St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-07-04
ON SACRED GROUND.
Federal and Ex-Confederate
FraterniZe on the Field
of Gettysburg.
There Broke the Fiery Crest
of the Wave Of Civil
War,
And the Destiny Of the Amer
lean Union Was
Decided.
Eloquent George William Cur
tbs Delivers the Ami
versary Address.

GETTYSBURG, Pa, July S.-This
morning was very quiet, nothing STIR
ring, and all seemed to be holding them
selves in readiness for the exercises of
the afternoon. With the exception of
the drum corps of the various G. A. K.
posts no musical organizations were Wis
ible. The veterans mostly stayed out
all night, and devoted the morning to
sleep. The government troops re-
manned in their camp, and the sleepy
soldiers crawled out slowly when the
reveille sounded as the sun showed it.
self above Seminary hill. There was a
strange similarity between this day and
that of just twenty-five years ago. Then
the armies of Meade and Lee confronted
each other. So to-day the Federals and
Confederates were once more Oh the
field, and again was the one on Semi
nary ridge and the other on Cemetery
hill. Nothing unusual occurred to
break the monotony until o'clock,
when the Unions and Confederates met
once more at almost the same hour at
which they had
JOINED IN DEADLY COMBAT
twenty-five years ago. The monuments
which were dedicated to-day are as fol-
lows: The Fifth New York cavalry,
the One Hundred and Forty-Sixth New
York infantry, c'Garrard Tigers;'0 the
SiXty-Seventh New York; First Long
Island volunteers, known as "Beecher'S
regiment" at which Rev. Thomas K.
Beecher, of Elmira, n. Y, delivered the
Grafton; the Third New York independ-
ent battery, with Maj. Gen. w. S. Rose
Grams as orator; Battery b. New York
artillery, and the Thirteenth New York
independent battery.
The Signal Corps Association of the
Army of the Potomac held meeting
here to-day. They determined to erect
an imposing tablet on Little Round
Top, commemorative of the work done
by this branch of the army in the battle.
They also elected Gen. Jesse Merrill
president, and decided to hold their an
nual reunions at the time and place
where the national encampment of the
Grand Army of the Republic takes
place.
Gen. j. B. Gordon, of Georgia, was
compelled by his official position as
chief executive to leave for Atlanta this
afternoon. In answer to the question
what was his opinion OF the reunion, he
said: ''ThiS meeting was great sue
cess, and if these meetings between the
soldiers could occur yearly it would
serve to
CEMENT THE FRIENDLY FEELING
of the Blue and Grey more closely and
to bind the North and South so firmly
that there would be no North and no
South, but one country linked together
by the chains of indisSoluble friend
ship" AT 8 o'clock the procession,
composed of the same military COM
mands as yesterday, entered the Ma
tional cemetery and marched past the
rOstrum. AT the conclusion of the pa
rade. Gen. Robinson, of New York, as
Twitchell, of Hartford, Conn.,. to open
the exercises with prayer. The prayer
was listened to with uncovered heads,
and when, in concluding, he began the
Lords Prayer the crowd joined in. The
poet of the occasion, George Parsons
Iathrop. was unable to be present, but
part of his poem was read by Gen. Ho-
ratio G. King, the secretary of the So
ciety of the Army of the Potomac, and
was received by the audience with
much applause. When the orator,
George William Curtis, was presented
the three cheers were called for by Gen.
Sharpe, and he was greeted with hearty
applause. He said: son this field we
conSecrate ourselves to American union.
In this hallOWed ground lie buried not
only brave soldiers of the blue and grey,
but the passions of war, the jealouSieS
of sections and the bitter root of all our
national differences-human slavery.
AS the fate of ChrStendOm was deter
mined at Tours, that of American indie
pendence at Saratoga, and that of mod
ern Europe at Waterloo, the destiny of
the American Union was decided at
Gettysburg. Fellow Americans, in tell
ing any part of the story of America we
seem to boast. The simple statement
OF the truth
SOUNDS LIKE A FAIRY TALE.
Yet could the citizens of any country
eXalt this land with more reason than
we? What other civilized state stretches
from ocean to ocean with such I'M
challenged continental dominion, with
such varied realm of natural grandeur
and beauty, with so vast population
so free, so intelligent, so industrious, sc
cOntented?
Not easily nor rapidly can the pas.
sions spring from bitter local differ.
ences and cherished and strengthened
for generation disappear. Often in
hot and reckless prOteStatiOnS those
dying emotions will break forth like the
distant muttering thunder of a retiring
storm. But the central fact is as bright
as fixed star. The line across the
Union drawn by the flaming sword OF
hostile social and industrial institutions
and irTeconcilable theories of the nature
and powers of the government itself
this latent revolution and naScent civil
war have disappeared for ever. At the
end of 100 years the Union is the sacred
seamless garment of equal rights, OF
harmonious institutions, of accordant
views of the government, in which Co..
100000 of people in thirty-eight states
are inimically arrayed. The suffrage is
the handspring, the heart of our com
mon life, and whatever affects it III
juriously touches the national sense
rum, and the whole country thrills
No community politically founded upor
the legal equality of the suffrage can
habitually disregard that equality with
out moral deterioration, growing in diff
ference to the authority to the law, anC
destruction of the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
can principle. If ignorance and semi
barbarOus dominance be fatal to civil
lied committees, not less SO is constant
and
DELIBERATE DEFIANCE OF LAW.
In a national union of states where
fair elections are assumed, systematic
fraud or violence or suppression OF
votes, in the event of closely contested
poll, would inevitably destroy the con
viction that the apparent result repre-
scented the actual will of the legal voters
and that result would be challenged
amid disorder. 1t is not enough that {
national election be fair: it must be the
national conviction that it is fair. The