Memorial Speech Analysis

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Background:

Judge McClure was a Union veteran and judge who worked so tirelessly to protect the rights of

former slaves after the Civil War, one biographer said he was the most hated man in the south.

McClure was a federally appointed judge, which meant it was outside of the control of Redeemer

Democrats who took over the state in 1877.

Washington County Review

Fayetteville, Arkansas, Thursday, June 11, 1891

A MASTERLY ADDRESS

Oration Delivered by Judge John M. McClure, of Little Rock, at Fayetteville, Ark. May 30th,

1891, on Decoration Day.

An Able Argument on Behalf of Patriotism and an Eloquent Tribute to the Federal Dead.

I would, that another, abler and more eloquent than myself had been called upon to

address you. In the presence of this assembly, with the thoughts crowding around me, that these

green graves suggest, I feel my inability to satisfy your expectations, and to render to these dead

that meed of praise their deeds justly entitle them to; but

“* * * the graves, the sky,

The silent poem of eye,

Surpass all the art of speech.”

The peace that today smiles, on all these dead fought for, and the prosperity that clothes

the land they rescued from a rebellious host, speak more eloquently of the magnitude of their

achievements, and that for which they died, than can these poor lips of mine.

“Thou canst not name one tender tie,

But here dissolved, its relicts lie.”

Those who fell at Marathon, more than twenty-three centuries ago, because, on the fate of

that battle depended on whether Greece should live, a glory and a light to all coming time, or

should expire in defeat and be heard of no more, had their names inscribed, by a grateful people,

upon ten pillars erected on the monumental tumulus. For six hundred years their names could be

read. The hand of time and barbaric violence have destroyed those columns, but the universal

remembrance of mankind recollects that the dead, to whom those columns were erected, rolled

back the Persian invasion, and preserved the land of Greece, the center of popular liberty, of art

and literature, from the grasp of the invader. The dead who lie around us, are more worthy of

remembrance than those who fell at Marathon, for they preserved a country of popular and

constitutional liberty, the like of which Greece never knew. A country to which the oppressed of

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all nations were welcomed, and where each could worship God according to the dictates of his

own conscience, and where there was no rank save which man earned by his individual efforts.

The record of illustrious actions is most safely preserved by a deposit in the universal

remembrance of mankind. The mighty pyramid of Egypt, half buried in the sand, stands where it

was built thousands of years ago, but it teaches no lesson, while those who fell at the pass of

Thermopylae, although their names are forgotten, are remember in song and story, and will be,

so long as valor and liberty exist. Wherever freedom and liberty have had an abiding place,

wherever there has been a dream of liberty, orators have been found to repeat the deeds of those

who fell at Marathon, and Thermopylae, as others will repeat and perpetuate the fame of those

who died to preserve the Union. It is because these dead are worthy of remembrance, we are here

today. We are here, to deposit, in the universal remembrance of mankind, a record of that for

which these dead gave up their lives, and thus, to transmit, from one generation to another, why

they should not be forgotten.

We come not here to rejoice or exult over a fallen foe; but to do honor and pay a tribute

of respect to those to whom honor is due. We come not here to weep with the kindred of these

dead, but to pay that respect to them which their deeds have earned. We come not here to extol,

or eulogize their personal valor and bravery, although it is recorded on many a bloody field, but

to tell our children, so they may teach their children’s children, that these dead died for the right,

for God, and their native land. We are not here to bow our heads in grief, or to offer up prayers

for the souls of these dead, for those who die for the right, “have o need of prayer, of sins to be

forgiven.”

No long since, an event convulsed a continent, and challenged the attention of the

civilized world. The crowned heads of monarchies and dynasties watched that conflict with

interest, for to them it seemed that the victory of the one or the other decided the question,

whether this country was a nation, and whether our government had the power, and was strong

enough in the affections of the people, to maintain and perpetuate itself. The civilized world is no

longer in doubt.

The patriotism of those we this day honor, was not confined to, or circumscribed by state

lines. It extended from the savannas of the south to the great lakes of the north. It extended from

where the morning sun first kisses the Bartholdi statue of Liberty, enlightening the world, to the

Golden Gate of California. It was a patriotism that knew no north, no south, no east no west. It

knew but one flag and one country, was that which they inherited from their fathers. The dead

who lie around us recognized no tribal relations. They lived, no in many mansions, but in a

mansion of many rooms. That mansion had but on hearthstone, and but one altar. It was the

homestead of their fathers. In its archives was their family history; the past renown of their

fathers and mothers; the record of their pride, their suffering and their power; the greatness and

glory of their country, and last, but not least, the covenant establishing constitutional liberty. The

scorned the dogma that a state could absolve a citizen of the United States from the allegiance he

owed to the constitution and the union. They knew nothing of sovereign states, nor were the

states the keepers of their conscience. They knew of the government of Washington and Adams;

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of the government of Jefferson and Jackson, but they knew of no other, and did not propose to

have any other, unless it was founded on the consent of the governed.

