The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-05-30
MEMORIAL DAY.

zaaH - ouFSeoFo Wno seven yeaFS ago our
fathers brought forth upon this cent?.
nent, new nation, conceived in Iiber-
ty and dedicated TO the proposition
that all men are Srsatsd equal.
"Now we are engaged In great
civil war testing whether that nation
or any nation 90 conceived and 90
dedicated can long endure. We are
met on q great battlefield Of that war.
We are met to dedicate q portion Of
il as the final resting place of those
who here gave their lives that that
nation might live. II 10 altogether fit
ting and proper that we should do
this.
But in q larger sense we cannot
dedicate, we cannot oOnseerate. we
cannot haIIow this ground. The brave
men, living and dead, who struggled
here have eonseoratsd it far above our
power to add or dstraet. The world
will little note nor long remember
what we cay here, but Il can never |
forget what they did here. II 10 for
us, the living, rather to be dedicated
here TO the unfinished work that they |
have thus far 30 nobly carried on. II |
10 rather for Ne to be here dedicated |
to the great task remaining before usj |
that from these honored dead we take
increased devotion to the cause for
which they here gave the last full
measure Of dsVotionj that we here
highly resolve that the dead shall not
have died in vain; that the nation
shall, under God, have new birth of
freedom, and that government of the
people, by the people, for the people
shall not perish from the earth"
LineoIn's Gettysburg Speech.
Fifty-four years ago Abraham Lin
coins undying Gettysburg speech ap-
piled to one country.
Today the thought that he voiced at
Gettysburg has a world application.
That we here highly resolve that
the dead shall not have died in vain"
now applies not only to the men whose
memory we honor today but to every
man who has given his life for freedom,
since the Magma Charta was wrested
from King John in 1915.
Memorial day, 1917, finds America
again aligned with the forces of free
dom and liberty. Americas wars have
ever been such, since the Colonists
took up arms for the right of self
government. In 1872 We fought for
the freedom of the seas. The war with
Mexico was to give freedom to Texas
The Civil war was to give freedom to
h. ella M 70 H.
public. The war with Spain was for
the freedom of Cuba. In the Boxer
troubles in China, America aroused
the wonder and admiration of the
world by returning the indemnity paid
by China, and today that money is be-
jng used to bring education to the peo-
pie of that great republic.
/ Today. America is the chief hope of
the forces Of democracy in the world.
,Wearied and war torn they turn to her
for help in their death grapple. If
this latest of the struggles for the
right of men to govern themselves is
lost, all the martyrs to the cause of
freedom since the days of King John,
will have died in vain. The War of
the Revolution will have been futile;
the Civil war mockery.
Today, when the memory OF the
veterans of the Civil war is being
honored, LincoIn's words should burn
themselves into the soul of every loyal
American. THAT the government of
the people, by the people, for the peo-
pie shall not perish from the earth.
IL those words are forgotten, then the
men whose graves are being reverently
decked with flowers in Fargo today,
died in vain. The gave their lives for
an ideal. Millions more are repeating
the sacrifice today. Millions more in
America are willing to follow the torch
of freedom into the trenches of France.
We must take up the burden these
veterans have laid down. Nothing else
matters. Nothing else counts. Moth
ing else in this life is worth while If
we fail in this test.
ITO such a task we can devote our
lives and our fortunes; everything that
we are and everything that we have,
with the pride Of those who know that
the day has come when America is
privileged to spend her blood and her
might for the principle that gave her.
birth and happiness and the peace
which she has treasured.
\ God helping her, she can do no 9TH
err