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Show HELENA. MONT. 9 - Comer Stone of Meagher Monument Placed in Position. ; Many citizens of .Montana, including jvpr-M;titatives from every quarter of the sua.!.-, gathered rs t the siate eapii il Thursday, Oct. fi, n1 follow.-,! wijjj eacer interest trie cete monies in idiw to the hiving ,,f the corner stone of :h : : m 'l ument that, fs to be erected to tn,-! tn,-! , 1 memory of Genera! Thomas Francis Measher. former governor of Montana, and known throughout 1 he ftatc as a bravo soldier. nJ a:i orator who:-, ;. power to sway his hea'-ors was mar-; mar-; j veious. The monument is to stand in tiie t walk leading from Sixth avenue to liu tn.v'n eruranee to Lh cajdtol. and hete the exercises were held, being opened vith a brief address by James H. Lynch of Butte, president of tnc ileaxher Memorial association. L Major Ma: tin Maginnis followed with ait eloquent tribute to General Meagh-j Meagh-j 3n opening he said it was emi- 1 nentiy proper that this assemblage should gather at the capiiol of the state to do honor to the memory of Gen-ra! Meagher by placing the corner cor-ner stone of the first' monument erected there to the memory-of the first officer of (he territory who lost his life while in the performance, of his duty to the j commonwealth in protecting the pio- f peers from the Indians. "Tiie advent of so celebrated a , character as General Meagher into the then unknown- territory was to the larger portion of the world the first notjlication of its existence," Major Maginnis continued. "'When the sun of this orator. poet, statesman and soldier sang from the firmament of its ! glories under the shadow of our mountains, moun-tains, the eyes of an admiring and sorrowing sor-rowing world were turned upon the place where it went down in the west. Thus the passing of Meagher marked the advent of Montana, and he rendered ren-dered it a service even in his death. "General Meagher first entered upon fiie fields of renown in the Irish revolution revo-lution of 1S4K. He immediately renounced re-nounced fortune and very promising I; hopes of a settled and prosperous, and t even famous, career to throw himself into the cause of his country and into the great liberal movement of the time. Amohff a band of as gifted and I . eloquent men. of poets, write its nd ' orators, notwithstanding Uis . lie J - became one of the leaders. His ai 1 dresses were models of burning elo- qtience, framed in the most chaste and I classic sentences. They were puo- li-hed all over Europe and America. a'i'l one. the apotheosis of the sword I as the winner and defender of libcrtj, j , ,..-T is yet .retained 1:1 the literature of cve'rv nation in the world. "Fpon the failure of the movement, he was arrested. convicted ' and sentenced sen-tenced to death, and his speech in the dock became a companion to the immortal im-mortal utterance of Bonert Emmet. Fnder the storm of universal protest' the sentence was-mitigated to banishment, banish-ment, and he was exiled to the under side of the world, and many a lonely night looked on the stars of the Southern South-ern Cross from between his prison ba.s and from the lonesome wastes of Van Diemen's Band. jjc. eseaped by a most hazardous and daring attempt, which seems like the realization of romance. His welcome wel-come in New York was most universal and enthusiastic. The sympathies . i j our people were then poing out to K. ssuth. 10 Poland, to Greece and to the Italian patriots who were endeavoring endeav-oring to break the shackles or Austrian Aus-trian d-espntism. The young orator furnished new fuel to the rising thune.; I of--liberty, and the attra'ction of his personality and the evidence of h:.-genitts h:.-genitts made him the idol of the duo.-, and coteries and literary c ircles of the metropolis. For. while he never reg- -Ularly followed the literary life, he w,s a natural born prince in the l--ii,g.oii of letters. Poems, descriptive article.-, -s.--ays and arguments flowed from hi-, graceful and versatile pen and wore carelessly thrown to the world, like the gifts of gods or rich men who do not tare for any record of their beneficences. bene-ficences. He played at his Will on alt t the sources of emotion -and all the chords of human nature vibrated ni his skillful touch. He' was' the charm--ing center of every gathering, with wonderful romance and readiness, rind a most graceful, correct and classica. diction. The voices of the blessed would cease their harmony to listen to his soulful accents. In the War. Tor the Unicn. " "Then came the great 'war for ' the Fnion. Many of his countrymen took part on either side. It is the misfortune misfor-tune of those who have no sovereignty or country of their own that they muM fight in every man's cause and .wa;te on