Comrades and friends: It is a custom in Eastern lands
for the believers in Allah, to make an annual visit to the
grave of their prophet. To this shrine the adherents
of the true faith come with each passing year, to lay
their offerings upon his tomb, and gather new inspiration
and new courage, to contend against the difficulties with
which the pathway to the happy realms above is beset.
Their fervor, which may have lost something from contact
with the world, is again enkindled. Their zeal, if it has
become in aught diminished, is here renewed and they
depart with the weapons of their faith burnished, and
with their nerves braced to continue the good fight they
have commenced. You and I, comrades, have come from
a distance to the grave lying here at our feet, upon a
similar errand. After an absence of a year, we have
returned to scatter flowers over him whose name has been
given to our Post — to recall, in a few words, as we stand
here in sorrow together, the scenes of his life, and to learn
from his example new lessons of virtue and self denial.
There were many things which made the sacrifice of this life unusually great. Had he been disposed to follow other promptings than those of duty, it would have been easy to have found many reasons why he should not expose himself to the dangers of the field, and the privations of the camp. At the time of the commencement of the war, he had scarcely attained the age of manhood. There are some
- ↑ Address at Longwood Cemetery, Kennett Square, upon Decoration Day, May 30th, 1871.
