The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1904-06-03
RO0Seveit's Speech
AT GETTYSBURGON DECORA-
TON DAY.

won double distinction. Here was
fought one of the great battles of all
time, and here was spoken one of
the few speeches which will 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 great war for
righteousness; war waged for the
noblest ideals, but waged also in
tboroughlygoing, practical fashion
1t was one of the few wars which
mean, in their successful outcome,
a lift toward better things for the
nations of mankind. Some wars
have meant the triumph of order
over anarchy and licentious mas
querading as liberty; some wars.
have meant the triumph of liberty
over tyranny masquerading as or
der; but this victorious 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 immeasureable interest
of the vanquished that they should
lose, while at the same time the vic
tors acquired the precious privilege
of transmitting to those who came
after them, as heritage of honor
forever, not only the memory of
their own valiant deeds, but the
memory of the deeds of those who,
no less valiantly and with equal sim
cerity of purpose, fought against
the stars in their courses. The war
left to us all, as fellow w-countrymen,
as brothers, the right to rejoice that
the Union has been restored in
destructible shape in country
where slavery no longer mocks the
boast of freedom, and also the
right to rejoice with exultant pride
in the courage, the self sacrifice.
and the devotion, alike of the men
who wore the blue and the men who
wore the gray.
He is but poor American who,
looking at this field. does not feel
within him deeper reverence for
the nations past and higher pur-
pose to make the nations future rise
level to her past. Here fought the
chosen sons of the North and the
Sout, the East and the West. The
armies which on this field contended
for the mastery were vetern armies,
hardened by long campaigning and
desperate fighting with such instru-
ments of war as no other nation
then possessed, The severity of
the fighting is attested by the pro-
portionate loss-a loss unriveled in
any battle of similar size since the
close of the Napoleonic struggles;
a loss which in certain regiments
was three-fourths of the men
engaged. Every spot on this field
has its own associations of soldierly
duty nobly done. of supreme self
sacrific freely rendered. The
names of the chiefs who served in
the two armies 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 its own associa-
tions. We see where the fight
thundered through and around the
village of Gettsburg; where the
cavalry fought; where the hills
were attacked and defended; and
where, finally, the great charge
surged up the slope only to break
on the summit in the bloody spray
of gallant failure.
But the soldiers who won at Gets
burg, the soldiers who fought to a
finish the civil war and thereby
made their countrymen forever their
debtors, have left us far more than
the 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 children's children, might
enjoy lasting peace. They took
arms not to destroy, but to save
liberty; uot to overthrow, but to
establish the supremacy of the law.
The crisis which they faced was to
determine whether or not this
people was At for self-government
and therefore At for liberty. Free
dom Is not a gift which can be enjoy
ed save by those who show themselves
worthy of il. In this world no pri-