The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-05-31

bravely, loyalty, and with common
sense, in whatever position life allots
70 him. National greatness is Of slow
growth. 1t can not be forced and yet
be stable and enduring; for II Is based
fundamentally upon national chaFac-
ter and national character is stamp
ed deep in a people by the lives of
many generations. The men who
went into the army had to submit TO
discipline, had to submit TO restraint
through the government of the leaders
they had chosen, as the price Of VIM
ming. So we, the people, can preserve
our liberty and our greatness in time
of peace only by ourselves exercising
the virtues of honesty, of self-re-
straint, and of fair dealing between
man and man.
Not Merely to Meade.
Here, on Memorial Day, on this
great battlefield, we commemorate not
only the chiefs who actually won the
battle, but also the chiefs who had
made the Army of the Potomac what
1t was, and those who afterwards led
1t in the campaigns which were
crowned at Appomattox Above ALI we
meet here to pay homage to the Off
GERS and enlisted men who served and
fought and died, without having, as
their chiefs had, the chance to write
their names on the tablets of fame; to
the men who marched and fought in
the ranks, who were buried in long
trenches on the field of battle, who
died in cots marked only by numbers in
the hospitals; who, if they lived when
the war was over, went back each to
his task on the farm or in the town, to
do his duty in peace as he had done it
in war; to take up the threads of his
he no
them when the trumpets of the nation
pealed to arms. To-day our people
meet to pay reverent homage to the
dead who died that the nation might
live; and we pay homage also to their
comrades who are still with us.
All are one now, the sons of those
who wore the blue and the sons of
those who wore the gray, and all can
unite in paying respect to the memory
Of those who fell, each of them giving
his life for his duty as he saw it; and
all should be at one in learning from
the deaths of these men how to live
usefully while the times call for the
performance of the countless necessary
duties of everyday life, and how to
hold ourselves ready to die nohly
should the nation ever again demand
of her sons the ultimate proof of 10y
atty"
Inc ceremony was concluded Dy an
address by Hon. Eugene F. Ware,
commissioner of pensions. and a ben
ediction by Rev. DR.. Cleutz.
During the Presidents ride over the
battlefield, on which he was accompa-
MED by Gen. o. o. Howard and Gen.
D. E. Sickles. Mai. Robbins. who
served as a major in the Fourth Ala
bama in Laws brigade during the sec
ond and third days of the lighting, join
ed the party and greeted the President
and was followed instantly by Gen.
Sickles, who remarked eagerly: There
is the fellow who tried to take the hill.
but found it too hot"
Yes" responded Mai. Robbins, 1--WE
charged up this hill. but you moved
us down like grass. We could not
stand it and had to get back"
The major then recounted some in
teresting details of the part of the con-
test in which he participated. After
hearing cross fire of graphic descrlp-
tons from both the Union and Confed-
crate participants, President Roosevelt
remarked:
This country is all right so long as
we can have this kind of a talk on Lit
tie Round Top"