Newark post., 1913-07-09
Friends and Fellow Citizens:

II need not tell you what the
Battle of Gettysburg meant. These
gallant men in blue and gray sit all
about us here. Many of them met
here upon this ground in grim and
deadly struggle. Upon these fam
Gus fields and hillsides their COM
rades died about them. In their
presence it were an impertinence
to discourse upon how the battle
went, how it ended, what it signi-
fed! But fifty years have gone by
since then, and crave the privil-
ege of speaking to you for a few
minutes of what those so years have
meant.
"What have they meant? They
have meant peace and union and
vigor, and the maturity and mi light
of great nation. How wholesome
and healing the peace has been
We have found one another again
as brothers and comrades in arms,
enemies no longer, generous friends
rather, our battles long past, the
quarrel forgotten-eXcept that we
shall not forget the splendid valor,
the manly devotion of the men then
arrayed against one another, now
grasping hands and smiling into
each others eyes.
"How complete the union has be-
come and how dear to all of us. how
unquestioned, how benign and ma
.jestic, as State after State has been
added to this, our great family of
free men! How handsome the Wig
or, the maturity, the might of the
great Nation we love with undivid-
ed hearts; how full Of large and
confident promises that a life will
be wrought out that will crown its
strength with gracious justice and
with happy welfare that will
touch all alike with deep content
ment! We are debtors to those SO
crowded years; they have made us
heirs to mighty heritage.
NEW PROBLEMS OF TODAY.
''But do we deem the Nation
complete and finished? These ven
cradle men crowding here to this
famous field have set us a great
example of devotion and utter sac
riice. They were willing to die
that the people might live. But
their task is done. Their day is
turned into evening. They look to
us to perfect what they established
Their work is handed on to us, to
be done in another way, but not in
another spirit. Our day is not over
it is upon us in full tide.
"Have affairs paused? Does the
Nation stand still? Is what the sc
years have wrought since those
days of battle finished, rounded out
and completed? Here is a great
people, great with every force thai
has ever beaten in the lifeblood Of
mankind. And it is secure. There
is no one within it's borders, there is
no power among the nations of the
earth, to make it afraid. But has il
yet squared itself with it's owl
great standards set up at it's birtf
when it made that first noble, naive
appeal to the moral judgement OF
mankind to take notice that gov
ernment had now at last been es
tablished which was to serve men
not masters?
"It is secure in everything ex
cept the satisfaction that its life il
right, adjusted to the uttermost tt
the standards Of righteousness anC
humanity. The days Of sacrifice
and cleansing are not closed. W.
have harder things to do than were
done in the heroic days of war, be
cause harder to see clearly, requir
ing more vision, more calm balance
Of judgement, more candid
searching of the very springs OF
right.
"Look around you upon the field
of Gettysburg! Picture the array
the fierce heats and agony of bat
tie, column hrled against column
battery believing to battery! Val.
or? Yes Greater no man shall
see in war; and self-sacrifice, and
loss to the uttermost; the high reck,
lessness of exalted devotion which
does not count the cost. We are