The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1913-07-15
CLARK'S ADDRESS
AT GETTYSBURG
Praised So Highly That It Will
Be Printed And Distributed
Throughout States ~
IS EXAMPLE OF BEST ORATORS
Speech In Full Is Herewith
Published-Might Name It
Patriotism

BY Congressman Clyde H. Tavenner
Washington, July-Like one clear
bugle note above the songs of peace
and reunion was the speech of Speak
er Champ Clark at the Gettysburg
celebration. Returning Congressman
and others who heard the speech are
praising it highly, and it is to be
printed for distribution as a public
document. For the benefit of vete-
rams who were unable to attend the
Gettysburg reunion and for Others
who might like to read an inspired
utterance which is an example of the
best oratory of our times the follow
ing is the speech in full. The Speak
er might have named it Patriotism.
II was only eleven years old when
Fort Sumpter was fired on and now
my head is poisoning like the al
mond tree. will tell you how I re-
gard that awful contest how the gen.
GRAFTON to which I belong looks upon
it-as one of the most heroic chapters
in the annals of mankind.
81 read English history as the pro-
logue to American history. When 1
reflect upon the Civil, Wars in Eng
land, my judgment is with the stern,
unfaltering, pious Roundheads, who,
at Worcester, Marston Moor and Dun
bar followed the great Oliver into
battle shouting, God with us!' but
our soul is fired with the recollection
Of the chivalric deeds of those gal
liant knights and gentlemen who
charged under the silken banner of
Prince Rupert in the cause of the
Stuart King.
"Cold must be the heart of that
American who is not proud to claim
as countryman, the flower of the
southern youth who charged up the
slippery slopes of Gettysburg with
peerless Picket or those unconquer-
able men in blue, who through three
long and dreadful days held those
beetling heights in face of fierce as
sault.
ut was not Southern valor or Nor
thern valor-it was, thank God!
American valor-that valor which
caused our Revolutionary fathers to
throw their gage of battle in the face
of the son of hundred kings that
valor which animated Washington at
Princeton, Brandywine, Monmouth
and YOrktown-that valor which up
held his famished men amid the un-
speakable horrors of Valley Forge
that valor which sustained the SOL
diers who followed Arnold on that
cruel winters march through the
woods of Canada and in the Christmas
storming of Quebec, where Montgom-
cry fell immortal-that valor which
nerved Andrew Jackson and his raw
militia on ever glorious 9Th of Janu-
airy, when they humbled to the very
dust the towering pride of that
mighty monarchy upon whose domin-
ions the sun never sets, and utterly
routed the veterans of the Peninsula,
who had snatched from Napoleon s
brow the iron crown of Charlemagne
that valor which at Buena Vista,
Cherebusco and Chapultepec filled the
of 10r,
which wrote Davy Crocket's name
above Leonidas and made the Alamo
another shrine for freedom-that
valor which begirts this land as with
wall of fire, forbidding all the ma
tions of the earth to touch the ark
of American liberty lest they die. CAL
lous indeed must be the man who can
not find something to admire in the
colossal, benignant character of Alb
raham Lincoln or in the splendid
career of Robert E. Lee.
"The soldiers of the North and the
soldiers of the South were American
freemen all-fighting like heroes for
what they considered right; as such
I honor them. To both alike are ap-
plicable the words of Kentucky's
soldier poet. a9...- .-.....a
ION Fame's eternal camping ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And Glory guards with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead"
20, my countrymen, it is an ex-
cellent thing to be an American
a great, a glorious thing!
When look in the faces of my chill
dren my heart swells with ineffable
pride to think that they are citizens
.ofrthis mighty Republic, one and in
Invisible, built not for day but for
all time, and destined under God to
be the dominating influence of all
the centuries yet to discriminating
not by force of arms, not by the mail
ed hand but by influencing men
everywhere by the wholesomeness OF
of our example to adopt our theory
OF Government of the people, by the
people and for the people,"
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