The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1865-07-14
EXECUTIVE MANSION,

Executive MANSION,
WASHINGTON, D. C. July 8, 1865. :
Mr.. David Wills, Chsirmaa, &C., d., Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania:
DEAR SIR had promised myself the
pleasure of participating in person in the pro-
ceedings at Gettysburg Tomorrow.
That pleasure, owing to my indisposition,
am reluctantly compelled to forego.
should have been pleased, standing on that
twice consecrated spot, to share with you
your joy at the return of peace, to greet with
you the surviving heroes of the war who come
back with light hearts, though heavy laden
with honors, and with you to drop grateful
tears to the memory of those that will never
return.
Unable to do so in person. / can only send
you my greetings, and assure you of my full
sympathy with the purpose and spirit of your
exercises to- morrow.
OF all the anniversaries of the Declaration
of independence, none has been more impor-
tant and significant than that upon which you
assemble.
Four years of struggle for our nation life
have been crowned with success, armed trea-
son is swept from the land, our ports are
opened, our relations wirh other nations are
of the most satisfactory character, our inter
nal commerce is free. our soldiers and sailors
resume the peaceful pursuits of civil life, our
flag floats in every breeze, and the only bar
rier to our national progress-human slavery
is forever at an end.
Let us trust that each recurring Fourth OF
July shall find our nation stronger in numbers.
stronger in wealth; stronger in the harmony
of its citizens; stronger in its devotion to ma
tionality and freedom.
As have often said / believe that God
sent this people on mission among the ma
tons of the earth, and that. when He found
ed our nation, He founded it in perpetuity
That faith sustained me through the struggle
that is past. 1t sustains me now that new du-
ties are devolved upon me- and new dangers
threaten u.s. feel that, whatever the means
He uses, the Almighty is determined to pre-
serve us as people.
And since | have seen the love our fellow
citizens bear their country, and the sacrifices
they have made for it, my abiding faith has
become stronger than ever that govern
ment of the people is the strongest as well
as the best of governments.
In your JOY morrow | trust you viii not
forget the thousands of whites as well as
blacks whom the war has emancipated. who
will hail this Fourth of July with delight
which no previous anniversary of the Declara
ton of Independence ever gave them. Con
trolled so long by ambitious, selfish leaders
who used them for their own unworthy ends
they are now free to serve and cherish the
Government against whose life they. in their
blindness, struck. ] am greatly mistaken. if
in the States lately in rebellion, we do not
henceiorward have an.cxhibition of such low
atty and patriotism was never seen nor felt
there before Where YOU have consecrated
National Cemetery you are TO lay the terner-
stone of National Monument. which. in all
human probability, will rise to the full height
and proportion you design. Noble as this
monument of stone may be, ii will he but a
faint symbol of the grand monument. which.
if We do our duty. we shall raise among the
nations of the earth, npon the foundation laid
nine and eighty years ago in Philadelphia
lime shall wear away and crumble this mon
ument. but that. based as il is. upon the con.
sent, virtue, patriotism, and intelligence Of
the people. each year shall make frmer and
more imposing.
our friend and fellow citizen,
ASnRF,w .fpuySay