The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1913-07-10
President Wilson at Gettysburg.

veterans in his Gettysburg ADDRESS
here this morning before the thou
sands of veterans assembled to cele-
brate the anniversary OF that great
battle. " "..
The largest crowd Of the reunion
greeted him, and the tent, estimated
to seat $1,000 people was not half
large enough to hold those eager to
hear the chief executive.
President Wilson declared that
the bravery and sacrifice of the vet
Grams of the civil war period had
made America brave; had made her
unafraid of the entire world. But
before this nation, he declared, there
is a greater task than war-that OF
establishing a government that shall
serve men, not masters; a govern
ment to strive for the freedom of
men, women and children, that they
may behold the things that they have
hoped for; a government to pave the
way for better days for those whom
they love and who are to come after
them.
His address in full follows:
Message in Full.
Friends and Fellow Citizens:-I
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 famous fields
and hillsides their comrades died
about them. In their presence it
were an impertinence to discourse
upon how the battle went, how it
ended, what it signifed. But fifty
years have gone by since then, and l
crave the privilege of speaking to
you for few minutes of what those
fifty years have meant.
what HAVE they meant? They
have meant peace and union and
vigor, and the maturity and might of
a great nation. How wholesome and
healing the peace has been! We
have found one another again as
brothers and comrades in arms, enc
mics no longer, generous friends
rather, our battles long past, the
quarrel orgotten-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 become and how dear
to all of us, how unquestioned, how
benign and majestic, as state after
state has been added to this our great
family of free men! How handsome
the vigor, the maturity, the might
of the great nation we love with I'M
divided hearts; how full of large
and confident promise that life will
be wrought out that will crown it's
strength with gracious justice and
with a happy welfare that will touch
all alike with deep contentment! We
are debtors to those fifty crowded
years; they have made us heirs to a
mighty heritage. s
Example of Devotion.
"But do we deem the nation COM
plete and finished? These venerable
men crowding here to this famous
field have set us a great example of
devotion and utter sacrifice. They
We're willing to die that the people
might live. But their task is done.
Their day is turned into evening.
J 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.
Harder Things to DO.
Have affairs paused? Does the
nation stand still? Is what the fifty
years have wrought since those days
of battle finished, rounded out and
completed? Here is a great people,
great with every force that 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 it yet squar-
ed itself with it's own great standards
set up at it's birth, when it made that
first noble, naive appeal to the moral
Judgment of mankind to take notice
that a government had now at last
been established which was to serve
men, not masters? 1t is secure in
everything except the satisfaction
that it's life is right, adjusted to the
uttermost to the standards of right
eousness and humanity. The days of
sacrifice and cleansing are not clos
ed. We have harder things to do
than were done in the heroic days of
war, because harder to see clearly,
requiring more vision, more calm
balance of Judgment, more CANDID
searching of the very springs OF
right. ,..#es ~.
Remember Common Cause.
Look around you upon the field
of Gettysburg! Picture the array,
the fierce heats and agony of battle,
column hurled against column, bat
terry believing to battery! Valor?
Yes! Greater no man shall see in
war; self-sacrifice, and loss to the ut
termost; the high recklessness of
exalted devotion which does not
count the cost. We are made by
these tragic epic things to know
what it costs to make a natiOn-the
blood and sacrifice of multitudes of
unknown men lifted to great stature
in the view of all generations by
knowing no limit to their manly will
ingness to serve. In armies thus
marshaled from the ranks of free
men you will see, as it were, nation
embattled, the leaders and the led,
and may know, if you will, how little
except in form it's action differs in
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