Wichita eagle., 1888-07-04

practically decide the issue of the war. TIL,
last sun of June sinking behind the west
ern mountains saw your force concentrat
ing yonder to the northwest, perilousl,
near to this little town and tranquil.
awaiting the dawn of day of anticipated
victory. Meanwhile, soldiers of the blue
long-tried, untiring and undismayed
marching farther to the east and covering
the capital, you moved northward or
various lines, uncertain of the point WHERE
battle would be offered, but pressing
steadily under burning sun, looking fol
the foe. undisturbed although upon you
march your commanding general wa;
| changed, still pushing on toward the spot
which sheltered hitherto in happy Sc
curity, was about to be baptized with fire
| and blood into fame as wide aud lasting
as that of ThermopylB, and Blenheim
and Bunker Hill.
The sun of Gettysburg rose on the frs,
of July and saw the army of the gray al
ready advancing in line of battle; the army
of the blue still fastening eagerly forward
and converglng to this point. The glory
of midsummer filed this landscape
as if nature had arrayed fitting
scene for a transcendent event. Once
more the unquailing lines so long arrayed
against each other stood face to face.
Once more the ineXpressible emotion min.
gled OF yearning memory, of fond affec-
ton, of dread forebod;ng, of high hope, of
| patriotic enthusiasm, and of stern resolve.
| swept for a moment over thousands OF
brave hearts, and the next instant the
overwhelming storm of battle burst. Fol-
| three long, proud, immortal days it ragged
and swayed, drifting from Seminary hill
far round to VOLTS hill and Culp's hill,
| then sweeping back with desperate fury,
striking the Peach Orchard and dashing
| with flash and roar upon Little Round
Top and Round Top, raging in DEVILS
Den, the earth trembling. the air CULVER
ing, the sky ohscured: with shouting
charge, and rafting volley, and thunder
ing cannonade, piling the GROUND with
mangled and bleeding blue and gray, the
old, the young, but always and every
where the devoted and the brave. Doubt
full the battle hung and paused. Then a
formidable bolt Of war was forged upon
yonder wooded height and launched with
whitening blasts and roar of fire against
the foe 1t was living bolt and sped as
if resistless. 1t reached and touched
the flaming line of the embat-
tied blue. It pierced the line.
For one brief moment in the sharp agony
of mortal strife it held its own. 1t was the
supreme moment of the peril of the union.
1t was the heroic crisis of the war; But
the fiery force was spent. In one last, wild,
tumultuous struggle brave men dashed
headlong against brave men as brave, and
the next moment that awful bolt of dar
ing courage was melted in the fervent heat
of an equal yalor, and the battle of Gettys-
burg was fought.
If the rising sun of the 4th of July, 1868,
looked upon a sad and unwonted scene,
desolate battle field, upon which the COM
batants upon either side had been Ameri
can citizens, yet those combatants could
they have seen Alright would haye hailed
that day as more glorious than ever before.
For as the children of Isreal beheld Moses
descending amid the clouds and thunder
of the sacred mount bearing the divinely
illuminated law, so far from that smoking
and lood-drenched field on which all hope
of future union might seem to have perish
ed utterly, they would have seen more
perfect union rising, with the
constitution at last immutably in
tepreted and they would have
heard before they were uttered by human
lips, the words of which Gettysburg is the
immortal pledge to mankind, government
of the people, by the people, for the peo-
pie, shall not perish from the earth.
The sun that set on Gettysburg had not
seen, indeed, the end of the war. The
army that withdrew from the field main
tanned from that day war of defence. but
with skill, a courage, and a persistence,
which, although they could not summons
en- either side Drawer men than fought at
Gettysburg, called large armies to the
field and demanded still greater sacrifice
The actual issue was long delayed. But
not one army alone determined the result,
it was the cooperation Of the East and the
West which at length prevailed. Here at
Gettysburg Meade and his iliustrious lieu
tenants had written their names in, our
history. With other fields the famous
captains of the last great chief Of the war
have identified their rcnown;
Sherman who has outllved
all foes and calls every true-hearted
American his friend the silent, noble,
generous Thomas: Sheridan, our romantic
Murat, our chivalric Rupert, whose laurels
DRY Of the bravest of the brave; and
great multitude O. gallant officers worthy
to rank with these and to lead men as
dauntlesS as those they fought But by
happy providence it was decreed that the
leader of all these leaders should be
patriot with whom, at the head of mil
lion of victorious soldiers, American lib
erty was as secure as it was with Wash
jngton, whose magnanimity was worthy
of his country, who, dying, knew no sec
ton and no fee, and by whose bier, fore
casting the happy day that we behold,
walked, mourning and honoring, The
lieutenantS of Lee, his Old foeman in the
field. Night people not justly consider
itself the favorite of heaven which, led by
Washington to independence. then torn by
angry domestic strife, should find itself
brought to perfect and enduring peace,
with malice toward none. with charity for
all, by the patriotism of Lincoln and the
magnanimity of Grant?
Fellow Americans. IN telling any part of
the story of America we seem to boast.
The simple statement of the truth sounds
like fairy tale. Yet could the citizen of
any country eXalt his land with more
reason than we? What other civilized
state stretches from ocean to ocean with
such unchallenged continental dominion,
with such a varied realm of natural gran
deur and beauty, with so vast a popula-
ton, so free, SO intelligent, so industrious,
SO cOntented? In older countries, in the
soft air of the STORED past, amid accumu-
lated riches of art and literature and long
and romantic legend, the finest flower OF
civilization may seem to bloom. But if
civilization mean human welfare, the hap
plness of the individual man, fairer OBJ
portunity a nobler ideal, a more equally
diffused well-being. then this very year.
America, whose true significance is fair
play for all men, is the century plant of
civilization, covered with the opening
blossoms of greater general welfare than
history records.
Even the civil war but quickened and
deepened our prosperous activities
Like spring-toucbed mountains of snow
melting quietly into the earth, moistening
and fructifying the seed eager for the har-
vest, so those mighty armies of the blue
and gray marshalled for the warfare of
generation, ii such had been decreed,
swiftly and noislessly disappeared. and all
that military energy and discipline and
skill, streaming into a thousand Industries
are as beneficent in peace as.they were ter
rible in war. What prouder spectacle is
there for America, what vision could more
worthily stimulate devout gratitude in