Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-07-04
Yesterdays Eeents at Gettysburg
Splendid Grafton

each other in battle array. The Federals
and Confederates were once more on the
HEsld. ana again was one of them on Semi
nary Ridge and another on Cemetery Hill.
Nothing unusual occurred to break the
monotony unfit o'clock, when the Unions
ana Cohieoerates met once more at almost
ihe same hour at which they had Joined in
deadly conflict twenty five years ago.
MONUMENTS DEDICATED.
The monuments which were dedicated
/ to-day were as follows: The Fifth New
sixth New York Infantry o. Garnarard |
Tigers Sixty seventh New York, First
Long Island Volunteers land known as
beecher's Regiment), at which Rev. Tbos
X. Beeoher, OF Eimira, n Y, delivered an
oralicn; Third New York independent
battery. with Msjar-General w. s. Rose
Grams as orator Battery B, New York Ar
ll!iery, and the Thirteenth New York Inde-
pendent Battery. Signal Corps.
The Association of the Army of the Po-
tomac held meeting here to-day. They
determined 10 erect an imposing tablet on
Little Round TOP. commemorative of the
WoIk Gone oy this branch OF the army in
the battle. They also elected General Jesse
Merrill President, and decided TO hold their
annual reunion at the time and place
where the National Encampment Of the
Grand Army OF the Republic takes place |
a GEoRGIAN's OPINION OF THE REUNION.
General J. L. Gorau, of Georgia. was
compelled by his official position as Chief !
Executive to leave for Atlanta. To an Aa- |
sociated Press representative, in answer 10 |
I, question as to what Was his opinion of |
the reunion, he said
" This meeting was 4 great success. and /
L these reunions of soldiers occurred !
yearly II would serve to cement the friendly |
feeling of the blue and the gray more !
closely, and 10 bind the North and South !
50 dinily together that there would be no /
North and no South, but this country |
linked together by chains of indissoluble |
friendship"
EXERCIsEs OF THE DAY.
AT O'Clock a procession, composed of
| the same military commands as Yesterday. |
entered the National Cemetery and marched |
/ past the rostrum.
AT the conclusion OF the parade tieneral |
Robinson, OF New York, as presiding Of |
ticer. requested Rev Twitchell, of Hartford, |
Conn, 10 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 |
Lathrop, was unable to be present, but part |
OF his poem was read by General FL. c. |
King, Secretary of the Society of the Army
OF the Potomac, and was received BY the
| audience with much applause. When the |
Orator, George William Curtis, was pre-,
| sented, three cheers were called for by Cen
eral Sharpe, and he was greeted with
hearty applause.
CURTIS GRAND ogATIoN.
Eloquence was in every line of Mr.. Cpr
IS Grafton. He began with these words:
| Upon this field, consecrated by American
Ealor we meet to consecrate ourselves to the |
American Union. In this haliowed ground lie |
buried not only brave soldiers of the blue and |
the gray, but the passions of the war the ieal- !
ols OF sections and the bitter root of ali our |
national ditlerences-human slavery. Here long |
and angry controversies of political dogma of !
msteli ial Interests and of moral pride ana tradi
ton came to decisive struggle. As the fate of |
Christendom Was det ru1in at Tours, that of |
American Independence at Saratoga, and that |
! OF pol on at Naterloo the destiny of the |
| American Union was decided at Gettysburg. A |
nun red other famous fields there are of the !
same Amer lean bravery in the same tremeu dOus |
strife-felds whose proud and terrible tale his |
tory and song will never tire of telling put it
Is here that the struggle touched its highest |
point here broke the fiery crest of the invad- |
ing wave of war From this field the civil CON !
| test, through renowned campaigns ofcourageous |
endurance, OF fearful carnage aud of accumu- |
latng hear-breass for kosthern and Southern |
homes, slowly recedcd towards its end THIS |
therefore is one of the historical Fl Ids of the |
| world, and to us Americans no other has an !
