Ohio History Journal

412      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.     GOVERNOR WILLIS' ADDRESS. Governor Willis spoke as follows: Ladies and Gentlemen: It is indeed a rare privilege to be present and take a part in these interesting exercises on a day set apart in honor of our

patriotic dead; to be invited to join in this commemoration of one whose private life was an inspiration and whose public service was a benedic- tion. On this historic ground you have today united in this splendid celebra- tion which has its impressive lesson for all of the multitude here assem- bled. I rejoice to see in the van of these ceremonies those who valiantly marched forth to battle for liberty and union and the perpetuation of our Republic, the boys in blue of '61 to '65 who followed the flag through the

stress of war and gave the nation under God a new birth of freedom. I have the sanction of history when I speak of them as the boys in blue. These gray veterans who survive, the most inspir- ing faces and forms in all this vast assembly, were the boys of fifty-five years ago, the blush of youth on their cheeks, the light of hope and valor in their eyes and in their hearts the patriotic devotion to country that carried them down to the sunny South- land to preserve the Union "one and indivisible." We forget sometimes that, of the 2,778,304 enlistments in the armies of the United States for service in the Civil War, 1,151,438 had not reached the age of nineteen years, and 2,159,798 were not yet twenty-three years old. Only 62,533 of all that vast enlistment were more than twenty-six years of age. I, therefore, speak advisedly of those who wore the blue as "boys."  Their example will stimulate succeeding generations of American youth to respond to their country's call and follow the flag in support

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Dedication of the Hayes Memorial.        413

of a cause that, like the judgment of the Lord, is true and right-

eous altogether.

A young Greek, musing on the battle plain of Marathon two

thousand years ago, exclaimed, "The trophies of Miltiades will

not let me sleep." Julius Caesar, in the presence of a monument

to Alexander the Great, who at the age of thirty-two had con-

quered the world, was inspired to carry the arms of the Roman

legions to the confines of ancient Gaul. The examples of the pa-

triot Tell and Arnold Winkelried "made way for liberty" to other

times and distant lands.

The deeds of these veterans and their comrades who have

passed to eternity will live in the hearts they leave behind to

remotest posterity, and raise about the citadel of our liberties a

rampart that shall not yield to war and wasting time. It is well

for the veteran defenders of the Union to assemble here today

and all over this broad land, that prattling childhood may treasure

them and their deeds in memory and that we all may reflect with

gratitude upon their contribution to the perpetuity and prestige

and glory of our Republic.

With each returning year the ranks of the grand army grow

thinner. The step of the veteran is less elastic, the form more

bent, and the temples are whitened with the snows of winter.

 

"Every year they're marching slower;

Every year they're stooping lower;

Every year the lilting music stirs the hearts of older men.

Every year the flags above them

Seem to bend and bless and love them,

As if grieving for the future when they'll never march again."

 

In years they are now old men, but in spirit and devoted

patriotism they are as young as when in the early sixties they

bade good-bye to parents and sweetheart and wife and child and

marched away "to the grand, wild music of war."

I need not urge the youth of this generation to emulate the

patriotic example and the heroic service of the old guard, who

approach life's sunset under the flag they saved and amid the

plaudits of their grateful countrymen. Their monument is the

more perfect union crowned with liberty universal. They made

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414      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

good the declaration of independence and struck the shackles

from the slave; they invested with a new meaning our starry

emblem. As we see its folds unrolled upon the fragrance laden

air of this sacred day, we shall do well to take to heart the les-

sons that it teaches. The blue speaks of truth and the loyalty of

our citizenship; the white of purity and the devotion of our

patriotic women; the red of valor, the crimson flow of the pa-

triot's blood poured out as a libation upon the altar of his

country,-valor and purity side by side, moving on to a national

destiny as high as heaven and fadeless as the stars.

While this is to the young a day of inspiration, it is also to

many of us a day of retrospection and sacred memories. Some

are thinking of mothers, who with breaking hearts cheered hus-

bands as they marched away and then went bravely and reso-

lutely to work to care for the children left in the home. Of

such an one well has the poet said:

"The wife who girds her husband's sword,

'Mid little ones who weep and wonder,

And bravely speaks the cheering word,-

What though her heart be rent asunder;

Doomed nightly in her dreams to hear

The bolts of war around her rattle-

Has shed as sacred blood as e'er

Was poured upon the field of battle!"

