The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-15
Col A. K. Mcclure Spenks
 On Historic Battlefield

Hons of public debt. but with all the many additional millions paid by our today one of the very few States of the Union that Is practically free from in- dabkednees.
 Union veterans of our state. there is Pennsylvsnia; behold her. foremost n every patriotic effort and sacrifice to furnish and care for her soldiers. and today the most prosperous Com raonweplth of the Union.
 ff#a Rlue and Graz.
 Veterans of the Blue and the Gray, we are here today to unyeil a monu- uent which shall for all time conmem- orate the heroism and sacrifice of Penn battieiield of Fredericksburg. The Un- ion veterans of Pennsylvania meet the veterans who bore the Stars and Bars. hot as enemies but as friends, with country. When peace came after four years of bloody conflict. 1t left the fierce passions of fraternal war in tidal wave throughout both sections Of the North and South. had been shadowed by the angel of sorrow, and 1t was hard for either section to make the advance toward reunited American proIheE- hood. but there were brave men in both sections who earnestly and eloqusntly peIaded the cause of peace and fellow ship. and among the first was the Great w ar tNOF8TnOT or EGuHMJAN1mtMs AhCNOMH struction with its blctted record. long hindered the restoration of sympathet- ic relations between the North and South. and kept edarne what should ai hate. but we are here today with 2 restored union, not merely union lr form, but union of hearts, of sympe- thy and of patriotic fellowshtp. and ,hs veterans Of the Blue will today point with pride to the monuments erected to the heroes of the Gray who won the victory in this bloody struggle:
 It was not the soldiers of either side on the front of the firing line who him ydered the restoratien of our common brotherhood. Pliticians played upon tho prsjuafces and esssious. 10 serve sides were the faithful advocates of generous and lasting peace. The vet erans of the Gray will not shuduer ~ the monument we are here to unveiL. portant battlefieid of the Civil War. many erected to the heroic soldiers or Lee. and many erected to fne nerols soldiers of Grant. They no longer stand the Blue or the Graye but are accepted by every veteran of the North and South as monuments to the heroism or our American soldiery.
 The day is not far distant when the statue of Lee the most beloved oK all Southern men, who stands ID nis. tory today abreast with the few great Soldiers or the nlneLeenIn GentNEys WAh wrace the streets of our national capi- tai aiong with that of Grant as Al tri- bute of the Nation to the greatness ol American commanders, ana noPe " | an early day to see Virginia and Penn l sylyania unite in placing on Seminary | Hill at Gettysburg. an equestrian sta- | tue of Lee. with the right conceded 70 I the South to embe1lish that memorable 1 field with statues of her heroic leaders. A few years ago made an earnest ap- | peal to the Pennsylvania Legislature to inauggrate such a mo movement. sas,iasd and ,nr | the reason. as then given. that # was ! not yet the time for so pronounced q | declaration from our State that peace It's eonsummatiou. We are here to- dav unveiling a monument to Pennsyl- l Waniass fallen heroes on one of the 1 great Virginia battlehelds. and there IS | welcome on every hand by the veterans | who won the victory and the citlzens who sympathized with the Gray, and
 would give equal welcome to the sta.
 tues of the Confederate heroes on the Gettysburg battlefield, and thus enable | the visitor to that historic ground te
 read, by the statues and tablets oE l both sides the complete history or tns
 decisive conflict of the war.
 | Peace and Brotherhood.
 The veterans of both sides have Ions
 been teaching the country tnat peael I and brotherhood have been restore7 t'
 it. There is not grave Of Netsrai
 of the Gray In any cemetery n thl
 North, where the graves or C9fOi
 soldiers are made Beautiful and fra
 grant on Decoration Day. that is no
 decorated with equal care, and the vet | eraas of the Union thus pay equal re I spect and honor to the fallen on botl < aides of the cunfitct:s and the veteran l of the Gray never fail to decorate th'
 graves of the fallen Union veteran
 when the tribute Is paid to their falleI brethern. A Confederate soldier wal
 d Cabinet ofIier under Grant; confed
 crate soldier was a Cabinet ofncer unde
 Hays. and a Confederate soldier is l Cabinet officer under Roosevelt. Surel.
 inc time has come. after forty-thre
 years of a reunited Nation when al | inc terrible asperities should be onl. l d shadowed memory. and when all th ! grand attributes of generous ana ar
 fectIonate brotherhood should be visi
 ble in every section of our great re
 nublic. Here, standing among th
 Kraves of the heroic dead of both, th | Rreat armies that were engaged il deadly struggle. all will unite in tn
 patriotic uttsrance of the great ex
 fJounder of the Constitution when h l repiied to the early advocacy of seces
 sion by one of South -Carolina's grea
 statesnlen: Liberty and Union; nov
 and forever. one and inseparable I .