The Oskaloosa herald., 1904-06-02
ROOSEVELT
At GETTYSBURG.
PRESIDENT DELIVERS Memoir
IAL DAY ADDRESS.
PAYS TRIBUTE 10 LINCOLN.
Lines of Division Are obliterated and
Sons Of the Blue and the
Grey Honor One Conn
mon Country.

Gettysburg, Pa, May 30. President
Roosevelt was the central figure in
the great Memorial Day exercises in
this historic town today, and in a
speech most fitting to the occasion
he in part said:
"The place where we now are has
won a double distinction. Here was
fought one of the great battles OF all
time, and here was spoken one OF the
| few speeches which shall last through
the ages. AS long as this republic
endures or its history is known, SO
| long Shall the memory OF the Battle.
of Gettysburg likewise endure and be
known; and as long as the English
| tongue is understood, SO long shall
Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg speech
thrill the hearts of mankind.
The civil war was a great war for
righteousness; a war waged for the
| noblest ideals, but waged also in thor
oughgoing, practical fashion. 1t was
one of the few wars which mean, in
their successful oucome, a lift toward
| better things for the nations of man
kind. Some wars have meant the
| triumph of order over anarchy and IL
centiousness masquerading as liber-
ty; some wars have meant the trf-
umph of liberty over tyranny mas
| querading as order; but this victori-
Gus war of ours meant the triumph Of
both liberty and order, the triumph OF
| orderly liberty, the bestowal Of civil
rights upon the freed slaves, and at
the same time the stern insistence on
the supremacy of the national law
throughout the length and breadth
of the land. Moreover. this was one
| of those rare contests in which it was
to the Unreasonable interest Of the
vanquished that they should lose,
while at the same time the victors
| acquired the precious privilege Of
transmitting to those who came after
them, as a heritage Of honor forever,
not only the memory Of their own va
liant deeds, but the memory Of the
deeds Of those who, no less valiantly
and with equal sincerity Of purpose,
| fought against the stars in their
| courses. The war left to us all, as
fellow-countrymen, as brothers tbR
right to rejoice that the II ieesSsss,E g
been restored in indestrhctibI5 sh5 -
in country where slavery no long
mocks the boast of freedom, and also
the right to reject with exultant pride
in the courage, the selfSsacriflce, and
the devotion, alike of the men who
wore the blue and the men who wore
the gray =
1t was because you men of the civil
war both knew how to use liberty
| temporarily and how to defend it at
need that We and our children and
our childten's children shall hold you
in honor forever. Here, on Memorial
Day, on this great battlefield, we
commemorate not only the chiefs who
actually won this battle; not only
Meade, and his lieutenants, Hancock
and Reynolds and Howard and Sick
les, and the many others whose names
flame in our annals; but also the
chiefs who had made the Army of the
| Potomac what it was, and those who
afterwards led it in the, campaigns
which were crowned at Appomattox;
| and furthermore those who made and
used it's sister armies: Mcclellan,
with his extraordinary genius for or.
| ganizatior; Rosecrans; Buell.; Thorn.
as, the unyielding, the steadfast: and
that great trio, Sherman, Sheridan,
and last and greatest Of all, Grant
himself, the silent soldier whose ham.
mer-like blows finally beat down even
the prowess Of the men who fought
against him. Above all we meet here
to pay homage to the officers and en-.
listed 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 hack
each to his task on the farm or in the
town, to do his duty in peace as he
had done 1t in war; to take IN the
threads of his working life where ne
had dropped them when the trumpets
OF the nation pealed to arms. Today
all over this land our people meet to
pay reverent homage to the dead
who died that the nation might live.
and we pay homage also to their COM
rades who are still with us.
All are at one row,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 mem.
DRY OF those who fell, each Of them
giving his life for his duty as he saw
It; and all should be at one In learn,
ing from the deaths Of these men now
to live usefully while the times cali
for the performance Of the countless
necessary duties Of everyday life.and
how to hold ourselves ready to die
nobly should the nation ever again