The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1866-07-25

much lmpressiveness in philadelphia, on
which occasion some battle fags were pre-
sented by Gen. Meade to Gov Curtin. The
Governor replied as follows:
GENERAL AND SOLDIERS OF PENNsYLvA-
MA: Soon after the commencement OF the
late rebellion the Cincinnati Society OF Pen
nsylyania presented to the Governor q the
State sum of money, which they asked 10
be used in the equipment of volunteers. The
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
scd directing the Governor to use the money,
and whatever additional sums were necessary,
to procure flags to be carried by Pennsyiya-
MIA regiments during the war. anil with
wise provision that the flags should be re-
turned to the State at the close OF their
service, with proper inscriptions, to be made
archives of the Government. The ceremony
of the return of these flags was delayed until
all the regiments in service from Pennsylya-
MA had been mustered out, and to-day, sur
rounded by your fellow citizens and in the
presence of high officials of the National
Government. 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 embiazoned,
and her motto. g Virtue, Liberty, and hide
pendeace," has been written in letters of fire,
with pens of steel, by the gallant men before
u.s. 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 I consulted my own feelings 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
subIimely attest. The man is to be pitied
| who claims to be citizen of our America,
| especially of Pennsylvania, who has witnessed
| these ceremonies without profound emotion,
| alike of sorrow and exultation-sorrow for
the dead who died for liberty, exultation in
recalling the blessings of God, the laws vim
dicated 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 smomen-
tOus lessons taught by these returned STAN
dards without word In what adequate
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 of reverence
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 cur
highest vencration, it is the private soldier of
the Republic. II we follow him through all
the suffcrings 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 sacrifice to
the Government his fathers gave him and
his children. As the official representative
of the Commonwealth, | 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 exbaustless 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 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
I heroic valor of its children
In the name of Pennsylvania 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,
and planted, at last, upon the SUBMITS of
victory. Surely, State never had nobler
children, nor received at their hands more
precious gifts. What heroisnl, excelling the
fables of romance leading the torlorn hope
charging into the" imminent deadly breach !"
riding into the jaws of death till all the
world wondered y What sutferings of pain
and 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
flags suggest and unfold
The State will guard them reyerently and
lovingly until. in the fullness of time, some
genius will arise to marshal their legions
/ 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 Sum-
ter. when traitors first fired upon the flag of
the Union, and that the volunteers of our
State first reached the national capital, and
Iawere at Appomattox Court House, where
traitors fired their last volley, and inall the
terrible intermediate struggles in every re-
bellious State, in every important battle on
land and water, where treason was to be con-
fronted and rebellion to be conquered, the
soldiers and sailors of Pennsylvania were to
be found confronting the one and conquering
the other-that her people never filtered in
their fidelity tn their distressed Govern