Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1889-10-10
IBRIOlf At GETTYSBURG.
Doaakes Ddmua6o Delivess the Or alton
asA 1andlss Southern outrssss
WitAost Gloves

4
| vernous dedicated Eve memorials today
TIE exercises vefs held st the standard brig
ads 0oaument % Hancock avenue The
| platform vas crowded with distinguished men
| from the Green Mountain State. Among
| them we're Secretary Of War Redfeld Proc
tor, ex-6ovefnoss BArstov and Pingree, Gen.
J. q. McCulloash, Col. Albert Clarke, Gen.
william wells. William Danton.
Ex-Governor T. J. Ormsbee, chairman Of
| the Monument Commission. was president Of
| the day. Prayer by Rev. W. s. Smart, d.
d., Of Albany, N. Y; presentation of the
monuments to the Gettysburg Battlefield
MemoFial Association by Governor William
p. Dillingham;; acceptance on behalf Of the
ssocistion, Director wheeiock g. veasey,
ex chief justice o. Vermont. Uhlt.d Sia,es
Senator G. +. Edmunds delivered an ors,ion.
Senator Edmnnds' Grafton.
Fellow Citizens: To-day, on battlefield
in the great Safe founded by William Penn.
the foremost man Of peace, We dedicate the
monument our small sud distant State, the
child Of war, erecrs to the memory of her
soldiers who shared, scmew hat consplcuousiy,
in the great and decisive battle that in 1868
very near the anniversary Of the founding
of the republic. was fought to victory for
liberty ald law along the nos sunny All silent
wales and hillsides where it stands, among
many similar memorials, pars inter pares.
In the great drama of the worlds progress
scenes and characters change rapidly.
The time is not far past-s mere
span in the history of civilizstion-whenr the
far landscapes we now behold dlied with
homes of an intelligent, free and prosperous
nf t,iI xS
ests, desolate in every hing save the un-
touched exuberance of nature and the pres.
ence of the savage and nomxdic Ildan. A
little later the Anglo Saxon came, and the
forests and the Indian gave way to the slow
advance Of farms and shops, Of churches and
of schools. little later these young socie- |
ties were engaged In = mortal struggle Of
arms to relieve themselves of tyranny and
oppression and to establish for themselves
and their poseeFity forever . government in !
which the security Of private property, per /
sonal liberty and freedom Of thought and I
speech should be tae c jrner stones-a com
monweslth of equal rights in union with other /
commonweaiths. and a union Of the people Of
all in nation. All these transactions were .
though rapid when seen in he perspective of |
history, slow. painful and costly In detail;
the hardships Of immigration and pioneer
life. the dangers and disasters from hostile
savsges, the jealousies aud feuds Of personal
ambition and discomfort touched some here,
almost daily the life of the colonial period;
the struggles of inexperienced. i'll clothed and .
ill-fed and poorly armed soldiers, made still
more difficult BY the want of real unity and
confidence between the ne born States of |
the confederation. characterized the war Pc
riod Of the revolutions aud the reformation
of the government. when independence of
the British crown had been achieved, into
government of the people as we'll as of the
States, with the adj ustment of boundaries,
debts and taxation. mark d the period of the
early years of our established republic ~
one of the most critical that had yet appeared
in the history of the continent. At last
The Hopes Of Patriots
began to be re 4lized, and the several States
Z the perfected Union entered upon a
career of development and prosperity in the
proportion-and no other-to the funda-
mental principles and practice upon which
the State governments were founded and
carried on The States in which equal laws
were equally administered for the preserva-
ton of the Just liberties and equal rights of
the people far outstripped those in which
slavery was feature of the social and politi-
cal system in every element and step Of civil
lied progress. The inevitable rumina-
ton Of these politically connected but hostile
social systems came in the rebellion of 1861.
1t Iaste long enough, under the providence
of God, to enable the friends of liberty for all
the human race to eradicate by just and law
full meaIs the crime and curse OF slavery from
its place-secure before-in the governmental
systems of all the States that still continued
it, and to put all the people of all the
States upon the common footing of equal civil
and political rights. Thencef forth there must
be in law. and might and ought to be in prac-
tice, one people, and union OF States whose
laws in respect of intrinsic human rights,
which our declaration of independence as
serted, we're every where alike. The immedi-
ate origin of the rebellion is familiar to US all.
The slsveholding States repudisted the con-
fessedly fair and constitutional election of a
President who believed in liberty for all, and
who, ii was certain. would not promote the
int rests of slave system, or defend them
beyond such clear line Of duty Is the consti
tuition imposed upon him. On this ground,
and this alone. the rebellion-uf der the false
name Of secession, which President Jackson
had oblterated 80 years before-was inaugu-
rated and carried on. It was unique. be-
lieve such rebellion was without precedent
or parallel in any country at any time, In the
abundance of struggles against the constituted
authority of states and kings. am sure none
can be found 10 which the effort was to over
throw government devoted to lawful liberty
and to build one whose chief er-stone
and whose sole reason TO be wa> the preser-
vation and maintenance of human bondage
1t was to defend and maintain the national
government against such an assault that our
citizen soliers-as we'll as the brave and
patriotic of other States--left their avoca-
tions of peace in farm and shop and store
in school and Office and pulpit, and came to
gave their lives to a Cause that can never
become unworthy or obsolete, and won
wreath Of honor that can never fade.
Bnt even now. after quarter of a century,
il is apparent that the full and final benefit
and bene icence the great sacrifice is not |
yet reached In many of the old slave hold
ing commo nweal'hs there has existed. AMI !
continues to be m, thodically practised. a sys- |
tematzed repression of the liberated race |
and of those white citizens who defend its
rights of free speech and lawful voting, and |
which not only robs the citizens Of all other |
States Of the full weight Of their Just and
lawful influence in the
Legislatfon Of the Coz ntry,
but which. in its various forms of fraud |
tyranny, violence and cruelty, sets at naught !
those essential principles of social order and |
morality. without the practice of which no
free and Christian eociety can exist. These |
things affect the welfare and the true life of |
every part Of the republic; and il is the duty |
of every citizen Of whatever race, creed or |