The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1863-12-01

Tuesday Morning, December !, 1868.


The telegraph has given brief notice OF
speech made at Gettysburg the evening be-
fore the dedication of the National Cemetery
by Secretary Seward,in response to a serenade.
A full report of his interesting remarks on
the occasion has since come to hand. which
We append:
FELLOW CITIZENS Il am now sixty years
old and upward. 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 l saw, forty years ago,
opening before this people graveyard that
was to be filled with brothers falling in mutual
combat knew that the cause that was hur-
rying the Union into that dreadful st.iie was
slavery, and when / elevated my voice il was
TO warn the people TO remove that cause while
they could by constitutional means, and so
avert the catastrophe of civil war which has
fallen upon the nation.
am thankful that you are willing to hear
me at last. l thank my God that believe
this strife is going to end in the removal of
that evil which ought to have been removed
by peaceful means and deliberate counsels.
tApplause.1 thank my God for the hope
tllat this Is the last ftaternal war which will
lall upon the country that has been vouchsaicd
to us by Heayen-the richest, the brightest
the most beautiful, the most magnificent the
most capable OF a glorious destiny of any
country that God has ever given TO any hu-
man race; and that when that cause is re-
moved, simply by perishing as the cause and
the agent OF treason that is without justiti-
cation and without parallel, thenceforth we
shall indeed be Union--one country. having
only one hope, one ambition, and Que destiny.
lApplause.)
Inen, Tomorrow, IL We have not known ii
before, we shall know that we are not enemies,
but that we are friends and brothers: that
this Union is reality, for II is one common
country; and we shall mourn, am sure. with
equal sincerity, over the grave of the mis-
guided insurgent whom we have consIgnc1
10 his last resting place, and pity him with the
same sincerity and the same heartfelt grief
that We mourn over the brother by whose
hand, raised in defense Of the Government to
which we all owe allegiance, that misguided
brother fell.
And when We part tomorrow night, let us
remember that we owe ii to our country, that
we owe it TO mankind, that this war shalt have
triumphant conclusion in the establishment
OF democratic Government upon the simple
principle that whatever party or portion of
the nation shall prevail in our election, that
party shall be respected aud maintained in
power until it shall give place, upon another
trial, and after another verdict to different
party of a different portion OF the people
tApplause.l Without that let me tell you
that you are drifting, at once aud irresistibly
to the very verge of the destruction of all
government. With that principle this gov
eminent 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.
tCheers.l Fellow-citizens, good night