The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1888-09-06

ILucius Bigelow In Portland oregonian'l

President Cleveland could not lind
time to attend the Gettysburg reunion
even as he could not find time to at
tend the exercises Of Memorial Day
last year.
Abraham Lincoln found time to at
tend the dedication of Gettysburg
cemetery November 10, 1868, when
he was carrying the load of at least
as weighty responsibilities as those
under which the democratic political
prize-ox is staggering to-day. When
Lincoln found time to go to Gettys-
burg he was carrying the burden of
the great defeat of Chickamsuga and
was strainng every nerve to repair it
by victory and to rescue Burnside
then beleaguered at Knoxville, Tenn.
Lincoln was so busy during mis- term
of office that he never found time to
90 fishing in the Adirondack woods
as did Cleveland, bat he found time
to vis., Gettysburg, Cleveland found
time to write a long letter of congrat-
ulation to the Calhoun and Albert
Sidney Johnston Monument associa-
tons he found time to swing around
the circle of the South last October
from Memphis to Richmond; he
found time to write a partisan letter
to promote the election of the demo-
cratic municipal ticket in New York
last November; he has found time to
strangle civil service reform; he has
found time to organize aid use the
patronage of his administration to Sc
cure his denomination for President
he has found time to turn thousands
of crippled soldiers out of office !;
found time to veto bills passed for
the relief of Union soldiers; found
time to attempt to return to the South
the captured rebel flags; has found
time to search out by sense of smell
every northern copperhead of distinct
ion and present him with federal
office, sending the most conspicuous
to represent the American flag in the
great courts of Europe. He has
found time to magnify the Importance
of those before and behind the army
who forced the loyal States to redden
the slopes of Gettysburg with the
best blood of their loyal sons; but he
could not find time to visit Gettys-
burg as a Union soldier in the first
week of July, 1868, and he cannot
find time to visit it the first week of
July 1868, and he cannot find time to
visit it the first week of July, 1888.
When urged to fight for the Union
during the war che had no time !"
when urged to speak for the Union
he chad no time" when asked to
vote for the Union he chad no time )"
when asked to write word for the
Union, he groups Calhoun, Sidney
Johnston, Lee, Sedgwick and Gar
field together as all equally worthy
and patriotic men and to-day he min
ities Gettysburg las ''an interesting
occasion" which suggests to him no
more impressive lesson than that
"bravery is next of kin to magnanim-
| ity." Cleveland is very careful not
to say that Gettysburg stands for the
precious blood of patriots poured out
for the flag by its loyal sons he sees
nothing in Gettysburg but a lesson
in valor and soldiership. He has
never written line concerning the
war for the Union that implied that
ne felt any more sympathy for its
purpose than he feels to-day for the
wars of the Roses between York and
Lancaster, the war of the Spanish
Succession, or some other equally
senseless conflict where men of equal
valor died to vindicate the caprice of
kings, and where the fuss and feath-
ers of rival courts, of the pride of
princes was the only principle invol-
we'd.
Gettysburg to Cleveland is an his
torlc memory, not patriotic pride.
1t is an event, not the inspiration of
enthusiasm a gallant feat of arms
merely, not a tremendous shock of
battle, where the Union bayonets
were the ideas, clad in steel, that
shored up and saved the State. For
this reason Gettysburg is to Cleve-
land nothing but bloody battle that
stands for bravery. A battle between
two robber clans, wrestle between
two pirate ships, has witnessed as
much bravery on both sides as Gettys-
burg, and that is all Cleveland can
see in Gettysburg, just as Sedgwick
and Garfield speak no more to him
OF true patriotism and loyalty than do
Johnstan and Calhoun. Like the
pumpkin in Southey's verses on
"Blenhelm' he can only say it was
brave battle, ga famous victory" of
whose right or wrong ne has nothing
to say.
1t is reported on observation-disclosures
that during the war, when Buffalo