Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-05-30
MEMORIAL DAY

On his return from a recent visit
at Gettysburg Mr.. Norman L. Bas-
sett of this city gave the writer a
COPY he had made of the letter Of in
vitation Judge Wills of the commit
tee wrote to President Lincoln. It
is reproduced on the left tablet Of
the Lincoln Speech Memorial in the
national cemetery.
The sentiment so we'll expressed
in these lines, the associations they
have with the inspired Gettysburg
address of Abraham Lincoln, the ad-
dress which has become a classic
throughout the world and should be
familiar to every American school,
child, are such as to make them es-
pecially appropriate for considera-
ton on this Memorial Day:
1.-THE several states having SOL
diers in the Army of the Potomac
who were killed at the battle of
Gettysburg or have since died at the
various hospitals which were estab
lished in the vicinity have procured
grounds on prominent part of the
battlefield for cemetery and are
having the dead removed to them
and properly buried.
these grounds will be conse-
Grated and set apart to this sacred
purpose on Thursday the 10th in
slant. 1t is the desire that you as
chief executive of the nation formal
ly set apart these grounds to their
sacred use by few appropriate re-
marks. 1t will be source of great
qualification to the many widows
and orphans that have been made
almost friendless by the great battle
here to have you here personally and
it will kindle anew in the breasts of
the comrades of these brave dead
who are now in the tented field or
nobly meeting the foe in the front
confidence that they who sleep in
death on the battlefield are not for
gotten by those highest in authority
ana they will feel that should their
fate be the same their remains will
hot be uncared for"
And the great Lincoln came and
did just what the committee asked.
and in so doing gave message
which will be helpful to humanity so
long as the world cherishes the
printed word. He did it so simply
and unaffectedly-an eyewitness told
Mr.. Bassett that the only gesture
Lincoln made was when he flung
out long arm as he said "that from
these honored dead we take in
creased devotion to that cause for
which they gave the last full meas
ure of devotion"-that comparatively
few realized at the moment the
grandeur of it's simplicity and the
enduring spirit Of its sentiment.
Memorial Days come and go, each
inspiring eloquence, renewing faith
in mankind and in an overriding
Providence, each impressing yet
more deeply, we trust that truth to
which Abraham Lincoln gave utter
ance: 1T is rather for us to be here
dedicated to the great task remain
ing before u.s." realizing that the
great tasks did not pass with the
Civil War, but are part IF the
heritage of all born of woman.
1t should support us in this COM
prehension to recall that we also
have heritage from those whose
graves are today being remembered
throughout this land and in far
foreign lands. even by people who
do not speak our tongue, but who
have hopes. fears and sympathies
akin to our own.
And is it too much to believe that
as the years pass there is. imbuing
the sentiments Of Memorial Day, the
profoundly wise and sympathetic hu-
mainly which inspired Abraham Lin
coin?