Lincoln And Curtis

Gkttysburg, Pa., July 5.- ïbere was strange simiiarity betweea Tuesday and that o; justtwenty-five years ago Then tbe armies o: Meade and Lte confronted oicu other. L the Federáis and Confedérate were once more on the field, and ugain was t! e one o Seminary ridge and the otber on C'emeter bill. Nothing unusual occurred to break th nionotony umil 4 o'clock, vvben the Unions and Confedérales niet once more at almos the same liour at whioh they had joined i deadly combat twenty-flve years ago. The moüuments wbich were dedicated wer as follows: The Ftth New York cavalry ;th One Hundred and Fourteenth New York ii fantry ("Garuard Tigers") ; the Sixty-sevent New York (fiist Long islaud voiunteers auc known as Beecner's regiment, at which Rev Thomas K. Beechor, of Elmlra, N. Y., de Hvered the oration; the Third New York in depend nt battery, with Mnj (ien. W. S Rosecrü as orator; Battery B, New Yor artiDwv, aud the Tl irteenth New York In depeiiú i', battery. The bignul Corps associatioa of the armj of th,. ueld a meeting. Tbey detei mined to eiect an imposing tablet on Littl Rounil Top commemorative oL the wor done by th;s branch of the anny ín the battle. Thoy ako elected Gen. Jesse Merrill president, and decided to hold their animal réunioDS at the same time and place where the national cncampment of the Grand Anny of the Republ:o takes place. Gen. J. B. Gordon, of Georgia, was corapelled by uis official positiou as chief executive to eave for Atlanta. At tí o'clock the procession, eomposed of the same military commanda :is Moiiday, euterec the national eemetery and marched past the rostrum. At the conclusión of the parade Gen. RoMnson, of New York, as presiding offlcer, requested Rev. Twitehell, of Hart ford, to opeu the exernises with prayer. The poet of the occasion, George Parsons Lathrop was unable tobe present, butpart of his poem was read by Gen. Horatio C. King, the secretary of the Society of the Army of the Potomac, and was received by the au liénce with njuch applause. ■Vheu the orator, George Williara Curtís, was presented, three cheers were called for 'by Gen. Sharpe, and he was greated with hearty applause at the conclusión of his oration. Mr. Curtís spoke as follows: "On thislield we consécrate ourselves tothe American Union. In this ballowed ground lie buried not only brave soldiers of tbe biue and gray, l ut the passions of war, the jeaiousies of sections, and the bitter root of all our national differences - hutnan slavery. As the fate of Christendom was determined at Tours, thiit of American indepeudence at Saraloga, and that of modern Europe at Waterloo,the destiny of the American Union was decided at Gettysburg. "Fellow-Americans, in telling auy part of the stury of America we seem to boast. The simple statement of the truth sounds iike a fairy tale. Yet could the Citizen of any country exalt liis land with more reason? What other civilized state stretehes from oceari to oc.an with sucli a varied realm oí natural grandeur and beauty, with so vast a populatiun - so free. so intelligent, so industrious, so contented. 'N"ot easily nor rapidiy can tbe passions sprunj: from bitter local differenees, and cherished and strengthened for a generation, disappear. Often in hot and reckless protestatious those dying emutions will break forth like the d staat muttering thunder of a retiring storm. But the central fact is as bright ;ii a fixed star. T.ie line aoross the Union drawn by the fiaming sword of hostile social and iadustrial institutions and irreconcilable theories of the nn.iure and powers of the governoient itself - this latent revolution and nasceut civü war, have disappeared forever. At the end of 100 yeurs fue Union is the sacred, seamless garinent of equal rights, of harmonieus institutions, of accordaut views of the government, in which TO,000,000 of people in thirty-eigilt st.ites are invincibly orrayed. "The su ff. 'age is the mainspring, the heart of our comiiion Ufe; and whatever affects it iujuriously touches the natioual sensorium and the wbole country thrills. No community politicnllv founded upon tbe legal equality of the suffrage eau habituaüy disregard that eqU'lity without moral deterioration, groivinu' indifference to the authority of the law, and destructiou oL the democratic-republicsn principie. If ignorance and semibarbarous domiuance be fatal to eiviiized communitie-i, nut less so is constant and delibérate deitatice of law. In a national unión of statei, . iiere fair electious are assumed, Eystüinatiu fraud or violence or u)pressiou of votss, in the event of a closely contested poll, would inevitably destroy the conviction that the apparent result repfeseüteá the actual will ot the I z. voters, and tliat result would be cballeüged a mid disorder. It is not enough that a national eleetion be fair; it must be the national conviction that it is fair. "The citizens of this magnificent commouwealth can not ïvach across tUe Potoinac and impone tbeir will respeeting tbe suffrage upon the inother of states; nor can the states of New England. dictute legislación to the states ol the northwest. Eut the Virginian kcows that the Pennsylvanian is vitally mterested in bis action. Iowa and "Wisconsin know tbat Jiaine and Rhode Mand have a common stake in such local laws, andas Washington and Pinckney, Jefferson and Madison aal Martin, took counsel with Alexander