We stand in the presence of all that is earthly of those who believed, with the

revolutionary fathers, that all just governments derive their powers from the consent of the

governed. We stand amid the graves of men who believed with the revolutionary fathers, that the

constitution of the United States created a government of law, and not of anarchy. Who believed

that instead of creating a destructible government, they had created one that was indestructible.

We stand amid the graves of men who were unwilling to partition, or divide the glories and

memories that clustered around the revolutionary fathers. Amid men who gave up their lives to

prevent the historian from writing that the revolutionary fathers had died in vain, and that self-

government was a failure. Amid men whose forefathers overthrew the doctrine that the

individual was lost in the state, and was voiceless. Amid men, whose fathers reversed that theory

of government that the state was paramount and the citizen incidental.

These are no common dead. They died not in a conflict to maintain family for kingly

alliances. They died, not to sustain the succession of king, prince, or potentate; but for the

preservation of a government, where the law, and not man, was the sovereign power. They died,

not in a conflict instigated by ambition on their part, for political power, or the acquisition of

territory, but in a conflict to maintain jurisdiction over that which they had inherited from their

fathers. They died, not at the instigation of a religious enthusiast, or to gratify the whim or

caprice of a woman, as men have died in all ages and climes, but to strengthen the tenure to

liberty, freedom and self-government. They died, not to preserved a party, or to the end that any

party should have control of the government. They suppressed whatever of partisanship in them,

and planted themselves on the constitution and the union. They went not forth to despoil, but to

reclaim that which had been unlawfully seized. They put not on their armor to destroy the

government, but to preserve it. They went not forth under a new or strange flag, but under that

received from the immortal Washington. I repeat that these are no common dead. Search the

sepulchers of the world and you cannot find their equals. The nation has taken their bodies into

its keeping, to the end that their services may never be forgotton. It has placed them on fame’s

eternal camping ground, where, so long as this government shall last, all who revere and love it,

will annually come, and tell their kith and kin, why and how these dead earned both fame and

immortality.

The love of country is one thing, and the love of government another. The two loves

combined make the perfect citizen. The dead that lie around us were perfect citizens. That which

gave to christianity its heroic form; that which made men suffer and die for it, was an idea—a

holy passion. That which made patriots of these dead, was an idea—a holy passion. That idea—

that passion—was the doctrine of human rights proclaimed in the declaration of independence,

crystalized into national law, by the constitution of the United States.

Patriotism, like the christian religion, is a thing that must be taught. It must have

advocates. It must have shrines. It is necessary to a Republican from of government. The jews

and christians, in this country, live harmoniously together, but neither have abandoned the faith

of their fathers. Suppose each were to say to the other, we will agree not to speak of the past. The

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christian would then cease to speak of christianity, for fear of wounding the sensibilities of the

Jew, and the Jews would cease to speak of their religion for fear of offending the Christian. If

each would keep faith with the other, what would become of christianity and judaism? Both

systems of religion would perish from the earth for want of advocates. What would follow in the

case supposed, would follow in a like agreement not to speak of that for which these dead died.

Patriotism and love of country would soon become extinct. Love of one’s religion cements and

unifies its believers. The want of it throws open the gates of infidelity. Infidelity, in the matter of

patriotism, is a dangerous precedent. It would be a religion without a God, and Liberty without

patriotism. There must be something to love and something to maintain. There would be no

advocates and no shrines. At Inspruck, the other cathedral, the peasant of Tyrol kneels before the

statues of Anderas Hofer, and none forget the day on which he fell within the walls of Mantua, a

martyr to the cause of liberty. His image appears in every house; his victories and virtues are

proclaimed and commemorated in the songs of his people. Wherever freedom and liberty are

revered, Andreas Hofer needs no monument to commemorate his memory. William Tell lives

not alone in the memory of those who live amid the Alps of Switzerland, but wherever liberty

has had an abiding place. There was a time in the history of this country when there was not a

school child in the land that could not recognized the picture of Washington. There was a time in

the history of this country when your school books taught devotion to, and love of the

government.

