The Aberdeen Democrat. (Aberdeen, South Dakota) 1???-1909, 1903-09-25
HONORS MEMORY
OF DEAD Heroes
President Roosevelt Attends Dedica.
ton of Monument on Battle
field Of Antietam.
Accepts for the Nation the hnf
Erected by New Jersey veterans-
Says All Mankind Hung ON Issue of
the Strife-Points Out Duty of the
Present Generation. y

ering skies the magnificent monument
erected on the historic battlefield o,
Antietam by the grateful state of New
Jersey to its men who fell in the great
engagement, vwas dedicated Thursday
The occasion was rendered particularly
notable by the presence at and partici-
patton in the ceremonies of the president
of the United States and of Gov. Murphy
the chief executive of the state which
was honoring ite heroes.
Address Of President.
President Roosevelt. as he arose to &C
cept the monument on behalf of the fed
eral government, was accorded an ova-
ton.
In opening, the president thanked the
people of New Jersey for the monument
to the troops Of New Jersey who fought
at Antietam, and on behalf of the ma
ton accepted the gift. No other battle
of the civil war. he said, lasting but one
4daysshowed as great a percentage Of loss
as that which occurred upon the day
ON which. Antietam was fought. More
over, in it's ultimate effects the battle
was Of momentous and even decisive i'm
p0Ttance, for when it had ended and Lee
had retreated south of the Potomac,
Lincoln forthwith published that i'm
mortal paper, the preliminary declara-
ton Of emancipation; the paper which
decided that the civil war, besides being
a war for the preservation of the union,
was a war for the emancipation of the
slave, so that from. that time onward the
causes of union and of freedom, OF ma
tional greatness and individual liberty,
were one and the same.
Duty # Present Generation.
TT now rests with us in civil life"
continued the president, ito make good
by our deeds the deeds which you who
wore the blue did in the great years from
81 to '65. The patriotism, the courage,
the unfinching resolution and steadfast
endurance of the soldiers whose triumph
was crowned at Appomattox must be
supplemented on our part by civic cour-
age, civic honesty, cool sanity and stead
last adherence to the immutable laws
Of righteousness.
Fight for Governmental HOneAty.
In closing, the president said the fight
Tor governmental honesty and efficiency
,an be won only by the patience and reso-
luton and power of endurance, such as
displayed by the revolutionary and
union armies. I'VE need the same type
Of character now that was needed by
the men who with Washington first in
a%ugurated the system of free popular
government, the system of combined lib
erty and order here on this continent;
that was needed by the men who under
Lincoln .perpetuated the government
which had thus been inaugurated in the
days of Washington. The qualities es-.
sential to good citizenship and to good
public service now are in all their es-
sentials exactly the same as in the days
when the first congresses met to pro-
vide for the establishment of the union.
Three Foremost Qualities.
There are many qualities which we
heed alike in private citizen and in pub
lie man, but three above. all-three for
the lack of which no brilliancy and no
genius can atone-and those three are
courage, honesty and common sense"
After the benediction had been TO-
nounced, the president held an informal
reception in the rain, shaking hands
with several hundred ex-soldiers. A
drive over parts of the battlefield on
account of the storm had to be aban-
doned. The president, Gov. Murphy and
their party returned to their train imme-
diately after the ceremonies.