Mexico Missouri message., 1913-07-10
SPEECH BY WILSON
PRESIDENT ADDRESSES GREAT
THRoNG ON THE GETTYS-
BURG BATTLEFIELD.
PAYS TRIBUTE TO VETERANS
Nation Does Not Stand Still, He Says,
and Orders Of the Day for the
People Are Laws on Statute
Booka

Wilson's address today was the chief
feature OF National day in the celebra
ton OF the semi-centennial Of the Bat
tie OF Gettysburg. 1t was heard by a
vast crowd of old soldiers and others
and was warmly applauded
The presidents address follows:
Friends and Fellow Citizens: need
not tell you what the battle OF Gettys-
burg 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 we're an impertinence
10 discourse upon how the battle went,
how II ended, what It signifed! But
so 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 meant7 They have
meant peace and union and vigor, and
the maturity and might OF a great ma
ton. How wholesome and healing the
peace has been! We have found one
another again as brothers and com
rades in arms, enemies no longer, gen
erous friends rather, our battles long
past, the quarrel forgotten--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 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 happy welfare that
will touch all alike with deep content
ment! We are debtors to those 90
crowded years; they have made us
heirs to mighty heritage.
Nation Not Finished.
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
were 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 estab-
lished. Their work is handed on to
us, TO be done in another way but not
in another spirit. Our day is not over;
1t Is upon US in full tide.
Have affairs paused? Does the
nation stand still? Is 1t what the 80
years have wrought since those days
OF battle finished, rounded out, and
completed? Here Is q great people,
great with every force that has ever
beaten in the lifeblood of mankind.
And 1t 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 1t yet
squared itself with its own great
standards set up at its birth, when IL
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 salts
faction that its life Is right, adjusted
TO the uttermost TO the standards Of
righteousness and humanity. The
days Of sacrifice and cleansing are
not closed. 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, a more
candid searching OF the very springs
OF right.
Tribute to Their Valor.
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! Valor? Yes!
Greater no man shall see in war; and
selfsacriiice, and loss to the utter
most; the high recklessness OF exalt-
ed devotion which does not count the
cost, We are made by these tragic,
epic things to know what It costs to
make nation-the blood and sacri-
nee OF multitudes of unknown men
Htted to great stature in the view
OF all generations by knowing no limit
70 their manly willingness to serve,
IN armies thus marshaled from the
ranks OF FREQ men you will see, as 1t
were, a nation embattled, the leaders
and the led, and may know II you
WILL how little except In form It's
action differs in days OF peace from
It's action in days OF war
May we break camp now and be at
easef Are the forces that fight for the