The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1913-07-05

this ground in grim and deadly strug-
gle. Upon these famous fields and hill
sides their comrades died about them
In their presence it were an impert-
hence to discourse how the battle
went, how it ended, what it signi-
fed! But 30 years have gone by since
then, and | crave the privilege Of
speaking to you for 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 might of great ma
ton. How wholesome and healing the
peace has been! We have found one
another again Us brothers and com
rades in arms, enemies no longer, gen
erous friends rather our battles long
past, the quarrel orgotten-exccpt
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
other S eyes. How complete the union
has become and how dear to all of us,
now unquestioned, how benign and ma
lestice 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 ma
ton we love with undivided hearts;
how full of large and confident prom
Use that life will be wrought out
that will crown its strength with gra-
cious justice and with happy wei
fare that will touch all alike with
deep contentment, We are debtors
to those 30 crowded years; they have
made us heirs to a mighty heritage
Il, a., l.,
and finished? These venerable men
crowding here to this famous field have
set us 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 turn
cd 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
4 Our day is not over; it is upon us in
full time.
Have affairs paused? Does the ma
/ ton stand still? Is what the 80 years
have wrought since those days of bat
tie finished, rounded out, and com
4 pleted! Here is a great people, great
/ with every force that has ever beaten
In the llfeblood of mankind. And it is
secure. There is no one within its bor-
ders, there is no power among the ma
tions of the earth, to make it afraid.
k5ut has it yet squared itself with its
own great standards set up at its
BIRTH when it made that first noble,
naive appeal to the moral judgment of
mankind to take notice that a gov
eminent had now at last been estab-
lished which was to serve men, not mas
tiers! 1t is secure in everything ex-
cept the satisfaction that its life is
right adjusted to the uttermost to the
standards of righteousness and human
ity The days of sacrifice and cleans
ing are not closed. We have harder
things to do than were done in the he
role days of war, because harder to
see clearly, requiring more vision, more
calm balance of Judgment, more can
did searching of the very springs OF
right
Look around you upon the field OF
Gettysburg. Picture the array, the
fierce heats and agony Of battle, col
umn hurled against column, battery
believing to battery! Nalor? Yes
Greater no man shall see in war; anC
self sacrifice, and a loss to the utter
most; the high recklcssness of exalt
ed devotion which does not count the
cost We are made by these tragic
epic things to know what it costs t.
make a nation-the blood and sacrifice
of multitudes of unknown men LITE,
to great stature in the view of al
generations by knowing no limit t.
their manly willingness to serve II
armies thus marshalled from the rank
-
{ nation embattled, the leaders an,
the led, and may know, if YOU will
how little except in form its action
a differs in days of peace from its &C
ton in days of war.
May we break camp now and be a
ease! Are the forces that fight 70
the nation dispersed, disbanded. con,
to their homes forgetful Of the common
cause? Are our forces disorganized
without constituted leaders and tn
: might of men consciously united be
cause we contend, not with armies bu
! with municipalities and powers an
+ wickedness in high places Are VIC con
t tent to lie still? Does our union mea
/ sympathy, our peace contentment, on
II vigOur right action, our maturity self
comprehension and a clear, confidenc
t in choosing what we shall 10? Wa
!, fitted us for action, and action neve
ceases.
I have been chosen the leader o
the Nation. l can not Justify tn
choice by any qualities of my own, bu
so it has come, and here | stanC
Whom do | command? The ghostl
hosts who fought upon these battle
fields long ago and are gone? Thes
gallant gentlemen stricken in year
whose fighting days are over, thei
glory won? What are the orders fc
= them, and who rallies them? | hav
in my mind another host, whom thes
set free of civil strife in order thu
they might work out in days of peac
and settled order the life of a gref
Nation. That host is the people then
selves, the great and the small, withor