 

I have in mind a little log cabin on the Olentangy, in Dela-

ware county. When the father of the family was with the boys

in blue down on the tented field, the mother worked to support

the children and pay the interest on a mortgage, while she listened

with forebodings, but a brave heart, to the news that was echoed

back from the battlefield. She kept the fires burning on the

hearth of home and welcomed back with joy the war-worn soldier

when the Union legions melted into the ranks of peace.

But today our thoughts center here in this beautiful grove,

whose fame is nation wide, and in the home that is for all time

enshrined in the affectionate regard of the people of Ohio.

The county of Sandusky occupies a conspicuous place in our

history. For more than a century the story of the heroic defense

of Fort Stephenson by Major Croghan against the British has

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Dedication of the Hayes Memorial.         415

 

thrilled the youth of America. From pioneer days the sons of this

region have gone forth to win enduring fame in the service of

their country. Their ashes hallow the earth above which we have

raised monuments to commemorate their valor and patriotism.

Not far away, in a church-yard at Clyde, sleeps gallant General

McPherson, who fell in the battle of Atlanta, while close by is

the grave of George Burton Meek, the first native-born Amer-

ican who fell in the Spanish-American War. In the beautiful

cemetery of this city rests all that was mortal of Rutherford B.

Hayes, general in the Civil War, thrice governor of Ohio, and

before the conclusion of his last term elected president of the

United States. From the White House he returned to Spiegel

Grove, where he lived the life of the modest model American

citizen in the ideal American home.

I shall not enter upon any extended sketch of the life and

services of this eminent Ohioan. That has been reserved for the

biographer and historian. It may not be out of place, however,

to speak of his fidelity to civic duty and every public trust. These

virtues, indeed, are in large measure within the attainment of all.

They are not rare, but they are of such transcendent importance

and worth that their conspicuous exemplification in one who has

risen to the highest place within the gift of the people is more

beneficent than the achievements of genius in lifting the multi-

tude to higher planes of life and service.

Others surpassed Hayes at the bar, though he was an able

lawyer. Others ranked higher in the army, but there was no

better soldier than he, and his wounds attested his courage and

gallantry. In Congress and on the hustings we have heard more

gifted orators, yet he always spoke effectively and frequently

swayed the judgment of his hearers when others by rhetorical

flights pleased only the fancy. Others made larger claims to

constructive statesmanship and administrative reform, but his

state papers are of a high order; he took advanced ground on the

isthmian question that has assumed new importance since the

opening of the Panama Canal; he was an early and earnest ad-

vocate of civil service reform and in his inaugural address gave

courageous utterance to a truth that gathers new force with

every passing year:

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416      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

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Dedication of the Hayes Memorial.        417

 

"He serves his party best who serves his country best."

No party leader ever uttered a nobler sentiment. It is an

ideal for all who are charged with the administration of state

affairs. It deserves a place with the laconics of the antique

world.

He was sincerely interested in every enterprise with which

he was officially associated. An appointment to a position on a

committee or a board, however humble, was never to him an

empty honor. He was always remarkably regular in attendance at

meetings and freely gave his time and thought to the transaction

of the business in hand. After he had been president of the

United States he was an active member on the boards of trustees

of a number of colleges and for years president of the National

Prison Association. He served Ohio as president of the State

Archaeological and Historical Society and by appointment of the

governor as trustee of the Ohio State University. He was deeply

interested in manual training and his last public address was on

this subject. He was a pioneer in the movement that has broad-

ened out into the vocational education of today which is finding its

way into the schools all over our land. Assuredly he has given

us and the world a noble and inspiring example of the unselfish

and uplifting service that even an ex-president of the Republic

may perform when he returns to the ranks of his fellow citizens.

His home life is a theme upon which we are tempted to

dwell, but that is not necessary. It is known to the world. Who

has not heard of the partner of all his joys and triumphs, the good

and gracious Lucy Webb Hayes, whether in or out of the White

House, the first lady of the land? No words of mine can ade-

quately portray her noble character or express the esteem and

love that hallow her memory. From the hospitals of the battle-

field to the cozy room yonder where the grim messenger found

her plying the needle in a work of love, she was the friend and

comforter of all who knew her.