n,
7 Worcester and Nalmy, even our own Bunker |
Hill and Saratoga, old Yorktown-felds of un-
dying tame-have not for significance so |
vital and so benefcent as this field of Gettvs |
burg. But that
THE GLORY OF THIS DAY
And of America, and of human nature may be |
ful. II is the veterans and survivors of the |
armies whose tremendous conflict Interpreted |
field OF battle and upon lis twenty fifth anui-
versary, clasp friendly hands of sympathy to |
salute common vict,r This is spectacle !
without precedent in history No field of the |
cloth OF gold nor of grounded arms no splen- |
did scene of the royal adjustment of copquests; |
the diplomatic settlement of treaties, nor the |
Papal lncltcment of the crusades rival in |
moral grandeur and significance this simple |
pageant
Probably the most effective passage in |
the address was the speakers magnificent |
description Of the battle. Said he
The sun of Gettysburg rose on the |
already advancing in line of battle, the army |
of the blue still Fastening eagerly forward and /
converging to this point. The glory of mid sum
mer filled this landscape as If nature had arrayed
fitting scene for transcendent event once |
more the unquailing lines, so long arrayed /
against each other, stood lace to face. Once |
more the ineXpressible emotion IN ngled of !
yearning, the memory OF fond affection of dread |
forebodings, of high hope of patri tic enthu- |
sasm. and of stern resov swept for moment |
over thousands { brave hearts and the next !
instant the overwhelming storm of battle burst |
For three long, proud, immortal days it ragged |
and swaycd-dritting from Seminary Hill far |
around to VOLTS Hill and Culp's Hill-then !
sweeping back with desperate fury striking the |
Peach Orchard and oashing with a fash and |
roar upon the little Round Top, and raging in |
Devils Den: the earth trembling, the air ouiy- |
ering and the rafting volley and laundering
cannOnade piliug the ground with mangled and |
bleeding blue and gray, the old and the young, |
but always and everywhere the devoted and the /
brave. Doubtful the battle hung and paused
Then n formidable bolt of war was forged /
or, on yo1ader ,. thiekly wooded hight, and
roar of fire against the foe. 1t was q living bo t.
and sped as If resisless. 1t reat he'd and touched
the flaming line of embauled blue. 1t pierced |
the line for one brief moment in the sharp |
agony of mortal strife. 1t held its own. It 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, |
tumuitous struggle brave men dashed headlong |
against men as brave: aud the next moment |
that awful bolt of daring courage was melted !
In the fervent heat of an equal valor, and the |
battle of Gettysburg fought.
Patriotism feeds upon local traditions, his |
torlc events and the memories of famous men. |
but miscellaneous multitude, sprung of many /
nations, without a comm heart to vibrate in |
stinctively to common memories and associa- |
tions, would lack tnat sup, eme patriotism which |
IS the moral defense of nat o.. Let us beware
then, how we recklessly water our lifebl cd. |
Webster said at Bunker Hill, Just as the vast |
immigration was beginning; I'VE are placed |
at the head of representative and po, ular gov
ernnent We shall be recreant to the duty OF |
that headship If we permit the fundamental !
conditions OF national repose of the security of
personal rights, OF goud laws and Just admins |
tration, to be imperilled by the ignorant, law
less, idle and dangerous overflow of all |
other countries. We are the occupants and |
guardians of this country, and with |
kindly heart and hospitable hand
! towards all the world. we must prescribe III
couditions upon which the world shall come
he e. If America is to remain the head of &c
government and the hope of liberty in the
world, our first duty is to remember that con-
stitutional liberty has its own laws and condi-
tions, and that only by respe ting and enfor ing
them eau liberty feE ourselves and for all men
| be preserved.
| If the spirit os this day and of this field
! should become ihe spirit of oGr politics, and
then, by the x of Ciod-as the essential rea-
son OF sectionaiism disappeared with the war
Its disappearance in TACT, in feeling, and in po-
liticel acton, would be the cFowniDg glory of
! Gettysburg.
Akin 20 this is the problem of the relation OF
the outrage subject to constitutional guararl-
| tee OF a republican form of government, and of
! no discrimination against race or color. The
regulation of the suffrage i, wisely left to lna
states, but the action of every ; ate upon sub
jects of a common interest necessarily affects
the Union. The suffrage Is the manspr,ng the
Fzna rE