Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-07-01

great, wonderful experiment in self
government was only seventy-two
years old, and up to that time each
community had busted itself with
great energy to develop its own re-
sources and increase its own strength
and means. So busy was each COM
munity in those pioneering days that,
whatever the inclination might have
been, there was little time or oppor
tunity for mutual consultation and
effort.
"And then the time for the newt
able arrived. Those who honestly be-
lieved that the United States was a
voluntary association of independent
sovereign States met in irresponsible
conflict those who honestly believed
that the United States was an indis-
soluble union of otherwise indie
pendent States. Each side, with all
the earnestness of those whose hearts.
minds and consciences are committed
to an ideal, sought to mold the gov
eminent to their respective views
There was no earthly tribunal before
which this great issue could be tried
and determined. The arbitrament of
arms alone remained. 8
Not q War of Wantonness.
THE war that followed had no
element of wantonness or aggrandize-
ment or lust of gain; and no men of
purer spirit ever lived than those who
waged 1t upon the respective sides.
1t found the States, in it's beginning,
like a loosely tied together bundle of
faggots; and at it's end and when the
wounds of 1t had been healed, 1t left
great sturdy oak as the central
body of our union, with strong,
sturdy branches of intense vitality
firmly attached to 1t. Hence, what
ever ones views may have been upon
the righteousness of the issue, whole
some respect to those of each side
as this we have witnessed today
would not otherwise have been pos
! sible
ut is through pain that we attain
| anything of value; 1t was through
| pain that this nation found itself;
and upon the great foundation thus
secured and established proceeded to
advance with giant strides to the
forefront of the nations of the earth.
Can we not today, permeated as
we are by the deep spiritual meaning
of this impressive gathering, surely
say that it was worth 1t all; that
those silent martyrs lying forever en-
shrined upon this field did not die in
vain; that you who at the front bore
the storm and stress of that great
conflict and those who waited in
trembling anxiety at home and bore
| the woe and agony of suspense and
uncertainty, did not suffer in vain?
| Can we not truly say that until this
| people had withstood some such
stress as this there was no assurance
| that this first great experiment of
| the ability of men to govern them
selves was surely successful? Shrink
from the facts as we may, do they
not prove their case? Would we
| within or those who stood doubling
without ever have felt the assurance
| which is now felt. Do we not know
that those whom the God of Nations
hath Joined together no man can put
| asunder?
Apart from the deep significance
which your meeting has and from
the important page which 1t will fill
| in history, is 1t not good for you as
individuals to be here today? Your
| last memories of this field will over
| lie the earlier ones. 1t will no longer
picture itself In your memories as a
field of carnage and suffering and
woe, but field of smiling faces and
happy hearts and great joys. And SO
the picture will go forth to the
nation, and it will rejoice with you,
! and the whole world will realize that
not only has the government of the
people, by the people, and for the
people not persisted from the earth,
but that 1t will not ever perish"