Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-07-04
TRIBUTE PAID
TOREUN|TED
VETERANS
President, in Mastery Speech,
Stirs the Great Throngs on
Historic Battlefield.

GETTYSBURG, PA, July 4.-Pres-
ident Woodrow Wilson. in addressing
the veterans of the battle of Gettys-
burg at the reunion here to-day. said:
Friends and Fellow Citizens: need
not tell you what the battle of Get
tysburg 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 hill
sides their comrades died about them
In their presence ii were an imper-
thence to discourse on how the battle
went, how 1t ended, what It significd
But so years have gone by since then
and l crave the privilege 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 might of a great
the past has been. We have found
one another again as brothers and
comrades in arms, enemies no longer,
generous friends rather. our battle
song past. the quarrel forgotten-ex-
cept 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 union has become and how
dear to all OF us and how unques-
toned. how majestic as State after
State has been added to this, our
great family of free men
"Heirs to Mighty Heritage
How handsome the vigor. the ma
turity, the might of the great nation
we love with undivided hearts; how
full of large and confident praise that
life will be wrought out that will
crown a strength with greater justice
and with a happy welfare that will
touch all alike with deep contentment.
We are debtors to those 90 crowded
years; they have made us heirs to
mighty heritage
But do we deem the nation com
plete and finished? These venerable
men. crowding here to this famous
field, have set us & great example OF
devotion and other sacrifices. They
we're 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 an
other spirit. Our day is not over; 1t
is upon us in full tide.
Have affairs paused? Does the
nation stand still? Is what the so
years have wrought since those days
of battle finished. rounded out and
completed?
Calls Nation Secure.
Here is a great peopie-great with
every force that has ever beaten in
the life blood 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 squared itself with its own
great standards set up at its birth,
when it made its first noble, naive APP
peal to the moral judgment of man
kind to take notice that a government
had now been established which was
to serve men, not masters?
TT is secure in everything except
satisfaction that it's life is right, ad-
justed to the uttermos to he sand
ards of righteousness and humanity
The days of sacrifice and cleansing
are not closed. We have harder
things to do than were done in these
heroic days of war, because harder to
see clearly, requiring more vision.
more balance of judgment a more
candid searching of the very springs
of right.
Look around you upon the fields
OF Gettysburg. Picture the array
the fierce heats and agony of battle,
column hurled against column, bat
teries believing to batteries. Valor?
Yes, greater no man shall see in war;
and self sacrifice and loss to the ut
termost: the high reckiessness of ex-
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