The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1916-06-22
Ansel A. Packard
of the Graduating Class, u. of NJ. Gives
the Class Day Grafton.
From the Bangor Commercial

class day orator and proved himself
worthy of the name. He delivered an
GRAFTON that will be long remembered by
those who heard it. The Grafton was
well adapted to this era of preparedness
and was call to the students to do their
share towards the preservation of this
republic. Mr.. Packard said in part:
ION the afternoon of Nov. 10, 1868. a
vast, vast, silent multitude beloved.
like waves at sea, over what had been
not long before the battle of Gettys-
burg. True Americans all, they had
paused in the midst of that terrible
strife to do honor to the memory OF
those who had gone down in the storm.
On the platform before them lowered
loose hung figure, six feet four inches
tall, man awkward and addressed, in
whose haggard face seemed to be the
suffering of the sins of the world. Abra-
ham Lincoln, President of the United
States, out of the depth of his great
heart, spoke to his people these words,
which shall endure throughout all time:
" 1t is for US, the living, to be here
dedicated to the unfinished work which
they who fought here have thus far so
nobly advanced. 1t is for US to be here
dedicated to the great task remaining
before us-that from these honored dead
we take increased devotion to that
cause for which they gave the last full
measure of devotion that we here high
ly resolve that these dead shall not have
died in vain, that this nation, under God,
shall have a new birth of freedom, and
that government of the people, by the
people, and for the people shall not per-
ish from the earth.
"Students of the University of Maine,
men and women of America, across the
years that have flown since that still No
vember afternoon comes to you and to
me the clear call of that greatest OF
Americans demanding that you and |
dedicate ourselves to the great task
which those who have gone before US
have thus far so nobly advanced, de-
handing that you and here highly re-
solve that the blCod of our noble an
cestors shall not have been shed in vain.
And what shall be our answer?
"We of this generation do not have to
face the tasks that our fathers faced;
but we have our tasks, and woe to US if
we fail to perform them. We cannot
avoid meeting great issues, and we must
strive in good faith to meet those issues
in big way. This nation today is fac
ing some of the greatest problems that
any nation in the worlds history has
ever faced. Those problems must be
solved, and We must decide whether
they shall be solved in a way that will
rebound to the national credit or whether
they shall form a dark page in our his
tory.
you and are going out from these
beloved halls in few more days to take
our place in the worlds work, and as we
go forth we should ask ourselves: How
shall | live? How shall l make the
most of my life and put it to the best
use? How shall become man and do
mans work? Some college men through
genius or fortune become the great lead
ers of our nation as authors, scientists,
statesmen. 1t is not reasonable to sup
pose that we shall all become authors or
statesmen, but each and every one of US
is bound to become citizen, and upon
the college man the responsibilities of
citizenship are far heavier than upon his
less fortunate brother. And it is right
that this should be so, for his training
has fitted him for leadership, has sent
him out to strengthen the national life
where it is Weak-restrain it where its
tendencies are unnatural energiZe it
where it is devitalized-be it's final for
tress in time of need. Men with such
powers of leadership, if expressed in no
other way than by the casting of sin
gle ballot are the kind of citizens that
every man should strive to become.
And this is the call that | would
bring home to you today, the call to
citizenship, the call to the citizenship
which completely forgets self in the pas
sion of the life CT service. And just
where that service is to carry US in this
twentieth century we know not. Across
the water great nations are STRIVING
with one another in the most terrible
conflict that this world has ever seen.
Who can say whittier they will turn
next3 This great, wealthy, smiling.
and helpless land of ours must become
sore temptation to those nations in their
hour of famine and need. Then indeed
will our citizenship be tested, and now is
the time for us to prepare for that test,
and to point the way to those with whom
we come in contact
gu and | have as our heritage from
the glorious part of this country "a ma
ton conceived in liberty and dedicated
to the proposition that all men are
created equal We thank God for the
iron in the blood of our fathers, the men
who upheld the wisdom OF Lincoln and
bore sword or rifle in the armies of
Washington and Grant. Let US, the
children of the men who proved them
selves equal to those mighty days, show
that We are worthy of such parentage.
The supremacy OF the flag of the United
States of America must be maintained.
The army and the navy are the sword
and the shield which this nation must
carry if she Is to do her duty among the
nations of the earth-if she is not to be
the China of the Western Hemisphere.
"We are confronted by enormous
problems CT increasing difficulty. 1t is
cowardly to shrink from solving them in
the proper way, for solved they must
be; if not by US, then by some stronger
and more manful race. If we are too
weak, too selfish, or too foolish to solve
them, some bolder and ADLER people
must undertake the solution.
ave do not admire the man of timid
peace. We admire the man of victori-
Gus effort, the man who never wrongs
his neighbor, who is prompt to help a
friend, and who has those sterling quail
ties necessary to win in the stern strife
Of actual life. And so this call that
comes to US is call to the life of toll and
effort, of labor and strife, not to that
form of success that comes to the man
who desires more peace and ease, but to
the man who shrinks not from danger