Macon beacon., 1917-06-15
President Wilson'S o4ddress
Before Confederate Veterans.

AASoiOSHb Wi5OHb IN MS auQFeS8 BAl0
Il esteem it a very great pleasure
and a real privilege to extend to tht
men who are attending this reunion the
very cordial geetings of the govern.
ment Of the United States.
II suppose that as you mix with one
another you chiefly find these to be days
of memory, when your thoughts &c
back and recall those days Of struggle
in which your hearts were strained, in
which the whole nation seemed in grap-
pie, and dare say thst you are thrilled
as you remember the heroic things
that were then done.
"You are glad to remember that he
roic things were done on both sides and
that men in those days fought in some
thing like the old spirit of chivalric
gallantry.
There are many memories of the
civil war that thrill along the blood and
make oge proud to have been sprung Of
race that could produce such bravery
and constancy; and yet the world does
not live on memories. E
1.-THE world is constantly making it's
toilsome way forward into new and diff
ferent days, and l believe that one of
the things that contribute satisfaction
to reunion like this and welcome
like this is that this ID also day of OBJ
livion.
SERVICE NOW IN COMMON.
There are some things that we
have thankfully buried. and among
them are the great passions of division
which once theatened to rend this ma
tion in twain.
''The passion of admiration we still
entertain for the heroic figure of those
old days, but the passion of separation,
the passion of difference Of principle is
gone gone out of our minds gone out
Of out hearts, and one Of the things
that will thrill this country as it reads
Of this reunion is that it will read also
Of rededication on the part of all of
US to the great nation which we serve
in common.
these are days Of oblivion as well
as Of memory. for we are forgetting
the things that once held us ssunder.
Not only that. but they are days of re-
joicing, because we now at last see why
this great nation was kept united. for
we are beginning to see the great
world purpose which it was meant to
serve.
GREAT ENDS OF PROVIDENCE.
MANY men / know, particularly of
your own gene ration, have wondered
at some of the dealings of Providence,
but the wise heart never questions the
dealings CT providence. because the
great long plan as it unfolds has a
majesty about it and definitencss of
purpose, an elevation of ideal, which
we were incapable Of conceiving as we
tried to work things out with our own
short sight and weak strength.
And now that we see ourselves part
of nation united, powerful, great in
spirit and in purpose, we know the
great ends which God in his mysterious
Providence wrought through our instru-
mentality, because at the heart of the
men or the North and Of the South
there was the same love of self.gov-
ernment and of liberty, and now we are
to be an instrument in the hands of
God see that liberty is made secure for
mankind.
"At the day of our greatest division
there was one common passion among
US, and that was the passion for human
freedom. We did not know that God
was working out in His own way the
method by which we should best serve
human freedom-by making this Union
a great United, indivisble indestructi-
ble instrument in His hands for the &C.
of these great things.
"As / came along the streets few
minutes ago my heart was full of the
thought that this is registration day.
Will you not support me in feeling that
there is some significance in this coinci-
dence, that this day, when | come to
welcome you to the National Capital, is
the dag when men young az you were
in those old days, when you gathered
together to fight. are now registering
their names as evidence of this great
idea, that in democracy the duty to
serve and the privilege to serve falls
upon all alike?
MANHOOD FLoCKING TO FLAG.
There is something very fine. my
fellow citizens, in the spirit of the vol
unteer, but deeper than the volunteer
spirit is the. spirit of obligation.
"There is net a man of ds who must
not hold himself ready to be summoned
to the duty Of supporting the great
government under which we live. No
really thoughtful and patriotic man p
/, lovu ~ khot ohli0at;on No WAN uyh<