Year: 1863

II fHWrcNH ~ 7ecHNAa ~ - Wnfaflt ffNftIa9ufns


The evening before the dedication cere-


monies, Baltimore band serenaded the


President Secretary Seward, and other


distinguished guests Of tho. citizsns Of Get


tysbufg. After two Of three airs by the


band, mingled in the calls COR the Secreta-
ry, Mr.. Seward made his appesrhnce and


spoke as follows;


FEnow-CTIzEEs am now sixty


years old and upwards; ! have been in


public life practically forty years Of that
time, and yet thisis the first time that ever
any people or community 50 near to, the
borders Of Maryland was found willing to


listen TO my voice; and the reason was that
l said forty years ago that Slavery was
opening before this people a graveyard
thatwa to be filed by brothers falling in
mutual political combat. knew that the
cause that was hurrying the Union into
this dreadful strife was Slavery, and when
| did elevate my voice it was to warn the
people TO remove that cause when they
could by constitutional means, and 50 avert
the catastrophe of civil war that now I'm
happily has fallen upon the nation, delug-
ing It in blood. That crisis came, and we
seethe result Tam thankful that you are
willing to hear me at last. Aalpaed VIZ 20


thank my God that believe this strife
is going to end in the removal of that evil
which ought TO have been removed by
peaceful means and deliberate COUNCILS
Good. thank my God for the hope
that this is the last fratricidal war which
will fall upon the country--acountry vouch-
safed by Heaven--the richest the broad
est, the most beautiful, most magnificent
and capacious ever yet bestowed upon a
people, that has ever been given to any part
of the human race. fApplause.1 I And
thank God for the hope that when that
cause is removed simply by the operation
of abohshing il, as the origin Of the great
treason thatiswithoutj justification and with
out parallel, we shall thenceforth be united,
be only one country, having only one hope,
one ambition and one destiny. TApplause
Then we shall know that we are not enc
mics, but that we are friends and, broth
ers, that this Union is reality, and we
shall mourn together for the evil wrought
by this rebellion.


We are now near the graves Of the mis-
oNiNNN1 "AASih We navy W tfltI
last resting place with pity for their errors
and with the same heartfull of grief with
which we mourn over the brother by whose
hand, raised in defence ofhs Government,
that misguided brother persisted. When
we part tomorrow night, let us remember
that we owe it to our country and 10 man
kind that this war shall have for its CON
clusion the establishing of the principle of
Democratic Governmental simple prin-
ciple that whatever party, whatever por-
ton of the Union prevails by constitutional
suffrage in an election, that party is to be
respected and maintained in power until
it shall give place on another trial and an
other verdict to different portion of the
people. Good. Ifyou do not do that,
you are drifting at once and irresistibly to
the very verge of the destruction of your
Government But with that principle this
Government of ours-the freest, the best,
the wisest and the happiest in the world
must be, and, so far as we are concerned,
will be, immortal. [Applause.]