Year: 1863

med by age, and in this mastery production Mr..
Everett has even surpassed himself For clear,
condensed, concise statements, accurate, COM
pact historical narrative close, forcible and
convincing arguments, keen sarcasm deep
pathos, powerful logic, rich rhetorical imagery,
simplicity of style and classical allusion, this
Grafton is unrivalled


Standing upon the ensanguined nights of Get
tysburg, where American valor and American
steel had rolled back desperate hordes of trail
tors, led by their favorite chiefs, with terrible
carnage, discomforture and dsgrace-surround-
ed by fifty thousand representatives, of nineteen
loyal States-the truest, most learned and dis
tinguished citizens of the land-with such a
theme the orators powers had the greatest scope
and were stimulated to their highest eXertion.


The orator commences his exordium by con-
else statement of the law in Athens requiring the
obsequies of the citizens who fell in battle to be
performed in the most honorable manner, at the
public expense. Upon those who fell at Mara
thon was bestowed the distinguished honor of
entombing them the very spot their valor had
made immortal. In this we find precedent, for
c0IOmDlUp our DIuNc anu uOuoltu utttu Oll tuC
nights of Gettysburg, which in the same man
ner has been made renowned for all coming time.


What heart could remain unmoved on listen
ing to such opening sentences as these as that
fell from the eloquent lips of the polished orator?
We have assembled friends, fellow-citzens,
to pay the last tribute Of respect to the brave
men who laid down their lives for their country
on these hill-sides and the plains spread out be-
fore us and whose remains have been gathered
into the cemetery which we consecrate this day.
As my eve ranges over the fields whose sods
were so lately moistened by the blood of gallant
and loyal men, | feel as | never felt before how
truly it was said of old, that it is sweet and be-
coming to die for ones country" The speaker
then proceeded to draw the terrible picture of
the condition the United States would have been
in if the noble Army of the Potomac instead of
hurting back the tide of invasion, had itself
been beaten, trampled down and scattered to the
fourwnds of heayen-the joy that thrilled the
loyal heart of the nation when the announce
ment from the President was flashed over the
continent that the Army of the Potomac under
Gen. Meade, had again smitten the invader.


Mr.. Everett states of his own personal knowl-
edge that one of the chief leaders in the rebel
lion admitted in the winter of l8G0-6l that
the rebellion was planned and had its origin
more than thirty years ago, during which time
they had matured the plan of secession, and on
the 4th of March, 1861, by sudden movement
they intended to occupy the national Capital,
seize the Public Archives and Treaties with
Foreign Powers and that there is abundant
proof that there was dark plot laid, if not by
the responsible chiefs of the rebellion, yet by the
nameess rufians willing to play subsidiary
and murderous part in the reasonable drama +;
(meaning the assassination of the President on
his way to Washngton,) that the rebel emissa-
| res abroad insisted that the new American Min
lister ought not to be received as the Envoy OF
the United States, because, by the time he should
arrive Washington would be in the hands of the
Confederates, and that in accordance with this
plan the rebel Secretary of War at Montgomery
on the day Sumter fell, declared in the presence
of his Chief and five thousand fellow conspira-
tors that " before the end of May their flag
would float over the dome of the Capitol at





facts to refute the false pretenses puttorh by the
rebels and their sympathizers that the war on
their part is one of self-defenseT and waged for
the RIGHT of self-government, and to obtain their
Constitution rights.


The brief statement of the campaign of Gen.
Hooker Immediately preceding the appointment
of his successor, reflects the highest honor upon
that officer. Although Lee had army equal
in numbers and discipline to the Army of the
Potomac, flushed with success, and playing a
deep game of strategy by which he hoped to de-
ceiye and out-mannuver Hooker, and gain some
great advantage, yet all his plans were penetra-
ted by the sagacity of the latter, and complete
ly foiled by his superior Generalship.


OF the battle the speaker says that it was
fought by the Union army with courage and
skill from the first cavalry skirmish on Wednes-
day morning, to the fearful rout of the enemy on
Friday afternoon, by every arm and every rank
of the service, by officers and men-by cavalry,
artillery and infantry. The two armies from the
first day were numerically equal ; if the Union
army had the advantage of position, the Con-
federates had that of choosing time and place
the prestige of former victories over the Army
Of the Potomac, and of the success of the first
day" Mr.. Everett shows that Lee fought the
battle with 900 men, and suffered loss of
over one-thrd of that number and that Gen
Meade's loss was twenty-three thousand q that
the struggle of the last two days resembled in
many respects the battle of Waterloo, and if at
the close of the third day Gen. Meade, like the
Duke of Wellington, had had the assistance of Il
powerful auxiliary army to take up the pursuit,
the out of the rebels would have been as com
plete as that of Napoleon"


The orator fastens upon the rebels the respon-
sibility of the war, with all its attendant hor-
ror-shows that this rebellion is unlike the re-