Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-06-01


era for them,-based upon human
progress. The lesson was hard one.
and | am not certain but that we of
the North would have found 1t quite
as hard to accept the new conditions
as did the South had the tables been
turned but with the passing of the
generation of States Rights leaders,
there came a new South founded upon
industrial progress. Fer four years
2,000 600 men who should have been en-
gagged in developing the latent forces
of our great country. had on the con-
trary been seeking not only the de-
struction of each other, but also the
destruction of the accumulated wealth
of generations of toll and struggle.
Farms had lain fallow, and where
formerly the melodious hum of in
dustry was heard, silence deep and pa
thetic brooded and over the whole
land, the whitening curse of war had
spread its blight, but out of this cha
otto condition order began to take
form and the soldiers of 81 COM
menced a conquest for peace and ma
tional unity. All glorious has been
that peaceful struggle for national
greatness until today you, who have
been permitted by a benificent Provi-
dence to reach the hilltop of human
existence may see the fruition of your
hopes and be satisfied.
In 1865 our population was 35 900 900,
today it is 9S,00O,00o In 1865, the value
of real and personal estate was about
S20, 600 100000, today it is more than
$100, 000, 100000. In 1865 we were operat-
ing about $4,000 miles of railway, to-
day more than 250,000 miles. In 1865
we were raising s67,0O0,000 bushels of
corn, and 150,000,000 bushels of wheat.
Today we are raising 5000 900 BUSH
els of corn, and 700,000,000 bushels of
wheat. In 1866 a large area of our
country both east and west of the
Rocky Mountains, was but an arid
sun-scorched plain over which the red
man held dominion, save here and
there might be found the humble
abode of adventurous whites; the
skirmish line of that advancing and
irresistible host of civilization that
is ever moving out to the border-land
of the unknown, but today iron path
ways traverse those once dreary
reaches; the waters of great rivers
are. made to halt and reach out their
arms to bless and reclaim, and now
those lone wastes are blossoming like
the Gardens of God" and are the
support and comfort of millions of
our people.
Since that memorable struggle of 81
this country has made marvellous ad-
vancement in education, religious lib
erty, and political freedom. Our
great soldiers have been great states
men, and those who fought for and
saved this glorious Republic have
been a no less force in Its growth and
development. The call of today is for
sounder business principles. purer re-
ligious thought and cleaner political
activities, and though We may never
reach the summit of the mount Of
High Ideals, yet none of us can evade
our civic responsibilities.
We are the greatest nation on earth,
but the measure of our future great
ness will depend solely upon the man
hood of the generations to come. for
no nation is greater than it's citizen
ship.
The North and South are now fra
ternizing The old partition wall was
destroyed at Appomattox never to be
rebuilt. This was demonstrated in
that historic charge against the le-
gions of Spain at San Juan Hill in
1898. The old animosity long since
died out, and the boys in blue and
gray now touch elbows in social re-
union. In 1863 the armies of the North
and South met on that now historic
battlefield of Gettysburg, and for three
days fought with such desperation
that more than 10000 men were report
ed killed. wounded and missing.
In 1918, 80 years later, remnants of
these two brave armies met again on
the old field of battle but this time
not in conflict but in loving Reunion.
Where 80 years before the blood of
the chivalrous sons of the North and
South had Redeemed the sod of Get
tysburg now tears of these survivors
mingled in common over the graves OF
their dead comrades sleeping there,
Fifty years before a field of carnage.
now a city of white tents enfolding
the warm-hearted and generous sur
vivors of that historic battle. Now
IN place of bayonet and sabre thrust,
they clasped hands at the bloody
angle" instead of q war-note, the
bugle sang softly of peace, and over
this transformation, the flag of a re-
united country waved with never a
star missing from its blue field. And
the North and South met there as
comrades, and with moist eyes and
faltering lips spake not of the lost
cause nor of the victorious North, but
of their heroic dead sleeping in their
nameless graves under the Southern
skies.
Today l hear a voice more potent
than any earthly voice. bidding us to
sacredly guard and keep this price,