The Savannah morning news., 1902-09-20
GETTYSBURG FIELD
NEW YORk'S MAYOR ADDRESSES
ARMY OF POTOMAC.
ONLY PRAISE FOR SOLDIERS.
WHETHER THEY FOUGHT ON SIDE
OF NORTH OR SOUTH.

Young Leader Pictures the Awfuf
Struggle That Dyed the Ground
Upon Which He stood with the
Life blood OF the Flower of Amer
ica's Young MISUNDERSTANDING
Tribute to Lincoln and to the Now
Re-United and IndivisibIe COun-
try.
Gettysburg. Pa, Sept. 19.-The fine
equestrian statue of Maj Gen. Henry
Warner Slocum, a tiibute to his mem
cry from the state bf New York, was
unveiled to-day on culps Hill, where
his line was located Eduring the histor-
ical battle. The governors of New
York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania
made addresses and there was a mill
tary parade.
A public meeting was held tonight
at which Mayor Seth Low of New
York was the principal speaker.
The following are extracts from the
speech of the Hon. Seth Low:
Army of the Potomac.
The campaigns of the Army of the
Potomac have often seemed to me COM
parable in one respect to those of
Washington in the Revolutionary War.
Washington, you will remember, was
defeated again and again; he was, in
fact, seldom victorious, until at York
town he received the surrender of
CORVALLIS and ended the war. Sim
ilarly, the Army of the Potomac met
with defeat after defeat; but, like
Washington, it was never crushed; like
Washington, it was always ready for
a fight; and like Washington, its pa
thence and its heroism were at last re-
warded by a victory so complete as to
make its many disasters seem only the
shading necessary to bring out in per-
feet relief the brilliancy of its final
triumph. Gettysburg foreshadowed
Appomattox, as Washington's cam
paign in New Jersey, with it's Trenton
and Princeton and Monmouth, fore
Swallowed Yorktown. The scale upon
which the fighting was carried on was
incomparably greater in the case of
the Army of the Potomac, but the
quick use of opportunity, the indomita-
BILE resolution, the staying-power under
discoura cement, and the endless ca
pacity for self-sacFifice. were the same
In both. The countfx was saved, as it
was founded. by the qualities that have
made it great.
The battle of Gettysburg is looked
upon by common consent, as the crisis
of the Civil War Not only did 1t stop
the invasion of the Northern states,
hut it marked the last effort of the
Confederaoy to assume the offensive
1t literally turned the tide of war. This
little eminence of Cemetery Hill.
therefore, seems to be. in a sense the
Great Divide of American History. On
a cid Of h. -
American history, however brightly it
flashes in the sun. is tinged with the
dark stain of human slavery: on this
side of it, the stream of American his
tory runs clean and clear, singing the
song of freedom for black and white
alike, as it seeks the ocean of eternity
The battle itself was a titanic strug-
gle, worthy of the men who fought il
on both sides, and worthy of the con-
sequences that hung upon the issue.
Other battles in the Civil War that
were Union victories might have been
lost, and the war would only have been
prolonged. No one can venture to say
what might have happened had the
Union army at Gettysburg been defeat
ed. The battle was in every sense crit
ical. For three long days it surged
here and there around these nights, the
issue of it seeming to turn. now here,
now there, almost on a series of acct
dents, as one reads the story of it.
until the battle broke, as storm Gull
inmates, in that moment of CONSUME
mate daring that is known as Pickett's
charge. How stuhbornly the field was
fought both in the attack ard on the
defense, Is sadly attested by the 26, 900
men who were wounded on both sides.
But the battle showed, also. how
greatly the power to save had advanc-
ed in half a century. as well as the
power to kill After Waterloo it was
ten days before the last of the wounded
had been cared for after Gettysburg,
the last wound to be found among this
great army of mutilated men was at
tended to within thirty hours
And, if you have been surprised by
the quickness with which the wounds
of the Civil War have been healed,
have you not also been surprised by
the marvellous material development
that has followed so destructive a war?
1t is already hard to realize that the
first transcontinental railway was au-
thorized by Congress as a war meas
ure and was made possible only by
land giants. on a colossal scale, out of
the national domain. In very truth,
what was then desert has been made
to blossom as the rose; and what was
then frontier is now the heart of this
Union of States. Truly you later con-
stitution- makers, you who made clear
in the constitution that which your
fathers had left uncertain, you, like
your fathers, have builded better than
you knew.
But, if the results springing from the
perpetuated Union have amazed the
world, it is only in degree and not in
kind that they have surprised our
selves. Every true American under
stands that 1t is the glory of his coun-
try to be synonymous with opportu-
nifty. Mr.. James Bryce, the English
historian. once said to me that If Amer
lean institutions had done nothing
else than develop such a character as
Lincoln they would have justified their
right to be. Lincoln is the typical
American. not only because his life
began in obscurity and poverty and
ended In the White House. but also
because, when intrusted with supreme
power I'm the most momentous crisis
OF the nations history. he remained "A
leader and did not become a ruler Al
ways he remembered that the source
Of power was In the people: always ne
maintained mistaken his confidence in
the willingness Of the people 10 sup
port the right: always he believed that
they could be made 10 see the right.
out Of this faith Of his In the people
was born IN them q faith IN him which
made them willing 20 accept
az his call burdens and sacrifices
such ~ no people before had ever will
HnRly endured, aud which makes
Americans now glory fn hts n1eruorv