The revolutionary fathers established the fourth of July. They had the declaration of

independence read annually, and silver tongued orators, and some that were not, told how the

English Barons on the 15th of June, 1215, wrung Magna Charta from old King John. How later

one, the revolutionary fathers wrung from King George the American Magna Charta,--the

declaration of independence—the greatest declaration of human rights ever penned by mortal

man. It was greater than the English charter, for that was only a concession to the aristocratic

barons, leaving the rights of laboring classes as they before existed, while the American charter

proclaimed, “that all men are created equal; that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain

unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure

these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent

of the governed.”

In the struggle in which, and by which, this charter was obtained Massachusetts and

South Carolina, and each of the colonies, vied with each other during the revolution, in a spirit of

emulation and patriotism, and when it was finally established, in rendering homage to the dead

that fell in the conflict and those who survived it.

Patriotism in those days was not marked by state line, by mountain ranges, or the course

of rivers; nor was it marked by latitude or longitude, by climate or soil, but everywhere,

throughout the length and breadth of this broad land, each man claimed to be an American

citizen, and a joint heir in the heritage left by the heroes of 1776. The lips that taught you to

detest Benedict Arnold, taught you to love and revere Washington and the other revolutionary

heroes. When you were told of the hardships the revolutionary fathers endured, of the sacrifices

they made, your love and sympathy went forth, and with the idolatry of a liberty loving people,

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you crowned them with a crown of glory, without asking from what state they came, or where

they were born. No matter where they came from, or what they had been, all that remained of

them belonged to the common union, and their memories were enshrined in the hearts of the

people.

The preservation of the union was due to lessons thus taught. Our school books were

filled with an account of that struggle. Incidents of that struggle were told by aged men and

women, and eager eyed children with open ears heard of the heroism and valor of those who

knew the right, and dared to maintain it. Tales thus told, and children thus reared, drank in, with

their daily growth, a love of country, and a spirit of liberty that saved the nation. That duty which

our parents performed for us, is a duty which we owe to the present generation. It is from us, and

not from those who fought to destroy the government, they should learn what the conflict was

about.

The inculcation of a spirit of patriotism is essential to the preservation and well being of

every government, and the maintainance of which depends, as our does, on the affection of the

people. To love one’s country has ever been deemed honorable, and it is to be hoped that the

time is past, in this country, when it will be cause of offense, to any of its citizens, to

acknowledge the services of these dead, and render them the honor and respect to which they are

entitled. For my part, I know of no reason why the current of our gratitude should be checked, or

why they are not entitled to the universal remembrance of mankind. We have no desire to

perpetuate national hostility, or to cherish a military spirit. We are here for a purer, higher and

nobler purpose. In rendering to these dead what is due them, by a grateful people, we seek no to

give offense to those who were on the other side, in this conflict, or to the memory of those who

died to establish what is now known as the lost cause.

I come not here to stir up strife, hate or animosity. I come not here as a partisan, but as

one who was engaged in the conflict, for maintainance of principle, in which these dead lost their

lives. They died in a struggle to preserve the life of the nation, and while they are strangers to

me, I am not a stranger to their cause. We were brothers in arms. That relation, like a touch of

nature, makes all the world akin. I am here to do that honor to their memory, that they would

have extended to me, had I fallen, and they been spared.

No man has more respect for the man who was a good confederate soldier than I have,

and no man has more contempt for a poor one. The respect that I have for the good one, does not

go to him on account of that which he fought to maintain, but out of the manner in which he

performed the service. To his personal valor and bravery, none will accord greater praise than

myself. Before he became a confederate soldier, he was an American citizen, and he who was

raised an American citizen, needs no eulogy, at the hands of any one, to enable him to enter the

society of the brave. American valor is known among all the nations of the earth. It is written on

its highest hills and lowest valleys. It no more requires a public ceremony to commemorate it,

than the christian religion needs a monument to commemorate its virtues. Mankind are vain, but

they have never yet assembled to commemorate the valor of the dead, unless that for which they

died was to be kept in remembrance. We bear no animosity toward any man who did his duty as

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a confederate soldier. We are willing to concede he thought he was fighting for the right, and that

he was conscientious in thinking so. They who forced Christ to crucifixion were conscientious.

They who crushed liberty, in Poland, did not lack bravery.

All civilized nations do honor to those who have served and died for the state.

Monuments and statues are builded to proclaim their deeds, but monuments and statues crumble

to dust; parchments fade; nations die, and unless the record is kept in the universal remembrance

of mankind, those who come after us will wonder, whence we came, whither we have gone, and

the cause of our extermination.

