The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1894-09-06
The oettysburs Annivers,arv.

The Gettysburg Anniversary.
The battle of Gettysburg was fought
July 3 and 8, 1858. The day previous
there had been fighting along the roads
leading to Gettysburg, and the fight real
ly covered the first three days of July.
July 4 Vicksburg fell, SO that the first
four days of July, 1868, are the most
memorable during the progress Of the
civil war. In the east Lee had gath
cred the whole strength Of his army,
100, 900 strong. It was the finest army
the Confederacy had ever brought to-
gether, and Lee hurled it against the
Army Of the Potomac and broke it. In
like manner tho Confederate power in
the southwest was massed at Vicksburg.
On the battlefield at Gettysburg ora
lions as eloquent as any delivered by
Patrick Henry have been uttered. The
first were heard when, Nov. 10, 1858, the
blood soaked ground was dedicated as
national cemetery by Edward Everett
and President Lincoln. Less famous
speeches, though more eloquent than
Everett's, were made in 1887, "a years
after the fight, when the blue and the
gray held their first reunion together.
On the very ground where the Union
cannon, loaded with pebbles, bayonet
points and fragments Of shell, had pour
ed death into the faces of Pickett's men,
Confederate and Union soldier walked
arm in arm and recalled the incidents
of the Bloody Angle.
After the Confederate General Armi-
stead was killed in Pickett's charge,
Colonel William B. Aylett succeeded
him as brigade commander and led the
men till the charge failed. At the first
reunion of the blue and gray in 1857
Colonel Aylett responded to Pennsyl-
vania's welcome to the Confederates in
speech whose eloquence has been rarely
eaualed. In it these words occurred:
We have come forth from the baptism of
blood and fire in which we were consumed as
the representatives Of a new south, and we
have. long years ago, ceased to bear in our
hearts any residuum Of the feelings born of
the conflict. Did an unmanly feeling hnger in
our bosoms we would not be here today to
grasp the hands of those who have met US with
a brothers. greeting and brothers love.
Above the ashes left by the war and over the
tomb of secession and African slavery We have
created q new empire and have built 2 temple
to American liberty in which you and can
worship together, and over 1t we have run up
tho star spangled banner, and we cling to 1t
with all that ancient love which should ever
dwell In tho hearts Of the men and women
from the lands Of George Washington and
William Penn. 5t#
Last year, 1898, occurred tho thirtieth
anniversary of the battle which was the
turning point of the civil war. General
Daniel E. Sickles and the governors of
New York and Pennsylvania took part
in the exercises, and other eloquent ora
lions were spoken. General Henry w.
Slocum was there, too, among the most
honored of the visitors, in full health
and happy spirits. But before another
Gettysburg anniversary rounded the
turn of the year he was buried with q
soldiers funeral. .
And yet of all the words Of eloquence
uttered on tho battlefield of Gettysburg
perhaps only two short paragraphs. will
live as long as the English language is
spoken. They are the sentences which
fell from the lips of Lincoln, Nov, 10,
1868. They cannot be recalled too
often. Gray haired Americans in all
time will read them with tears upon
their cheeks. Bright eyed, eager boys
and girls, while their hearts thrill with
pride and love of country-as long as
the republic lasts-will recite the words:
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers
brought forth upon this continent . new ma
ton, conceived Ia liberty and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, test
ing whether that nation or any nation, so con-
ceived and SO dedicated, can long endure. We
are met on great battlefield Of that war: We
have come to dedicate q portion of that fold as
q final resting place for those who here gave
their lives that the nation might live. It IL al
together fitting and proper that we should do
this. But in a large sense we cannot dedicate,
we cannot consecrate. we cannot hallow this
grolnd. The brave men, living and dead, who
struggled here have consecrated 1t far above
our power to add or detract. =
The world will little note nor long remem-
Der what we say here, but it can never forget
what they did here. 1t is for us, the living,
rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished
work which they who fought here have thus
far so nobly carried on. 1t is rather forus to
be here dedicated to the great task remaining
before us ; that from these hOnored dead we
take increased devotion to that cause to which
they here gave the last full measure Of devo-
ton; that we here highly resolve that these
dead shall not have died in vain; that this ma
ton, under God. shall have a new birth of free
dom, and that government of the people, by
the people and for the people shall not perish
from the earth.
When a foreign citizen unfurls the
flag of his own country in the United
States on the Fourth of July, he means
by it only to honor the great American
republic. It is greeting and salute.
Therefore the more foreign flags out on
: