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SOLDIERS AND SAILORS' MONUMENT. 5
Now that we are to extend a welcome to the 1st Michigan, or all that is left of them, is it not meet to take some steps for duly honoring the "unreturning brave?"
The men who fell at Manassas were not mercenary soldiers. They did not enlist for the eleven dollars a mouth and board. They were animated by the loftiest patriotism, and if Thermopylae had its monument with the inscription,
" Go, stranger, and at Lacedsemon tell That here obedient to her laws we fell. "
How much more shall our slain be honored. The Spartans fought to prevent invasion and consequent subjugation. Our men fought not for any such purpose, but for the triumph of constitutional liberty. Their homes and all their selfish interests were safe. They fought the battle for humanity, for the world, for posterity. It strikes me that the least we can do is to perpetuate the memory of their sacrifice.
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