The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1904-05-30

other nation then possessed. The sever
ity of the fighting is attested by the
proportionate loss-a loss unrivaled in
any battle of similar size since the
close of the Napoleonic struggles; a
loss which in certain regiments was
from ree-fourths to four-ffths of the
men engaged. Every spot on this field
has it's own associations of soldierly
duty nObly done, of supreme self-sa-
crifice freely rendered. The names
of the chiefs who served in the two ar
mics form a long honor roll; and the
enlisted men were worthy, and even
more than worthy, of those who led
them Every acre of this ground has
it's own associations. We see where
the fight thundered through and
where the artillery formed on the
ridges; where the cavalry fought;
where, finally, the great charge surged
up the slope only to break on the sum-
nit in the bloody spray of gallant fail
ure.
But the soldiers who won at Gettys-
burg. the soldiers who fought to a fin
ish the civil war and thereby made
their countrymen forever their debtors,
have left us far more even than the
memories of the war itself They
fought for four years in order that on
this continent those who come after
them their children and their children's
children, might enjoy a lasting peace.
They took arms not to destroy, but to
save liberty; not to overthrow. but
TO establish the supremacy of the law
The crisis which they faced was to de-
termine whether or not this people
was fit for self government and there
fore fit % liberty. Freedom IS not a
gift which can be enjoyed save by
those who show themselves worthy of
it. In this world no privilege can be
permanently appropriated by men who
have not the power and the will sue
cessfully to assume the responsibility
of using it Alright. In his recent admir-
SpOnsibility in democratic government.
President Hadley of Yale has pointed
out that the freedom which is worth
anything is the freedom which means
elf-government and not anarchy Free
dom thus conceived is a constructive
force, which enables an intelligent and
good man to do better things than he
could do without it; which is in it's es-
sence the substitution Of self-restraint
Tor external restraint-the substitu-
ton of Il form of restraint which pro-
notes progress for the form which re
t9rds it. This is the right view of free
dom; but it can only be taken if there
is full recognition of the close con-
nection between liberty and RESPONSE
bility in every domain of human
thought. 1t was essentially the view
taken by Abraham Lincoln and by all
those who, when the civil war broke
out, realized that in self governing
democracy those who desire to be con-
sidered fit to enjoy liberty must show
that they know how to use it with mod
GRAFTON and justice in peace. and how to
fight for it when it is jeopardized by
malice domestic or foreign levy.
The lessons they taught us are les
sons as applicable in our everyday
lives now as in the rare times of great
stress. The men who made this field
forever memorable did so because trey
combined the power of feaIty to a lofty
ideal with the power of showing that
teaIty in hard, practical. common
sense fashion. They stood for the life
Of effort, not the life of ease. They
mad that love of country, that love of
justice, that love of their feIlow-men.
without which power and resourceful
efficiency but make a man danger to
ms fellows. Yet, in addition thereto.
they likewise possessed the power and
the efficiency; for otherwise their high
purpose would have been barren of re-
suit. They knew each how to act for
himself. and yet each how to act with
his fellows. They learned. as all the
generation of the civil war learned.
that rare indeed is the chance to do
anything worth doing by one sudden
and violent effort. The men who be-
lieved that the civil war would be end
ed in ninety days, the men who cried
loudest ON to Richmond" if they had