Bamilton, Dr. Pianklin, Rufus King and Boger Sherman, bent upon a coinraon purpose, but with due regard to every local condition, so will their sous corner, fraternally fori earing, until tbe great problem of tbe sutïiage, and all other probleras are solved. "Car we wrest from tbe angel of this houiny blessing so priceless as the common resolutie i iaat we shall not have come to this eonseerated spot only to declare our joy and gratitud, nor only to cherisb proud and tender memories, but also to pledge ourselves to umon in its sublimest signifipancei Here ut lust is its sacred secret re vea 1 'd. It lies in tbe patriotic instinct wüicU has brought to tbis Beid the army of northern Virginia and the army of tbe Potomac. It lies in the manly eniotion witb whicb the generous soldier sees only the sincerity and courage of bis ancient foe, aud scorus suspicion of a lmgering enmity. It lies in the perfect freedom of speech and perfect fraternitj- of spirit which now for three days have glowed in these heroic fields and echoed in tbis encbanted air." Ihe ao.xiinblage, though not quite so large as on Mdjiday, was very attentive. and applaudod tlie orator frequently. Quite a number of Coufederates are in the oity. As a rule they have come as uais froiii different si-ctins. Among the few organizatiooa piesen: .re the Norfolk anc Fortsmouth canips. Wuerever a gray uniform is s en it is i'cund co bo surrounded bj a crowd of olJ veterauf in blue, ausious te shake hands and express their kindly feeling toward their uld antagonLsts. This fact impreHs the old soldier obserrers with the recollectlón of former scènes of twenty-five yesi's ao, v.hon the gray r.ere their prisonei guests ia tais city. A receptiou was held at the Springs hotel at night. The trains leaving here are fllled with departing veterans, but the city still remaius f uil, and it is expacted that the fourth day will be one of tne most enjoyable to those who remaiü. At uight a banquet was served at the Springs hotel At a business meeting of the department held in the cemetery it was de cided to hold tbe next suoiraer encampmeni at this place, the time to be determinad at the winter session. The flrst ctlebration on the fiell of Gettysbu g was 1 eld November 19, 1863, the yeai of the buttle. The state of Pennsylvaüia had purehasel a portion of the bstttle-ground for a Liirial place for the Un.on soldiers vrtic bad fallen tbere. Tte tract included 17$ acres adjoining the toivn cenietei'y. It was planned to consécrate the ground with imposing ceremonies, in which the president, accompanied by bis cs.binet and a large bodj of the military, were invited to asiisi. Th orator of day was Hon. Edward Everett, o! Boston, and it was undarstood that Presiden! Lincoln would make a short address on the same occasion. Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Everettt met for the flrst time on this msmorable dy. Mr. Even 's oration was a finíshed literary production. 8mooth, euphomous, and elegant. It was delivered with the silvery tones and the graceful gestures of "a traiued and consummate speaker. í'hen be liad finished and the applanse that gi'eeted hun had died away the muititude callcJ ïooiferouely foi Mr. Lincoln. With an unconscions air the president came forward at the ca!l, ;iut his spectacles to bis nose, and read, in a quiet voice, which gradually warmed with fealing, ( while bis careworn face became radiant with the light of genuine emotion, the following brief address: "Ponr score and seven years ago our fatbers brbught forth ou this coiitiueut a new nation, eoiieeived in libertv and dedicated to the proposition that all men a.'e created equal. "2sow we are engaged iii a great civil war, testing whetliL-r that nation or any nation so conceivu 1 and so deJicated can longendure. "We are niet on a great b-ittleñeld of that war. We have come to dedícate a portion of that field as a ünal resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we süould do this. "But, in a larger sense, we can not dedícate, we can not consécrate, we can not ballow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have conseerated it far above our poor power to add or detraet. The world vvill Httle note nor loag reraember what we say here, but it can never fórget what ;hey did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfiuisbed work whicii they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us - tbat f rom these honored dead nre take increased devotiou tothat cause tor wliieh they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolva that these dead shaü not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have u new birth of f reedom, and that government of the people by the people "or the people shall not perish from the earth." This was one of the briofest of the mauy peeches witb which Mr. Lincoln had swayed ;he impulses and opinions of crowds of bis ellow-men, but it is the one which wil] be ■emembered above all othere as hallowed by he truest and loftiest inspiration. As the inal sentence er.ded amid the tears and sous and cheers of the excitad throiag. ti.e president tnrued to Mr. Everett, and, grasping lis hand, exclaimed with sincerity: "I congratuiate you on your success." Mr. Everett responded, ir. the fervor of bis emotion: "Ah, Mr. President, gladly would I er.change U my liuadred pages to have bee;i the auhor oL vuur twenty lines. '"