The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-05-30
MEMORIAL DAY, 1918.

"Four-score and seven years ago our
new nation, conceived in liberty and dedt-
Gated to the proposition that all men are
=. Now we are engaged in a great civil war,
3. testing whether that nation, or any nation
so conceived and dedicated. can long en-
dure We are met a great battleheld OF
that war We have come to dedicate por-
p ton of that field. as final resting place
- of those who here gave their lives that tnat
nation might live. 1t is altogether fitting
and proper that we should do this.
&c cateIwe cannot CONSERVATIVE cannot hall
Z. low-this ground The brave men lvlng
and dead who struggled here. have conse5
or detract. The world will little note. nor
long remember what We say here but IT can can
. never forget what they did here; 1t Is Tor
~ US the living rather to be dedicated here
to the unfinished work which they who
( fought here have thus far nobly ad-
Is vanced. It is rather for us to be here dedi-
Gated to the great task remaining before us
increased devotion to that cause for which
they gave the last full measure of devotion
q that we here highly resolve that these dead
shall not have died in vain-that this ma
. ton under God, shall have new birth or
II freedom-and that government Of the people,
/ by the people, for the people, snail not perish
from the earth"
Those simple, wonderful words Of Abra-
ham Lincoln were uttered ffty-fve years
ago, but the millions of Memorial day edi-
torials that have been written since then,
and the thousands Of Memorial day
speeches that have been made since then,
have left no sentiment approaching that
contained in these three paragraphs.
On Memorial day, 1918, America is fac
ing the same trials, the same sorrows, the
same crisis that she faced in 1868.
But a few thousands Of the veterans Of
the Civil war remain. This is their day,
and they should not be forgotten in the
anxieties of the present strife. Fifty-fve
years ago, they were the flower Of Amerl-
can manhood. They were the men who
went. And blood will tell. The best evil
dence of that is in the survivors of the
Civil war. There are no paciists or dis
. Ioyalists among them. A list of the Civil
war survivors will be list Of men who are
giving all that remains Of their enfeebled
energies to the cause Of America now.
All honor to these heroes. We, who have
not lived through the stirring times of 81,
may have seen at times, in the veterans Of
that war, only men who were living in the
past and may even at times have grown
impatient at repetition of the events of the
great struggle. But it is not so now.
lily -AN6 y6d1S CIEO LA4C 4LLCLL viz "O1AO W
the Civil war were the same type of men
who are going across to France now
splendid young fellows with the call Of ad-
venture stirring their blood; the thrill Of
patriotism and high endeavor in their
hearts. All honor to the "boys" of 81.
We will not have them with us long, and
the world horror that is taking all our
thought and all our energies now, but i'm
presses upon us more deeply the debt we
owe these grey haired heroes.
President Wilson has designated this as
a day of fasting and of prayer. Our
prayer is: "God bless the boys of 81
and the boys of 1918 and help us to con-
secrate ourselves to the unfinished work
making the world free as the grey haired
heroes made the nation free"