The Ebensburg Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1865-1871, 1866-07-19

wealth. VI eHHsJ JIVdHlaJ 1Of the great
glory you have given to her history. She
fully realizes, and while public virtue re-
mains she will never cease to realize, that
she could better afford to lose the sources
Of her natural wealth, her rich fertile
valleys, her great cities, her e1haustless
minerals, than to lose from her archives
single one of these torn, faded, precious,
consecrated flags of battle and its history,
and of the brave men who suffered and
fought around them. A Commonwealth
may exist without cherishing her material
wealth, but no Commonwealth can worth
lily. or should exist, which does not cher
ish as the joy Of its life, the heroic valor
Of It's children.
In the name Of Pennsylvania I gave you
these standards, fresh and whole, aud
asked you, in all trials, to maintain your
loyalty, and defend them, and to-day you
bring them back to me, torn with rebel
shot, sad with the gloom of some reverses,
bright with the light of many triumphs,
but beyond all, saved by your courage
from dish0nor, Redeemed by the blood Of
your dead brothers, borne over the ridges
of q hundred battles, and planted, at last,
on the SUBMITS of victory. Surely, State
never had nobler children, nor received at
their hands more precious gifts. What
heroism, exoelling the fables of romance :;
leading forlorn hopes charging into the
Imminent deadly breach ;" "riding into
the jaws of death till all the world won
dered ~ what suferings of pain and
hunger, and outrage and death what
ardent love Of home what tender mes
sages to mother, wife. children and be-
trothed maiden what last prayers to God,
do these old and tattered flags suggest and
unfold
The State will guard them reverently
and lovingly Until, in the fullness OF time,
some genius will arise to marshal their
legends into the attractive order of history,
or weave them into the immortal beauty
of poetry, and then, at last, will be found
fit expression for the part Pennsylvania
has acted in the bloody drama. 1t will
then be remembered that our State was
represented at Fort Sumter, when traitors
| first fired upon the flag Of the Union, and
that the volunteers of our State first
reached the National Capital, and were at
Appomattox Court House where traitors
fired their last volley, and in all the ter
rible intermediate struggles iu every re
bellious State, in every important battle
on land and water, where treason was to
| be confronted and rebellion to be conquer
| ed, the soldiers and sailors of Pennsylva-
MIA were to be found confronting the one
and conquering the other-that her peo-
pie never faltered in their fidelity to th ell
distressed Government.
| 1t was in due historic fitness, therefore,
that the wicked struggle to destroy the
! Union, should culminatc upon our soil, It's
topmost wave be dashed against our capi,
tai, and its decisive defeat be suffered
here, and accordingly from Gettysburg
the rebellion staggered backward to its
grave.
Alas how many other graves it filled
before it filled It's own. How many brave
and familiar faces we miss to-day who
helped to bear these colors to the front
and on whose graves are growing the wild
flowers of the Southern land
Our words can no longer reach them
nor our gratitude serve them but we
thank Heaven that those they loved
better than life, are with US; that the
widow of the war, and the orphan chill
dren of the soldiers, are within the reach
of our cherishing care. We must never
forget that every soldier of Pennsylvania
who died that the nation might live
thereby entitled his widow to be Kept from
want, and his fatherless children to fEd ;
father III the Commonwealth.
May the flags which we fold up 81
tenderly, and with such proud recollec
tons, never be urfurled again, at least il
such war; and may all mankind, be
holding the 3urpassing power of this free
government, abandon forever the though
OF it's destruction. Let ua remember, too
that at Gettysburg the blood of the people
of eighteen loyal States rich, precious
blood-mingling together, sank into til,
soil of Pennsylvania, and by that rec
: covenant are we pledged for all time t
Union, to liberty, to nationality, to fra
ternity, to "peace on earth and good vii
towards men"
Now that the war is over, We give peac
to those who gave us war. And in tn
universal freedom, purchased at SO larg
q cost of blood and treasure, We give tru
Justice to all men. Under the benedic
ton of even justice to all, and inyitin!
chem TO obedience to the law, to industr.
and virtue, we offer them the giorles o
the future and the sacred blessings 0
freedom for them and their children
We ask them to forget their malice an
hate, and the counsels of the insane an
wicked men who first led them to strik
at the heart of their country, and to retur
TO q participation in the rich rewards il
store for this the freest and most power
full nation on earth.
But for YOU and your comrades, re5eI