough words to the air, and when the regiment came marching up State street on July 23, 1861, on its way to the front, the men were singing the original John Brown song. Four months later when Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, on her first visit to Washington, heard the soldiers from all sides singing this song, inspired by its stirring melody, yet not a little shocked by the rude pathos of its words, she composed here immoral 'Battle Hymn of the Republic.'p

"And now a few words as to this remarkable hero, John Brown. He was one of those Americans who foresaw that the conflict between the opposing forms of civilization was not only irresistible but was coming to a bloody issue in spite of all compromises and palliation. He saw that slavery must be destroyed or it would destroy the nation. And he was a man of such intrepid courage that he was willing to undertake in all calmness of mind what in another person would have been insanity. Invincible courage, even in a doubtful cause, is sure to inspire and find applause among other brave men. Thus when we honor you, soldiers of the Grand Army of the Republic, and as often as we decorate the graves of your comrades, and your own, as you fall by the way in this long march to the common home of all men, whether soldiers or men of peace, we may well recall the undying memory of him who loved the flag of his country. He marched to defeat, but the heavenly powers turned his momentary disaster into final victory; and he was as ready to forgive his enemies as we are to forgive those who vainly sought to ruin the country that nurtured them."