Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1866-10-04
RUTLAND HERALD.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 90, 1865.
President Lincoln and President
Johnson.

The copperhead organs throughout
the country claim that Andrew Johnson, |
in his policy OF reconstruction, is follow
ing in the footsteps of the martyred
Liuco} n, and that were that illustrious
Statesman alive. at the present day he
would stand upon precisely the same
grounds as does the accidental President
with regard to the Southern States.
These men apparently forget the speech
of Mr.. Lincoln at the dedication of the
National Cemetery at Gettysburg, when,
after gazing solemnly about him at the
long rows of soldiers graves, he stretch
ed out his brawny arm and said:
"Four score and seven years ago our
fathers brought forth upon this CONT
nent a new nation, conceived IN liberty and
dedicated to the propositions that all men are
created equal. Now we are engaged in a
great civil war, testing whether that ma
ton, or any nation so conceived or dedi-
Gated, can long endure. We are met on
a great battle field OF that war. We are
met to dedicate portion of it as the
final resting place of those who here
gave their lives that that nation might
live. 1t is altogether fitting and proper
that we should do this. But in a large
sense we cannot consecrate, we cannot
hallow this ground. The brave men
living and dead who struggled here,
have consecrated it far above our power
to add or detract. The world will little
note nor long remember what we say
here, but it can never forget what they
did here. 1t is for US, the living, rather
to be dedicated to the unfinished work
that they have thus far so nobly carried
on. 1t is rather for US here to be dedi-
Gated to the great task remaining before
us-that from these honored dead art take
increased der0ti0n to the cause for Chtch they
here care tie last full measure Of deyOtt0N-
THAT WE HERE RESOLVE THAT THE DEAD
SHALL NOT HAVE DIED IN VAIN-thGt the
nation shall, 'O1der God, HAVE A NEW BIRTH
OF FREEDOM, and that the government Of the
people, By the people, and for the people, shall
not perish from the earth."
Has Andrew Johnson fulfilled this
sublime pledge? Where is the 'increas-
ed devotion to the cause for which they
(the. Union dead) gave the last full
measure OF devotion :" What has be-
come of the "high resolve that the dead
shall not have died in vain?" Where is
the sign OF q new birth Of freedom so
solemnly pledged on that occasion by the
great martyr? That pledge, coming as
it did from the author of the emancipa-
ton proclamation, was promise or
something more than had yet been &C
complished-a pledge of still further adj
vance in the roads of progress, liberty
andhuman rights. 1t was solemn
compact entered into with the dead and
the living actors in that struggle to
complete to its fullest extent the great
work OF freedom so well begun by him.
Has Andrew Johnson carried out this
promise? Has he progressed in the path
pointed out as the future course of his
predecessor? MOI He not only stopped
short where he found the work upon his
accession toEthe Presidential chair, but
even instituted retrograde movement
so that at the present day he has vlrtu'
ally gone as far back to the old order o.
things as they existed before the rebel
lion as be dare. He is fighting desper
ately against "a government Of the PEG
pie, by the people and for the people, an(
IN favor OF the old system OF govern
ment of only a portion of the people, b!
one class OF the people, to the detrl
ment and degradation of the other.