The Portland daily press., 1889-10-04


1t was something like this, 1 think, which
characterized our motive, which made us
strong to fight the bitter fight to the victor.
ious end. and made US unrevengeful and
magnanimous in that victory.
We lifted our souls above the things which
even the Declaration of Independence pro-
nounees the inalienable rights of human ma
ture for the securing of which governments
are Instituted among men; Happiness, lib
erty, life, we laid on the altar OF offering, or
committed to the fury of the powers of de-
struction, while our minds were lifted up to a
great thought, and our hearts swelled to its
measure. We were beckoned on by the
vision of the coming years; we re
cognized the great calling and conservation
OF this people, the sacred trusts committed
ment OF man, the power of high aims and of
strong purpose, the continuity of great en-
deavor; the onward, upward path of history,
to God. Every man felt that he gave him.
self to and belonged to something which
could not die.
But l said 1t was question of politics. Ev-
erybody knows that do not mean by this,
that it was party question, as to what par
tlcularl set OF persons or policies should con.
troll the government. And when l say that
It was political question, this is not saying
that 1t was not also moral question. For /
do not think that ethics and politics are SC
utterly removed from each. other as some
with such strange violence insist. Politics
L believe. is the sphere of action in which a
people takes upon itself an order for right
living, and to secure the noblest ends of liv-
ing attainable through association.
Tnis Is an order which takes cogniZance of
rights and of rightneSs. and of q nOblenes s
which has an ideal type.
The question before us was question of
politics, as to the nature and place of the
1t was, too, a question of fact, for the thing
sought was the real and existing sovereignty
and not new sovereignty to be
found or formed. But there was true
and false about this contention for fact, and
hence there was right and wrong about 1t.
We were not trying to force a new thing
upon the people of this country; we were
trying to find and maintain the true thing.
1t is the States united which make our
country. The States disunited are no coun-
try. The States, claiming right or license to
fly asunder and antagonize each other, are
the denial. of country. In such conception
there can be no people, but only States.
The Vice President of the Confederacy
writes book upon what he calls, "The War
Between the States" He mistakes the
no war between the States. 1t was war in
which certain States, having in fact no
sovereignty except as they were participants
of it in the union of the States, but assert
ing sovereignty of their own, each by each,
as supreme, undertook tc defy and destroy
of the United States, in which in trulh their
own very sovereignty inhered, To that alb
surd pass did that theory come. 1t was in
truth war Of States against the people or
with equal truth, a suicide of States.
On the other hand, we are not people in
mass, like the French or even the English
people, who live under one central govern
ment, which reaches down through depart
ments, districts, counties, cities and
b0roughs, and brings the citizen directly. for
IAfN
power. Far beyond and far different from
theirs Is our application Of the principle of
local self government; and in our adherence
to this principle IN practice the perpetuity
of our free institutions, and the prosperity
and glory of this people depends.
When the martyr President, standing on
this very spot at the dedication of this cem-
etery, uttered the noble climax of that i'm
mortal speech, ''We were highly resolved
that the government of the people, by the
people, and for the people, shall not perish
from the earth," he meant such people as
have described. Surely he did not m can in
this sublime utterance to justify the rule of
mere mob majority, nor to furnish watch
word for revolutionists like those who, a
century ago, drowned France in her own
miters of today, who, in the name of the
people, would give loose rein to every mans
caprice, or greed, or frenZed passion.
tie meant government; he meant people
holding their liberty under law; exercising
their sovereignty by deliberation and delega-
tion; and not in the tumult of mOmentary
majority, Swayed by shifting emotions. He
meant a people like :ourS, protecting its mi
norities. checking its own caprice and facili-
ty OF change. RELOCATING great questions to
its sober second thought, and guided ever by
the consciousness of great trusts aud the
vision of a supreme end.
Part and parcel of this political being of
the people is this State Of ours. As such,
she stood on these hills and slopes genera
tion ago, of the foremost of the peoples de-
tenders. Whether on the first, the second,
or the third days battle; whether on the
right, caught and cut to pieces by the great
shears blades of two suddenly enclosing hos
tile columns; on the left, rolled back by a
cyclone OF unappeasable assault; or. on the
CENTRE dashed upon Ia an agony of despera-
tion, terrible, sublime; wherever there was
front, the guns of Maine thundered and
her colors stood, And when the long, dense
surgng fight was over, and the men who
made and marked the line of honor were
buried where they fell, the name of Maine
ran along these crests and banks, from
Culp's Hill and the Cemetery, along the
Seminary Ridge, down through the Peach
Orchard, the Wheat Field, to the Devils
Den and the Round Top Crags-a blazony of
ennObled blood.
Now you haya gathered these bodies here
You can honor their memory by marking
their names with headstones, and yelling
their dust with flowers But you can
not bury them here-you cannot remove
them from thu grouu1 they held. There
they will remain, part Of the earth the J
be-.
No chemistry Of frost or rain. no overlay
ing mould of the seasons recurrent life and
death, can ever separate from the soil OF
these consecrated fields the life-blo0d SO
deeply commingled and incorporate here. Il
shall come forth in verdure ever new under
the rolling suns.
Life-blood. indeed it is, everything. life,
giving, life. And reverent men and women
from afar, and generations that know moi
us, and that we know not of, shall come to
this deathless field to muse and dream, while
the evening glow tinges these crests with
unearthly light, and will feel thrill OF
stronger heartbeat, when the life outpoured
here shall rise and mingle with, and deepen
the sunset glory. aud they feel its power
pass into their own.
This is to live again in the life of others
and this is Immortality.
Rev. Theodore Gerrish of the Goth Maine
Regiment offered prayer, after which Gen
Charles Hamln of Bangor, assistant adju
tant general of the second division, thirt
corps and inspector of artillery, as chairman
of the executive committee of the Maine
Gettysburg commission made the following
address presenting the monuments to the
Governor of the State OF Maine.
General Aamiin's Address.
1t was beautiful and solemn thought t.
| dedicate the fulness OF this October day tx
| the memory of our fallen comrades Tn,
rich fruitage of the harvest month Is sug
| gestve OF the qnequaled blessings we enjo.
| through united government in whose de
| fence they gave their liyes' supreme sacri
| fee.
The place, too, reminds us that il
| repelling the invaders of Northern homes
supported from the soil of the Keyston
State, it was fitting that the soldier from tn
far east coast-the Pine Tree State-shoul
be found here in the trembling and perilou
balance, OF the historic and decisive battle o
gettysburg. defending liberty and Union
We claim no monopoly of the glory won here
but it is with justlfable pride, as we scan th
line occupied by the living arch throughou
the long three days contest, we note tn
pivotal points made memorable by the pres
ence and conspicuous. valor of Main
e soldiers; ;roDt From and right cen,rs to lsf' #
the land IS enriched BJ their blood Semir
airy heights, Emmitsburg road, Peach Or
chard, Wheat Field, DEVILS Den, the Roun
Tops, Cemetery Ridge, Zregler's Grove
Stev 5ns's Knoll, Culps's Hill, Hanover :an
Low Dutch Gapsroads, IL they could speal
ell would attest their bravery.
A palriotiS and generous people hay
caused these monuments, made from the er
during granite of our hills to be- erected t
the memory of their brave sons who fe
here. The liberality of the appropriation
by the State is derorous response to the d.