Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1863-11-26
THE CEREMONIES AT GETTYS.
BURG.
Conservation OF the Cemetery.


etery at Gettysburg. on Thursday last,
was an in posing and very impressive
affair. The town was crowded on the
previous evening, and the tired multi
tudes were obliged to sleep in the church.
es and III the parlors of the citizens
every available resting place being occu-
pied.
The special train conveying the Pres.
idcnt and his company. including Sec
rctaties Seward, Blair, and Usher, of
the Cabinet the French and Italian
Ministers, apd other guests, reached
there about half past six o'clock in the
evening. The president was greeted at
the depot with much eDthuiasm by a
large gathering of citizens, who followed
him to his lodgings at the residence of
David Wills, Esq, where soon after his
asrval he was serenadcd by the Band of
the Fifth New York Artillery, in res
Ponse to which the President spoke as
follows:
Il appear before you, fellow citizens,
merely to thank you for this compliment
The inference is a very fair one that
you would hear me for little while at
least, were to commence to make
speech. But do not appear before
you for the purpose of doing so, nd for
several very substantial reasons. The
most substantial of these is that | have
no speech to make. Laughter. 1t is
somewhat important in my position that
one should not say any foolish things if
he can help it, and it very often happens
that the only way to help it is to say
nothing at all. Renewed laughter.
Believing that that is my precise position
this evening, | must beg of you to excuse
me from saying one word"
The Presidents appearance was en-
Enthusiastically greeted, at the close of his
brief address he retired amid general and
prolonged applause.
speech of NEr. Seward.
After serenading the President, the
band proceeded to the residence of Mr.
Harper, adjoining, where Secretary
Seward was stopping, and serenaded him
also.
Mr.. Seward acknowledged the COM
pliment by making brief speech, as
follows:
''Fellow.c citizens: l am now sixty
years old and upwards. I have been
in public life, practically. forty years of
that time, and yet this is the first time
that ever any people or community so
near to the border of Maryland was
found willing to listen to my voice.
And the reason was that saw, forty
years ago, opening before this people
graveyard that was to be filled with
brothers falling in mutual political COM
bat. knew that the cause that was
hurrying the Union into that dreadful
strife was slavery, and when elevated
my Voice, it was to warn the people to
remove that cause while they could by
constitutional means, aud so avert the
catastrophe of civil war which has fallen
upon the nation.
| am thankful that you are willing to
hear me at last. | thank my God that
| believe this strife is going to end in
the removal of that evil which Dug hit to
have been removed by peaceful means
and deliberate counseis Applause
l thank my God for the hope that his
is the last fraternal war which will fall
upon the country that has been vouch-
sate1 to US by Heaven-the richest, the
brightest, the most beautiful, the most
magnificent, the most capable of glo-
rious destiny OF any country that God
has ever given to human race aud that
when that cause is removed, simply by
pcrlshiDg as the cause and the agent of
a treason that is without justification
aud without parallel thenceforth we
shall Indeed be Il Union -one country,
having only one hope, one ambition, and
one destiny. Applause.
Then, to morrow, if we have not
known it before. we shall know that we
are not enemies, but that We are friends
ami brothers; that this Union is real-
ty, for 1t Is one common country; and we
shall mourn. | am sure with equal sin
cerity, over the grave of the misguided
insurgent whom we have consigned to
his last resting place, and pity him with
the same heartfelt grief that we mourn
over the brother by whose hand. raised
in defence of the Cover ment to which
W" "ii o"c aiicSlabtc, tHa1 ulsS uiueu
brother fell
And when we part tomorrow night,
let US remember that we owe it to cur
country, that we owe it to mankind, that
this war shall have a triumphant conclu
sion in the establishment of den ocratic
Government upon the simple principle
that whatever party or portion of the
nation shall prevail in our election that
party shall be respected and maintained
in power until it shall give place, upon
another trial, and after another verdict,
to a different party Of a different portion
of the people Applause Without
that let me tell you that you are drifting
at once and irresistibly, to the very
verge of the destruction of all govern
ment. With that principle this Gov
! crnment of ours will be the best, the
first, and the happiest in the world, and
may be, and, so far as We are concerned
will be, immortal. Cheers Fellow
citizens, good night.
Mr.. Seward was warmly applauded a,
|, the conclusion of his address,