The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-05-31

things than ne could dd without 1t. which is in it's essence the substitution nf self restraint for external testraint-the sub stitutlon of form of rtstraint which pro- notes progress for the form oh re- tards 1t, This Is the light vie free- dom; but 1t can only be takel. T there is a full recognition of the close eonnec- ton between liberty and responsibility in every domain of human thought It was essentially the view taken by Abraham Lincoln, and by all those who, when the civil war broke out, teahzed that in a self-governing democracy those who de- sire to be considered fit to enjoy liberty must show that they know how to use 1t with moderation and justice in peace, and how to fight for 1t when it is leopard ed by malice domestic or foreign levy,
 The Lesson They Taught.
 The lessons they taught us are lessons as appllcable in our everyday lives now as in the rare times of great stress The men who made this fielo forever memor- able did so because they combined the power of fealty to lofty ideal with the power of showing that fealty In hard, practical common-sense fashion. They stood for the life of effort. not the life of ease. They had that love of country,  fellow-men without which power and resourceful efficiency but make man danger to his fellows Yet, in addition thereto, they likewise possessed the pow CT and the efficiency; for otherwise their high purpose would have been barren of result They knew each how to act for himself, and yet each how to act with his fellows. They learned, as all the genera ton 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 believed that the civil war would be ended In ninety days the men who cried loudest "On to Richmond if they had the right stun in them speedily learned their error: and the war was ac- tually won by those who settled them selves steadfasty down to fight for three years, or for as much longer as the war might last, and who gradually grew to understand that the triumph would come. not by single brilliant victory but by a hundred painful and tedious campaigns. In the east and the west the columns advanced and recoiled, swayed from side to side, and again advanced; along the coasts the black ships stood endlessly off and on before the hostile forts; generals and admirals emerged into the light, each to face his crowded hour of success or failure; the men in front fought; the men behind supplied and pushed forward those in front; and the final victory was due to the deeds of all who played their parts well and manful- ly, in the scores of battles in the count less slslrmishes, In march in camp, or in reserve, as commissioned officers. or in the ranks-wherever and whenever duty called them. Just so 1t must be for us t.. IL. Il T f.-Z .t~. country worthy of the men who gave their lives to save it. only on condition that the average man among us on the whole does his duty bravey, loyally, and with common sense. in whatever posi- tion life allots to him. Exactly, as in time of war, courage Is the cardinal vir- tue of the soldier, so in time of peace, honesty, using the word in it's deepest and broadest significance, is the essen tial basic virtue, without which all else avis nothing.
 Is of Slow Growth.
 National greatnes is of slow growth. It can not be forced and yet be stable and enduring; for it is based fundamen- tally upon national character, and nation al character is stamped deep in people by the lives of many generations. The
 
 init to discipline, had to submit to re- straint through the government of the leaders they had chosen, as the price of winning. So we, the people, can pre- serve our liberty and our greatness in time of peace only by ourselves exer- cising the virtues of honesty, of self restraint, and of fair dealing between man and man. In all the ages of the past men have seen countries lose their liberty, because their people could not re- strain and order themselves, and there fore forfeited the right to what they were unable to use with wisdom.
 It was because you men of the civil war knew how to use liberty temperately and how to defend it at need that we and our children and our childrens chill dren shall hold you in honor forever. Here. on Memorial day on thls great bat tlefield. we commemorate not only the chiefs who actually won this battle; not only Meade, and his lieutenants, Han cock and Reynolds and Howard and Sickles 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 fur thermore those who made and used It's sister armies Mcclellan, with his ex- traordinaty genius Cor organization; Rosecrans! Buell.; Thomas, the unyied- ing; the steadfast; and that great trio, sherman, Sheridan and last and greatest Of all, Grant himself, the silent soldier whose hammer-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 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 working life where he 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 oied that the nation might live; and we pay homage also to their comrades who are still with us.
 All Are at One Now.
 All are at 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 1t; 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 nobly should the nation ever again demand of her sons the ultimate proof of loyalty.
 It was expected that Hon. Eugene F. Ware. commissioner of pensions would