II. A MASTERPIECE OF MEANING FOR AMERICA
The battle of Gettysburg is regarded by historians as one of the decisive battles of the world. It was fought July 2, 3 and 4, 1863. On the first anniversary, a great national meeting was held there to dedicate the ground as a government burial place for the soldiers who had died there.
Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, on the eve of the dedication, in the course of an address, said, “I thank my God for the hope that this is the last fratricidal war which will fall upon this country, vouchsafed us from heaven, as the richest, the broadest, the most beautiful and capable of a great destiny, that has ever been given to any part of the human race.”
At the opening of the ceremonies, before a vast concourse of people, from all the Northern states, convened on the open battlefield, Rev. T. H. Stockton said in the course of his dedicatory prayer, “In behalf of all humanity, whose ideal is divine, whose first memory is Thine image lost, and whose last hope is Thine image restored, and especially of our own nation, whose history has been so favored, whose position is so peerless, whose mission is so sublime, and whose future so attractive, we thank Thee for the unspeakable patience of Thy compassion, and the exceeding greatness of Thy loving kindness.... By this Altar of Sacrifice, on this Field of Deliverance, on this Mount of Salvation, within the fiery and bloody line of these ‘munitions of rocks,’ looking back to the dark days of fear and trembling, and to the rapture of relief that came after, we multiply our thanksgivings and confess our obligations.... Our enemies ... prepared to cast the chain of Slavery around the form of Freedom, binding life and death together forever.... But, behind these hills was heard the feeble march of a smaller, but still pursuing host. Onward they hurried, day and night, for God and their country. Footsore, wayworn, hungry, thirsty, faint,—but not in heart,—they came to dare all, to bear all, and to do all that is possible to heroes.... Baffled, bruised, broken, their enemies recoiled, retired and disappeared.... But oh, the slain!... From the Coasts beneath the Eastern Star, from the shores of Northern lakes and rivers, from the flowers of Western prairies, and from the homes of the Midway and Border, they came here to die for us and for mankind.... As the trees are not dead, though their foliage is gone, so our heroes are not dead, though their forms have fallen.... The spirit of their example is here. And, so long as time lasts, the pilgrims of our own land, and from all lands, will thrill with its inspiration.”
Edward Everett, as the orator of the day, said in the course of his scholarly address, “As my eye ranges over the fields whose sod was so recently moistened by the blood of gallant and loyal men, I feel, as never before, how truly it was said of old, ‘it is sweet and becoming to die for one’s country.’ I feel, as never before, how justly from the dawn of history to the present time, men have paid the homage of their gratitude and admiration to the memory of those who nobly sacrificed their lives, that their fellowmen may live in safety and honor.... I do not believe there is in all history, the record of a Civil War of such gigantic dimensions where so little has been done in the spirit of vindictiveness as in this war.... There is no bitterness in the hearts of the masses.... The bonds that unite us as one People,—a substantial community of origin, language, belief and law; common, national and political interests ... these bonds of union are of perennial force and energy, while the causes of alienation are imaginary, factitious and transient. The heart of the People, North and South, is for the Union.... The weary masses of the people are yearning to see the dear old flag floating over their capitols, and they sigh for the return of peace, prosperity and happiness, which they enjoyed under a government whose power was felt only in its blessings.... You feel, though the occasion is mournful, that it is good to be here! God bless the Union! It is dearer to us for the blood of brave men which has been shed in its defense.... ‘The whole earth,’ said Pericles, as he stood over the remains of his fellow citizens, who had fallen in the first year of the Peloponnesian War, ‘the whole earth is the sepulchre of illustrious men.’ All time, he might have added, is the millennium of their glory.”
The place and the occasion were supremely inspiring to patriotism, not only for the triumph of moral principle in one’s country, but for its meaning to all humanity. The great battlefield spread out before the eyes of the vast concourse gathered there from all the states, and the spirit of the heroic scenes animated every mind.
Edward Everett, then regarded as the greatest orator in America, had delivered the dedicatory oration through a long strain of attention, during the weary and fatiguing hours. The President was then called on to close the dedication with whatever he might feel desirable to say. He did so in a few words, but these few words are cherished as among the greatest contributions to the meaning of civilization. To one of the decisive battles for freedom in the world, it gave a starry crown from “the voice of the people” as “the voice of God.”
The War Department appropriated five thousand dollars to cast this speech in bronze and set it up on the battlefield of Gettysburg. It is regarded as a masterpiece of dedication in the literature of the world.
“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
“Now we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
“But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
“It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us: that from the same honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead should not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”