The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-07-21
~ EIoanant speech.

much 1mpressiyeness in Phliaueipia, oh
which occasion some battlesfags were pre-
sented by Gen. Meade to Gov. Curtin. Inc
Governor replied as follows
nrnrpA1 AND SOLDIERS OF PENNsYLvA-
VIA. Soon after the commencement OF tue
late rebellion the Cincinnati Society OF rem
nsylyania presented to the Governor OF the
State sum of money, which they asked 10
he used in the equipment of volunteers. Inc
sum was too small to be of material service
in that respect, and the subject having been
presented to the Legislature, an ACT was pas
sed directing the Governor to use the money!
and whatever additional sums were necessary,
to procure flags to be carried by Pennsyiva-
MIA regiments during the war, and with
wise provision that the flags should ne re-
turned to the State at the close OF their
service with proper inscriptions, to be madc
archives of the Government. The ceremony
of the return of these flags was delayed until
nil the regiments in service from PennsylVa-
MA had been mustered out, and To-Day, sur
rounded by your tellow-citlzens and IN the
presence of high officials OF the National
Goyernment, of Governors and officials OF
sister States, of distinguished soldiers of
other States, and of the army andnavy OF the
United States, and the representatives, OF the
government of this Commonwealth, more
than two hundred of these emblems OF our
country's nationality, all of which have
waved amid the rapture of strife, all OF which
have been carried by Pennsylvanians, are re-
turned untarnished. In their azure fields the
arms of Pennsylvania have been emblazoned,
and her motto, =" Tirtue. Liberty, and lhde-
gendence," has been written in letters OF hre,
with pens of steel, by the gallant men before
us, and their comrades, living and dead,
upon every battlefield of the war. The
record is glorious, in memories of the past
and in hopes of the future.
If consulted my own feelings l would re-
ceive these flags in silence, for this occasion
is its own most eloquent orator. My words
cannot add to its sublimity. Human lips
cannot express such lessons of patriotism, OF
sacrifice and heroism as these sacred relics
sublimely attest. The man is 10 be pltled
who claims to be citizen of our America,
especially of Pennsylvania, who has witnessed
these ceremonies without profound emotion.
alike of sorrow and eNultation-sorruw for
the dead who died for liberty. .eNultation in
recalling the blessings of God, the laws vim
dictated and enforced by the suppression and
punishment of treason, the Government pro-
tected and maintained, until the last armed
rebel was beaten down, and the redeemed
Republic emerged from the smoke OF battle.
1t might be better to accept the monlen-
tous lessons taught by these returned STAN
language can we address you, soldiers of the
Republic, who live to take part in this cere-
mony? We have no words to convey the
holy sentiment of veneration and ofreverence
for the heroic dead that swells up from every
heart in your presence.
To the men who carried the steel. the mus
ket and the sabre-to the private soldier, to
the unknown dead-the demi-gods of the
war. we this day seek in vain to express all
our gratitude. If there be men more distin-
guished than others, more entitled to our
highest veneration, it is the private soldier of
the Republic. If we follow him through all
the sufferings and privations of the service,
his long, weary marches, his perils on the
outpoSts, his wounds and sickness, even in
the article of death, we trace him back to
that sentiment of devotion to his country
that led him to separate from home and its
ties, and to offer even his life a sacrifice to
the Government his fathers gave him and
his children. As the official representative
of the Commonwealth, 1 cannot take back
the remnants of the colors she committed to
your keeping without attempting to gather
into my arms the full measure of her over
flowing gratitude and lay it at your feet. 1
therefore present you with the thanks of
your cherished mother, this ancient and
goodly Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, for
the great glory you have given to her history.
She fully realizes, and while public virtue
remains 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 exhaustless minerals,
than to lose from her archives single one of
these torn, faded, precious, consecrated flags
of battle and it's history, and of the brave
men who suffered and fought around them
A Commonwealth may exist without cherish |
ing her material wealth, but no Common
wealth can worthily, or should exist, which !
does not cherish as the Joy of its life the |
heroic valor of its children
In the name of Pennsylvania I gave you |
these standards, fresh and whole, and asked !
you, IN all trials, to maintain your loyalty, !
and defend them, and to-day you bring them |
back to Inc, torn with rebel shot, and with |
the gloom of some reverses, bright with the
light of many triumphs, but, beyond all, |
saved by your courage from dishoncr, red
dened by the blood of your dead brothers,
borne over the ridges of hundred battles.
aud planted, at last, upon the SUBMITS of |
victory. Surely, State never had nobIer
children, nor received at their hands more
precious gifts. What heroism, excelling the
tables OF romance; leading the forlorn hope
charging into the imminent deadly breach -
riding into the jaws of death tin all the
world wondered ~ What sufferings of pain
md hunger, and outrage and death; what
ardent love of country; what purest love of
home; what tender messages to mother wife.
children, and betrothed maiden; what last
prayers to God, do these old and tattered
1ags suggest and unfold
The State will guard them reverentlv and
ovlngly until, in the fullness of time. some
genius will arise to marshal their legions
INTO the attractive order of history, or weave
hem into the immortal beauty of poetry.
md then, at last, will be found fit expression
or the part Pennsylvania has acted in the
bloody drama. 1t will then be remembered
hat our State was represented at Fort Sum-
er when traitors first fired upon the flag of
he Union, and that the volunteers of our
State first reached the national capital, and
we're at Appomattox Courthouse, where
raltors fired their last volley, and in all the
errible intermediate struggles in every re-
'elllous State, in every important battle on
and and water, where treason was to be con-
ronted and rebellion to be conquered. the
soldiers and sailors of Pennsylvania were to
De found confronting the one and couuuerino
The other-that her people never faltered in
heir fidelity to their distressed Govern
nent.
1t was in due historic fitness, therefore.
mat = the wicked struggle to destroy the Union