The Savannah morning news., 1902-09-20
GETTYSBURG FIELD.
Continued From First Page.

not so much because he was our mar
tyr President as because he was one of
ourselves. Lincoln's career illustrates,
in one aspect, the world-old story that
the rulers of men are not always born
In kings places; but it has, also a
more special significance. In other
lands men have risen from insignif-
canoe to power in times of turbulence
and strife. l think of no other country
in which the ordinary processes of
peace have given such an opportunity
to one so born and so trained; for, you
Will remember, Lincoln's opportunity
came to him when he was already
President; the war did not make him
President. 1t only revealed to the
world what manner of man he was. In
other words, Lincoln's career shows
how open. in this country. is the path
way of opportunity along the avenues
of public life.
We sometimes hear it said in these
times that the days of business oppor-
tunity are gone; that the individual is
disappearing in the combination, the
individual capitalist in the corpora
ton, ana the individual workman in
the labor union; that private fortunes
are now so large, and that business is
carried on upon a scale so great that
thV NOuilS kidl OF IO-QdY mas no SuCn
chance as his father had. This is
much like saying that because inven-
lions are so numerous there is nothing
left to invent: or that, because armies
are so much larger than they used TO
be, there is less chance now for the in
diVidual soldier to become distin-
guished. Whereas. in fact, the mven-
lions already made are the pledge of
the inventions vet to be: and the size
of armies only multiplies the individ-
uals opportunities. No one. however,
will dispute the fact that this is the
era of large units, of large nations, of
large cities. of large steamships, of
large combinations of CAPT.
tai, and of large combina-
tions of labor. He who fears any one
of these things may dread them all;
but, unless he fears all, he need dread
none. For all reflect the same force,
working in divers manners and in diff
ferent directions. Fundamentally it is
the power of combination resting upon
free will. 1t would be idle to deny
that force has had its part in the MAX
ing of large nations; but it is no longer
force resting upon the ambitions of
few. 1t is rather the determination
of multitudeS working out their own
destiny. Large cities, also, grow; they
are not made. Great ships are, indeed,
DUl tHey can neither De Dullt
| nor operated except by the combined
capital of many. Capital combines and
labor combines, only remotely because
they are obliged to; primarily they
combine because they want to. He who
sees in this merging of the individual
into the combination a threatened loss
of individuality seems to me wholly to
misread the times.
1 congratulate you men of the Army
of the Potomac that it has been given
to you to play no small part in pre-
| serving these United States for their
happy destiny; aye more, to play no
small part in making the destiny of
the Great Republic the bright and
shining thing it is. Only the other day
our country was called by a foreign
student. 1.-THE land of boundless oppor-
tunity." The thanks of your country
men, for generations yet unborn, will
go out to you and your comrades Of
| the Grand Armies of the Republic for
preserving to them, at the hazard of
your lives, these inspiring opportuni-
ties in all their limitless and unimag-
| Unable splendor.