The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-31

than worthy. of those who led them Every acre of this ground has its own We see where the hgnt thundered through and around the vil- Iage of Gettysburg; where the artillery formed on the ridges; where the caval- ry fought; where the hills were at tackled and defended; and where, nnaily ly, the great charge surged up the the bloody spray of gallant failure.
 Fought to Save Liberty.
 But the soldiers who won at Gettys-. burg, the soldiers who fought to a finish the Civil War and thereby made their countrymen forever their debtors, have left us far more even than tho memories of the war itself. They fought for four years in order that on this continent those who came after them. their children and their chill dren's children, might enjoy lasting peace. They took arms not to des- troy. but to save liberty; not to over throw, but to establish the supremacy of the law. The crisis which they faced was to determine whether or not this people was fit for self gov ernment and therefore fit for liberty. Freedom is not a gift which can be enjoyed save by those who show them selves worth of 1t. In this world no privilege can be permanently appro- and the will successfully to assume the responsibility of using 1t alright. In his recent admirable little volume on freedom and responsibility in demo- cratic government, President Hadley of Yale has ponted out that the freedom which is worth anything is the frce- dom which means government and not anarchy. Freedom thus conceived is a constructive force, which enables an intelligent and good man to do bet ter things than he could do without 1t; which is in its essense the substftu- tion of self-restraint for external ros- traint-the substitution of form of restraint which promotes progress for the form which retards 1t. This is the right view of freedom; but it can only be taken if there is a full recognition of the close connection between liberty and responsibility in every domain of the view taken by Abraham Lincoln, and by all those who, when the Civil War broke out. realized that in a self governing democracy those who desire | 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 it when 1t is jeoparded by malice domestic or foreign levy.
 l The Life of Efrrot.
 The lessons they taught us are les | sons as applicable in our everyday l lives now as in the rare times of great forever memorable did SO because they lcombined the, power of fealty to a lofty ideal with the power of showing that Isal.y rba t m nar9, practiGas. I comm9n-sense | the life of ease. They had that love Of country, that love of justice, that l love of their fellow-men, without which power and resourceful efficiency but | make a, man danger to his fellows. Yet. in addition, thereto. they likewise possessed the power and the efficiency; l 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 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 believed that the civil war
 would be ended in ninety days, the men
 # they, had the right stuff in them 1 war was actually won by those who | settled themselves scientifically down tu l fight for three years. or for as much I longer as the war might last, and who gradually grew to understand that the trtum ph, would come. not by single brilliant victory, but by hundred painful and tedious campaigns. In the East and the West the columns ad- vsrced and recoiled, swayed from side to side, and again advanced; along the off and on before the hostile forts; generals and admirals emerged into the light, each to face hts crowded
 heur of success or failure: the men | plied' and pushed forward those in front; and the final victory was due to
 the deeds of all who played their parts
 battles, In the countless skirmishes, in
 march, in camp. or in reserve. as com.
 missioned officers or in the ranks-
 them. Just so 1t must be for us tr
 civil life. We can make and keep thil
 country worthy of the men who gavt
 their lives to save it, only on condition
 that the average man among us on tho
 whole does his duty bravely, Loyalty and with common sense, in whatever position life allots to him. Exactly as
 in time of war, courage is the cardina virtue of the soldier, so in time ol peace, honesty. using the word in its l deepest and broadest significance, is
 the essential basic virtue, without which all else avails nothing. National greatness Is of slow growth. It car
 enduring; for it is based Fundamentally
 upon national character, and national
 character is stamped deep in a people
 by the lives of many generations; The
 submit to discipline. had to submit tc restraint through the government oi
 price of winning: So we, the people
 can preserve our liberty and our great.
 ness in time of peace only by ourselves
 exercising the virtues of honesty oi
 self-restraint, and of fair dealing be.
 tween man and man. In all the age:
 of the past men have seen countrie: lose the1r uDerty, because their people
 could not restrain and order them
 selves. and therefore forfeited the righ
 to what they were unable to use with
 wisdom.
 Tribute to Leaders.
 It was because you men of the civi
 war both knew how to use liberty tenn
 perately and how to defend 1t at neeC
 dren's children shall hold you in homo
 forever. Here, on Memorial Day, or
 this great battlefield, we commemorate
 not only the chiefs who actually woI
 this battle; not only Meade, and hi
 lieutenants. Hancock and Reynolds ant
 CTS whose names flame in our annals
 but also the chiefs who had made tn Army of the Potomac what it was an,
 those who afterwards led it in tn campaigns which were crowned at Ap . pomattox; and furthermore those wh, CIeIlan. with his extraordinary geniu for organization; Rosecrans: Buell. Thomas, the unylelding, the steadfast and that great trio, Sherman. Sheridan , and last and greatest of all, Grant him 2 self. the silent soldier whose hammer like blows finally beat down even tn 2 prowess of the men who fought agains him. Above all we meet here to pa,
 homage to the officers and enlisted mel , who served and fought and died, with . out having as their chiefs had, tn chance to write their names on tn, , tablets of fame; to the men who march ed and fought in the ranks, who weF , buried in long trenches on the field o , battle, who died in cots marked onl, l ] by numbers in the hospitals; who, , , they lived, when the war was over
 went back each to his task on the farn
 or in the town, to do hts duty in peac as he had done 1t in war; to take ul l of hav