The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1869-07-09
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Gettysburg.
Six years ago the soldiers of tht
Union, on the nights of Gettysburg
beat off the Confederate host, in it.
last desperate effort to invade til,
n ortb, and won the critical victor,
OF the war. Yesterday the survi
vors of the desperate struggle, will
thousands of the grateful people WHIT
recognize in that heroic battle th'
triumph OF American liberty, met tt
dedicate a monument to the mel
whose blood purchased our victor,
the heroes whose names will liv,
for generations in the pages of ou
history, and the nine hundred undis
tinguished dead whose memories ar,
cherished only by the tears of tn
widow and the fatherless. No go
lemnity can be too impressive to befi
this anniversary. AT Gettysburg VI
fought for nothing less than oul
country's existence. Had the gallan
dead whose graves we have just hon
ored wavered in their patriotic devo
tion, the Union would have beer
irremediably destroyed, and oul
future history record of continua
subdivision and secession. Freedom
OverthrOwn in America, would have
felt the disaster in every country o.
the world. So. for many year tC
come, we trust the first days of this
month, which witnessed the begin
ming of American Independence, and
its final trirmph after eighty seven
years trial, will be piously remem
bered wherever political freedom is
appreciated.
1t will be long, however, before
July recurs without bringing back
the remembrance of those few elo.
quent words which Abraham Lincoln
spoke on this historic field only 8
few months after the battle, and
which orator and poet alike accept
ed yesterday as their text ard inspi.
ration:
1--WE cannot consecrate, we can
not hallow this ground. The brave
men living aud dead who struggled
here have cOnsecrated it far above
our power to add or detract. 1t is
for us, the living, rather to be dedi-
Gated here to the unfinished work
that they have thus far so nobly
carried on. 1t is rather for us to be
here dedicated to the great task re-
naming before us-that from these
honored dead we take increased de
votion TO the cause for which they
here gave the last full measure of
devotion that we here highly re-
solve that the dead shall not have
died in vain, that the nation shall,
under God, have new birth of free
dom, and that the government of tho
people, by the people, and for the
people, shall not perish from the
earth.'
Thank God we have thus far been
faithful to this high resolve. Thou
sands more were to fall for 1t upon
the field; Lincoln was to give his
life for it.; the nation was to fight
and struggle for it with open enemies
and false friends: but the new free
dom has steadily advanced; and the
dead so far have not died in vain.
"Having chosen our course, with
out guile and with pure purpose, let
US renew our trust in God, and go
forward without fear and with man
ly hearts"
There is something yet to do, and
from celebrations like that of yes
terday we may gather courage for
the onward march and resolution to
take no step backwards. From the
lowly graves, too, of the Confederate
dead. who sleep in the valley before
our lines, victims OF an honest faith
in a bad cause, shall there not come
up on our anniversaries of mingled
sadness and triumph, a reminder of
that Christian counsel which bids us
pursue our healing and restoring
work with malice towards none, with
charity for all, until at no distant
lay "the mystic chords of memory,
from every hattie field
and patriot grave to every living
heart and hearthstOne all over this
broad land, shall swell the chorus of
he Union, when again touched, as
surely they will be, by the better an
gels of our nature. ~. Y. Tribune