It is fitting that this home, hallowed by two such spirits,

should be preserved and cherished by the state that they loved

so well, and that this memorial building, which we dedicate today,

should be the permanent repository of the literature of Ohio and

the middle west which General Hayes collected with discriminat-

Vol. XXV -27

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418      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

ing care and which his children in a liberal and patriotic spirit

have transferred to the keeping of our commonwealth.

May the gratitude of our entire citizenship continually bless

this consecrated spot. May they in larger numbers turn their

thoughts and steps hither as the years pass by. With the annual

return of this day may they bear to this leafy grove their gar-

lands of flowers, fair emblems of faith and hope, mementoes of

sympathy and love, "sweet prophecies of the resurrection."

Comrade James A. Gillmor, Commander of Eugene Rawson

Post, then introduced the Rev. A. C. Shuman of Tiffin, who

spoke as follows:

We can scarcely realize that fifty-five years ago this country

was on the verge of ruin, with two governments, each represent-

ing different political and economic ideals, the north with its

wonderful industrial wealth and the south with its agricultural

empire. But we can recognize the awful crisis that confronted

the citizens. We were divided and no one could perceive what

the outcome would be.

The people were not so well acquainted, they misunderstood

each other and were prejudiced by literature, exaggerating condi-

tions and by politicians, who spread their doctrines of sectionalism

for gain. And then came the awful shock of battle, when thou-

sands and thousands were called to face death through the long

years of carnage that followed.

There were 2,265 actual engagements. Time and again

these men we honor today were called upon to dare death through

an average of eleven battles a week. It is almost beyond compre-

hension that there were 2,277,374 men called upon to fight for

the unity of the nation, of which Ohio's quota was 313,318.

That the undying loyalty of these men could never be

doubted is proved by the fact that so many dead were left on the

field of battle, a ratio of one in nine through four long years,

during which those heroes underwent vicissitudes almost beyond

endurance, while 700 of their comrades were falling every day.

Then came Gettysburg when the backbone of the Confederacy

was broken.

Lee's last stand at Appomatox and the consequent negotia-

tions for peace furnish one of the most memorable events in the

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Dedication of the Hayes Memorial.        419

history of the nation. Facing each other were Grant's veteran

armies of the north and Lee with the flower of the south. When

after the great Confederate general had rejected the northern

leader's peace terms Grant said 'I'll wait another day' history

was written. The destiny of the nation rested in the hands of

these two men.

Then Grant renewed his offer the next day and General Lee

accepted, bringing to a close the long weary years of conflict.

The greatest civil war in the history of the world was ended and

the men who wore the gray became once more citizens of a united

nation.

We are here today to keep green the memory of those men

who gave their life blood for the preservation of the republic and

their comrades who have since gone to join them in eternal rest.

With malice toward none and charity for all we shall go on un-

folding the glorious destiny of the land of Washington, Lincoln

and Rutherford B. Hayes, and implanting in the breasts of our

sons and daughters the spirit which led those valiant soldiers to

undergo untold hardships for the sake of their country's unity.

By inspiring these high sentiments in our youths, through such

services as we are observing here today we guarantee the stability

and permanence of the nation because we are creating strength

of character which will preserve for ever our nation's greatness.

Led by Commander Gillmor and Post Adjutant B. F. Evans,

Eugene Rawson Post marched to the Hayes Memorial Building

and there dedicated the Eugene Rawson Post window.

 

 

PROCEEDINGS OF I. O. O. F.

Promptly at 10:15 the Toledo and Fremont Cantons, I. O. O.

F., and subordinate lodge members and Rebekahs formed in line

on Front Street.

Headed by the Woodman band, escorted by the Maccabees'

Rifle company, followed by the Patriarchs Militant, uniformed

rank of the Odd Fellows, and the banner bearers of Croghan and

McPherson local lodges, the subordinate lodges and Rebekah

lodges, they proceeded from the corner of Front and State, up

State to Park Avenue, on Park to Croghan, Croghan to Wood,

Wood to Garrison, Garrison to Wayne, Wayne to Birchard, out

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