A quarter of a century has passed since the conflict ended, in which these dead lost their

lives, but that furnishes no reason why these patriots should not receive that meed of respect their

deeds have earned; nor does it furnish a reason why we should not commemorate, and teach our

children to commemorate, the principles and cause in which and for which death claimed them

as its own. We are indebted to men like these for the preservation of the government. To the dead

who lie around us, and to the living who survived the conflict, the people of this nation owe a

debt they can never repay, but we are here to teach our children of this unpaid debt, and annually

pledge them to the payment of a portion of it. Had the cause of the constitution and the union

been lost, and had the cause of secession triumphed, we would not be here today, placing flowers

on their graves, to teach our children that these dead died for the right. When nations do honor to

their dead, it is not so much a tribute to their valor, as it is a lesson for others to emulate, in

upholding that for which they died. We celebrate Washington’s birth-day, not to commemorate

the fact that he was born on the 22d of February, but because on that day the commander of the

army was born, under whose leadership we obtained independence. We clothe the graves of

these dead with flowers, not because they are dead, but because they gave up their lives that the

nation might live.

I have heard it said that the war is over, and that bygones should be bygones. The

revolutionary war is over, but the forefathers and their children did not cease to celebrate the 4th

of July as the natal day of American Independence for fear of giving offense to those who

adhered to King George. The celebration of that day gave no cause of offense to any American

citizen, and our forefathers did not care how much offense it gave to those who were not. These

dead fought to maintain American citizenship, and I am of the opinion that those who preserve

the liberties of a people are entitled to as much consideration as those who established it. If there

be cause of offense in commemorating the deeds of these dead, that offense lies in the fact that

some one has been compelled to be an American citizen against his will.

Our opponents hold re-unions, in which they fight their battles over again. These re-

unions are not held for the purpose of eulogizing the valor and bravery of the survivors, any

more than the ceremonies of this day are to eulogize the valor and bravery of these dead. We

have as much right to commemorate the triumph of that principle for which we fought, as they

have to lament the defeat of theirs. It will be time enough to talk of letting bygones be bygones,

when our adversaries cease relighting the fires on the altars of the lost cause. So long as that is

continued, every man who can claim kindred with these dead; every man who fought in the

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cause in which they fell, and every man, woman and child that believes that our cause was just,

has a duty to perform, and in performing it, it is not we, who are open to the charge of keeping

the issues of the war alive.

The general understanding is, that when parties agree to let bygones be bygones, and

especially where no indemnity is asked or given, that neither party has apologized, and that

neither have acknowledged they were in the wrong. In such cases, the outside world is left in

doubt as to the merits of that which led to the controversy, and to the belief that the parties

themselves had such great doubt in the mater that they were willing to waive the question at

issue, for peace. The cause in which these dead lost their lives was fought to a finish. We did not

waive anything for peace. It was an unconditional surrender of arms, and the flag that

represented the cause.

We stand on the terms of the surrender. We commemorate that which was conceded. If

that gives offense, it is because some one is dissatisfied with the concession then made. We insist

that the questions involved in the war are settled. This cannot lead to discussion, or give offense,

unless some one denies it. He who denies it, is the one who is seeking open the question, and not

those who say it is settled. We say the rebellion is as a sealed book. We insist that the seals shall

not be broken. He who seeks to break the seals; he who seeks to blot out, with another sea of

blood, what is written in that blood, is the man who is attempting to stir up strife, and excite

animosity. Let friends of the lost cause take this class of persons in charge, and repress that

feeling, and it will not long be until every man who is proud of being an American citizen will

join in decorating the graves of those who gave us their lives that such a title to manhood might

remain on this earth.

“Hither unborn descendants of the slain,

Shall throng, as pilgrims, to the holy fame,

While, as they trace each spot, whose records tell,

Where fought their fathers, and prevailed and fell,

Warm in their souls, shall loftiest feelings glow,

Claiming proud kindred with the dust below.”

We are here to do honor to these dead and this cannot be done without speaking of that for which

they died. If we are to canonize and immortalize them, it ought to be for that which they did,

rather than that they did not do. If we are to make heroes of these dead, we must know in what,

and for what, they earned such distinction, and in what, and for what, they crowded the way to

death, as to a festival. They did not rush to death, to fix the status of private or personal property,

but to maintain the supremacy of the constitution and the perpetuity of the union. The issue

tendered in the conflict was government or not government; country or no country; that which

moved these dead was not politics, but patriotism; no policy but principle; not a desire for power,

but to preserve that which we had.