The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1888-07-11
Patriotism vs.. Rne,orie.

EBTToz HERALD The Grafton delivered
by George William Curtis, at Gettysburg. On
the 81 OF July. is perhaps as fine piece Of
word painting as any that has been prodEced
on ike OCCASION, bat when we read it
alongside Of the wonls Of Abraham Lincoln,
uttered on the same spot, Al the first deiiea-
ton Of the ground, il sinks into mere rhef-
orical cant.
One not acquainted with the history Of the
civil war, would hardly learn from Mr.. Cur
is address that there was any deeper prin-
ciple involved than contention for the honor
Of victory and that where both sides be-
havrd with so much yalor, the glory Is
equally due to the Blue and the gray. Mr..
Curtis says Il was a war of constitutional
yindicafion en- one side, Of constitutional in
depreciation on the otherT
he does not say that the principle that was
vindicated there, was nothing less than the
equal rights of all men as claimed in the
Declaration of Independence. and the right
of the Government to preserve its own life
nor does he tell Us that the Interpretation Of
the Constitution that failed there, was the
reasonable claim OF right TO rend the ma
ton asunder, and to destroy the constitution
itself
He says that the survivors Of both armies
now meet 10 celebrate a common victory.
What does he mean by common victory
The sentimental gush ofthis Grafton becomes
naaseous when we are reminded that il was
spoken to men who were wearing what were
the badges Of treason and rebellion at the
time when the battle was fought wearing
them not simply as mement0es Of the battle,
bat as expressions OF their devotion to the
lost cause. If this Is not true, what does
Gen. Bradley 7. Johnson mean when he says
that every Confederate soldier carries chain
ed to his heart a casket Of his dead hopes
and aspirations and boasts that Conseier-
ale soldiers control the Government Of the
the United States
George William Curtis poses before the
people Of America, as the representative and
apostle Of a higher and more refined culture
and civilization than has yet reached our
shores Of British snobbery and t0adyism
vulgarity ofthe " rowdy west and he holds I
up the ex-Sheriff of Erie County New York, {
as the ideal American gentleman, afler whom /
xe shall al Jake pattern
He does not very ably support his high /
preiensions in the Gettysburg Grafton, for by I
ignoring the principle At stake in the conflict /
be glorifes the courage itself as the thing to I
be honored and does not recognize that the /
holiness Of the cause defended alone justified (
the shedding Of blood and in proportion as
the cause was sacred on one side. the assail- 1
ing OF it was sacreligious on The other. War I
viewed in any other Light is naught but the /
most wanton and inhuman butchery.
This indiscriminate glorilication of fighting
and It's attendant confounding of the right
with the wrong, is better suited TO Celtic 4
bard. or a Federal troIsbador. than TO the ex-
ponent Of 4 higher civilization
And when we compare the utteEances Of .
this immaculate representative OF English
ideas with the noble. manly words Of that 4
son of the rowdy west, abraham Lin 4
coin spoken from his great, earnest heart,
when the burden Of nations cares rested
heavily upon Il, the rhetorical tourishes Of .
the journalist are as the piping as an oaten 4
reed, heard amid the subsiding echoes sfthe
trumpet that called TO duty, and inspired TO
heroic deed. when the tension and terror Of (
the great struggle was az its height
DR- PEPPEEGRsss