"Thus far nothing is problematical, but the people of future America are a study.
"We know how sturdy and enduring the Anglo-Saxon is, how volatile yet tenacious is the Frenchman, how sober, solid and unwavering is the German, and how hardy and everlasting are the people who inhabit with the Polar bear. These are American now, but the Ethiopian and the Asiatic are to be added. The Star of Empire from the East and from the West have met upon the American continent. I believe the original Anglo-Saxon trunk will sustain all these grafts and that a nation will come of us by the cross of all civilized people that will be as superior to any of them, as the grafted fruit is superior to that of the seeding. Future America will be fitly symbolized by the Lion and the Polar Bear, surmounted by the American Eagle.
"With one country, one language, one hope, one aspiration, bent sublimely upon achieving the highest intelligence, virtue, and culture that man can ideal, diffused through a population of five hundred million people, inhabiting one-quarter of the habitable earth with a republican government, is a spectacle that the world has never yet seen, but is to see through us and our children.
"And but for these sacred graves, which we, and all the people throughout the land, have come today to crown with wreaths of flowers, no such hope, no such picture of the future of our country would be possible.
"The future destiny of the American absolutely demanded that the fundamental idea of the Declaration of Independence should be made true, and that Liberty (in fact, as in name) should be proclaimed throughout all the land to all the inhabitants thereof, and also, that the United States should be one and inseparable forever.
"Need I tell you how bravely and how well the army of the Union settled these questions? The men who lie silent beneath our feet and their comrades, have taught the South, and Great Britain, and the world, that the belt of country usually known as the North is the heart and power of the Republic. It is the strong arm that pushes the car of civilization in the new world. It is the second Defender of the faith of our Forefathers. It has fought the good fight, and many of its bravest sons have gone to their reward.
"The Republic is emancipated, impartial suffrage and equality before the law established, and the work of regeneration is left for us and our posterity.
"During all the long struggle which literally ridged the country with graves like these, there was everywhere present, through the ranks of the grand army, an abiding faith in the future greatness of their country, and in the final triumph. No soldier ever despaired of the Republic.
"We come today to crown their valor by decorating their graves. What great eulogy can we pronounce upon them?