Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-11-20
EXTRACTS FROM THE ADDRESS
Delieeysd on the 18Th of November, at the
Conservation Of the National Cemetery,
on the Battle Ftetd Of Gettysburg.

IA FksONA AEDDNk ESS
Delivered on the 18Th of November, at the
Conservation Of the National Cemetery,
on the Battle Fietd Of Gettysburg.
BY EDWARD EVERETT.
1t was appointed by law in Athens, that the
obsequies Of the citizens who fell in battle
should be performed at the public expense,
and in the most honorable manner. Their
bones were carefully gathered up from the
funeral pyre, where their bodies were con-
sumed, and brought home to the city. There
for three days before the interment they lay
in state, beneath tents of honor, to receive
the votive offerings of friends and relatives
flowers, weapons, precious ornaments, painted
vases (wOnders of art which after two thou.
sand years adorn the museums of modern Eu-
rope the last tributes of surviving atfec-
ton. Ten collins of funereal cypress re-
ceived the honorable deposit one for each of
the tribes Of the city, and an eleventh in mem
DRY of the unrecognzed, but not therefore
unhonored, dead, and of those whose remains
could not be recovered On the fourth day
the mournful procession was formed; moth
ers, wlyeS sisters, daughters, led the way, and
to them it was permitted by the simplicity of
ancient manners to utter aloud their lamenta-
tons for the beloved and the lost; the male
relatives of the deceased followed; citizens
and strangers closed the train. Thus mar
shalled they moved to the place OF interment
In that famous CeramlcuS, the most beautiful
suburb OF Athens, which had been adorned
by Cimon, the son of Mltiades, with walks
and fountains, and columns whose groves
were filled with affairs, shrines, and temples
whose gardens were ever green with streams
from the neighboring hills, and shaded with
the trees sacred to Minerva, and coeyal with
the foundation of the city; whose circuit en-
closed
Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird
THRILLED his thick-warDied note the summer long;'
whose pathways cleaned with the monuments
OF the illustrious dead the work of the most
consummate matters that ever gave life to
marble. There, beneath the overarching
plane trees, upon lofty stage erected for the
purpose, it ordained by law that funeral
Grafton should be pronounced by some citizen
of Athens, in the presence of the assembled
multitude
t3uol. the tokens of respect -lrqui,1t
by law to be paid at Athens, to the memory
of those who had fallen in the cause of their
country. To those alone who fell at Mara
thUn, peculiar honor was reserved. As the
battle fought upon that immortal field was
distinguished from all others in Grecidn his
tory for its influence over the fortunes of
heuds'-ds II ucPeuueu upon the event or
that day, whether Greece should live, glory
and hight to all coming time, or should ex
pire, like the meteor of moment; so the
honors awarded to its martyr-heroes were
such as were bestowed by Athens on no other
occasion They alone IF all her sons were
entombed upon the spot, which they had for
ever rendered famous. Their names were
inscribed upon ten pillars erected upon the
monumental tumulus which covered their
ashes, (where, after six hundred years they
were read by the traveller Pausanias) and
although the columns, beneath the hand of
barbaric violence and time, have long since
disappeared, the venerable mound still marks
the spot where they fought and fell:
"That battle field, where Persia's victim horde,
FIRST bowed beneath the brunt of Hellass sword"
And shall |, felow"citizens, who, after an
interval OF twentythree centuries, Il youthful
pilgrim from a world unknown to ancient
Oreece' nave wandered over that lllustrlous
plaih' ready 10 put OH the shoes from OH my
Ieet' as one tla1 STANDS on molly ground; have
saIeu VIII respectful eihouoh on tle mound,
wlIicl I'm pIo'ect' 'ne remains OF 'hose VINO
lolieu o"G I 1ile .iue Vi AeISiah INVASION, anu
rescued ''ie iaiiu oi popular Aoerty, OF let-
'0l' anu "t'9 ANN 'ii0 4ue'liee9 ioc' st"lu uh-
hlo' GU o'ei '"e ai"'e' VI oui uea' Orethleh'
"Ho out ee'eiuay ~" ',ilee Vi those ail-lul-
poltNh' uays wliicii ueciue d nation history
nu"ys oii "'iose isSue IL uepehueu' "hetner
liiiS august iePpoilcan oiiioii' I"uiiueo ny
Soiiie Vi Tue wiSes' s,"'eSllen tHaI ever h'eo'
Se'heu'eu WIN 'e oio9u u stunt VI tiie pur-
os' p"'' '0'S t'''t' '"ouiu Pelle! UT
- -" 80 NV ""e Vi an ih'"eion'
- no' te'' iuti',eo0' 'ii'n
~ pi''li' ''le u"tN u
x ,3 II ,',in vi 'l1 Aleo eoi1
VI oh ioIp Auu oouiu
Io " soiy u pa
~ uuty anu anee'io"' hot oniy "ouiu YOU
leliow ci'lIenS' se'heleu' many Oh you rom
uiS'an' S.tVcS' @no nav colile 10 take part In
ms Pi4 t1t, oiAogs ol era'i'uue- your re-
who surround me, cry out for shame, but the
forms OF brave ana patriotic men who I'LL
these honoreu graves would heave with in-
dlsnatlon beneath the sod.