The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-02-01
LEE AT GETTYSBURG
A1aulEznx YxzeENx1p 11roRr 2 co1GMIxTEND or x1N0GYIs-
 vANIA LE0IaLATU2H

A14ulEElx y11nENxED 1DFoRE | co1C1IIxTEND or R1H0GYI-
 vANIA LE0IsLATUAE
 Tn Favor of the Bill Providing that Yennsylvania and Virginia Shail
 uAtts to Erect m Equsstxian
 otatus to toht. E. Lee on
 Seminary Hill at Get tysburg.
 Tho following speech was made by Col.
 A, Y. Mcclure before, the Pennsylvania
 Lesisiaturs IAst Tuesday night. In Har- risburg:
 Gentlemen of the Senate and House Com mittees:
 come before you. not to plead the
 cause Of the Coufsderats; 1t Is crystaliised
 In history, and adds iustre to the annals of American heroism. ! come to plead the cause of the Union. the great Re- public of the world. It is today not only | q Union of States. but q union of hearts
 and homes, whose flag floats over the 1 noblsst and happssst people of the world. and nov axtanas to the West Indies and
 the Orient. And come specially to plead the cause of Pennsylvania, an em- pire wiahin itself with double the pop | ulation of the entire Republic when 1t vas founded. and with such names as Independence Hiti and Valley Forge and Gottysburg as sweet incense in every ps- trtot'c memory. =
 The Tin now under consideration pro- poses that the State of Pennsylvania, in cooperation with the State of Virginia, shall provide for the erection of an eques- trian statue Of Gen Robert p. Lee on the battlefield of Gettysburg. You may ask. why should Pennsylvania take the lead h placing statue of General Lee on Seminary Hill? I answer that the battle- dsld of Gettysburg is an integral part of Pennsylvania. While 1t belongs to the nation as battlefield, 1t belongs to us as an inseparabie part of ourselves. and to whatever extent 1t shali be made an honor to the Nation It must be even to q greater extent an honor to rennsyl- vania.
 Many hundreds of thousands of dollars havs aIrsady been expended to beautify and preserve In history the record of the battlefield that decided the fate of the ! bConfederacy, and many hundreds of | thousands mere will be expended when ever we shall dedicate that sacred ground to its best and noblsst purposes. The work of this improvement is steadily progressing under the direction of Col | onel Nicholson. President of the Commis-
 sion, ono of our most gallant and ac- complished of Pennsylvania soldiers. but thus far only one side of that sanguinary field tells to- the visitor its true story. There arc equestrian monuments of chieftains who fell or fought on Ceme- tery Hill. and scores of monuments to
 individual herotsm, to division. brigade
 and regimental struggles, which give in l mute but eloquent expression the record of heroism of the brave warriors who l dared and died clad in their country's
 blue; but Confederate Avenue is monu-
 mentless, with only simple tablets to tell
 that tho warriors of the great army that wore the gray here dared and died with
 equal heroism in defense of their con- yfctions. Ia this just contribution to history7 Is 1t just to Pennsylvania? Is
 it just to the people of the Union? The visitor from foreign land to the battlefield of Gettysburg would traverse | its magnificent avenues. study the posi- tons occupied by tho two great armies, and could fail to be impressed with the equal vaior of the forces there locked | in deadly conflict. He would inquire why one side of the story Is given in inn perishabls monuments, while the other has nothing to tell of the equally skilled
 and valiant chieftains. who gave over
 2o.0oo of their heroes to the dead and
 wounded of the battle. and would he not | ask the question: Were not the chief | tains and warriors on both sides Amer
 icans7 Were they not brothers whose | fathers had reared the great free Gov
 ernment of the world deeply crinsoned
 with their blood, and who had shared in the trials and triumphs of the Union in
 the Revolutionary War, in the second war with England. and on the plains
 of Mexicof' What answer could we
 make today to such inquiries forty years
 after this great battle was fought? ?
 Viewed from the standpoint of the temp
 cred passions of the present. does not
 the battlefield of Gettysburg now stand
 as colossal monument. teaching the
 gospel of hate? Legislators. soldiers, pa
 triots of Pennsylvania, how can such a
 monument endure whom hate has per-
 ished?
 l regard it as the imperious duty of | Pennsylvania to make the battlefield of Gettysburg its own complete historian
 plead for this, and for this alone. 1 | want the lines on Seminary Hill like the
 lines on Cemetery Hill. to record in beau- ! tiful statues the story of the Southern warriors who there fought for and lost
 the cause of the Confsderacy. With the equestrian statue of General Lee placed | oh SSnliudTy f1ui py tne great states or Pennsylvania and Virginia, there would
 be open invitation to the people of the
 South to embellish Confederate Avenue
 with monuments to the hercism of those
 who fought for their cause: and in a few years this great battlefield would be covered at the points of Its varied con- | hicts with statues and monuments which
 would tell the complete story of all, many
 or them desperate battles within them
 selves, which stre~ed the field with the
 dead and wounded of both flags This is
 not mere sentimental proposition. It | is simply Q proposition to make the his-
 tory of Gettysburg complete by the trib- | utes of North and South to the brave men whose heroism makes Grecian and Roman story pale before it.
 The chief interest in the performance of this great public duty is in Pennsyl- vania. and 1t imposes upon our Common wealth the entire responsibility for this most important contribution to the his- tory of the decisive battles of our Civil War. It must come sooner or later, and soon st the latest, and arc we not now prepared to accept manfully and patriotfcally this great duty? Until this duty shall be performed the battlefield of Gettysburg will be regarded by every fair-minded and patriotic visitor as un- true in it's records and unfaithful to its obligations.
 There Is special fitness in Pennsylvania and Virginia going hand In hand in the performance of this duty. No two States
 Kl