alien battlefields their unavailing valor. Their country can only mouir. over a universal battlefield, and has only the consolation that the valor and prowess and fidelity of her sons- rt-flected rt-flected a sad glory on her' history. "Meagher realized, however, that especially es-pecially to men of his race the destitution destitu-tion of the Fnion would be the crown of all misfortune. If this ark of human hu-man hope, launched by the fathers upon the sea of liberty, were to go down, where would be the land of refuge that would receive the wreckage of. Ireland's desolated shores, as wel; as that of all the nations who .looked at this star of hope? That' -would be 'he greatest calamity that could befali humanity, and he threw himself, with all the enthusiasm and ardor of his disposition, into the struggle to save the Fnited States. ' "He joined a three months' regiment. the Sixty-ninth. It is remarkable that there are two men here. Major "Wallace find myself, who saw, that regiment go into action at Bull Hun on the.:Mth of July, 1SG1. Then he organized the brigade bri-gade and named it after the Second army corps. The w hite trefoil of that -greatest corps of all our armies, in J numbers and service, 'was 'conceived by Meagher, and waved. in glory over the men of Sumner, Sedgw ick. "Warner and Hancock. My. own regiment, was of. this command, and I saw the brigade-go brigade-go into action at Faif Oaks,. White Oak swamp, that desperate charge at. An-tietam An-tietam , and the still .more.. desperate. ' charge across the slippery plain and ; the sunken canal. f where the men car- 1 riedthe famous ' evergreen """sprigs in their . hats up to the foot of the stone wall and held that line for. three days,, until' the enemy was withdrawn. This is the notion that was chosen, for this monument the general leading that historic charge up these slopes of Fredericksburg, where the-briga.de was so nearly annihilated - that it hardly afterward recovered its 'strength and force. "Then, moved by the spirit of adven- ture. he accepted this office in the west: He engaged to write also for the New. York papers and magazines. The beautiful beau-tiful description of, these; mountains and their scenery can yet be found in those magazines, but have never been gathered. An Indian war was waging. He was active in organizing the defense de-fense of the frontier. He .went to Fort Benton to receive a boatload of arms, and in the darkness of the night fed off the narrow deck, which had no guard rail, and was lost to his peopie and tn the world. ' "As his compatriot has no epitaph, so Meagher has no grave. The mighty Missouri enwraps him f rover in her golden sands, and as J her waves roll down the sea forever murmurs over him her lullaby and requiem. "The old pioneers and the thousands of his admirers have organized to erect Montana's first monument to Montana's Mon-tana's first martyr. Here, before our newly erected capitol. his effigy shall arise. In days 1o come these grounds will be filled with the molds of "men who served the state iiv her heroic days, to stand until the end of time, to show that Montana - will ever remember re-member those lofty spirits who gave their lives to her service or who died In her defense." Governor Leslie's Tribute. Former Governor Preston H. Leslie was next introduced and stood with bared head while the workmen were placing the copper box beneath the corner cor-ner stone, covering it with cement and lowering the great stone to its position. Placing his hands upon the stone, the venerable man whose part in the life of Montana has been such as to endear him to all the people of the state, said it was an honor to him to participate in the exercises. "While General Meagher had passed away, he said.:hts life and his deeds would live forever in the minds of the people of the stale. "It is my privilege and honor." Governor Gov-ernor Bo'slie said, "for me. as his successor, suc-cessor, to lay my hands upon the.-; corner stone to the lasting memory Of a great name." -; George Irvin of Butte, prominent, among the pioneers of Montana, followed fol-lowed with a brief tribute to General i Meagher, in which he dwelt upon his j services 10 the territory. "I had," Air. Irvin said, "the honor of his acquaintance. acquaint-ance. He was an honorable man, an I he helped the community in the eariy days. He performed his duties faithfully faith-fully and well. He was a patriot, fmi of humor, magnanimity and. patho.- . ,nd altogether a man with whom it was a great privilege to have had personal per-sonal accuaintance." Former Senator Thomas H. Carter was then called, upon to preside over the exercises, having been named . as' one of the committeemen, with Joan T. Murphv and R. C. Wallace, to raise ?2.f00 of the fund in Lewis and Clarke county. |
