COMRADES, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:
We have assembled to dedicate this beautiful monument, which marks one of the
places where the One hundred and forty-ninth New York Volunteers fought on this
field. My relations to this regiment were peculiar. It was raised in my native
county. Many of its members were my personal friends. It served with me from the
battle of Antietam to the close of the war, taking an active and important part,
not only on this field, but in a score of other battles. It was with me on the great
march from Atlanta to the Sea, and Savannah to Washington. I should be
ungrateful, indeed, if I failed to do all in my power to perpetuate the memory of
its gallant deeds.
Soon after the close of the war, a
few gentlemen, foreseeing
the interest which must be felt in the field on which the turning battle of the
great civic war was fought, formed an organization known as the "Gettysburg
Battlefield Memorial Association." A portion of land on which the battle
was fought was purchased, and it became the property of the Association. The
locations of various regiments and batteries mere marked. The first monument
erected on the field was the one on this line, erected by Massachusetts to mark
the place where so many men of the gallant Second Massachusetts gave up
their lives. This was followed by the State of Pennsylvania. Then some of the
soldiers of our State, remembering that we had more men in this battle, and lost
more in killed and wounded than any other State, went to our Legislature and
secured an appropriation of $I,5OO for each regiment and battery from New York,
to be used in the erection of monuments. We have now on this field eighty-two
monuments. I congratulate you that after the lapse of twenty-nine years you are
permitted to return, and with this monument mark the place where you and your
comrades so gallantly fought.
For many years after the battle of
Waterloo, English historians, poets and novelists vied with each other in glorifying the
heroes who fought under Wellington on that renowned field. These Laudations reached every fireside where the English language was spoken.
In my schoolboy
days, a part of our daily exercises in reading was an extract from "Childe Harold"
on the celebrated ball given by the Duchess of Richmond to the officers of
Wellington's army, on the night before the battle of Waterloo.
"There was a
sound of revelry by night,
And Belgium's capital had gathered then
Her beauty and
her chivalry, and bright
The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men?"
Every schoolboy could repeat these lines from Byron. And at that time I thought,
if I ever crossed the ocean, my first visit would be to that far-famed field,
and that the sight of it and of one of the heroes who fought there would amply
recompense me for the journey.
And, yet, comrades, you fought on this field a
battle greater than that of Waterloo; greater in the number of men engaged;
greater in the loss of killed and wounded; and far greater in its effect upon
the destinies of mankind.
You often hear some of your comrades spoken of as
" poor old soldiers." Some of them, I regret to say, are poor - poor
in health and poor in pocket. But, in another sense, no good soldier is
absolutely poor. We are all rich in a wealth of memory; rich in feelings such
as must have come rushing upon you as you approached this field after the lapse
of twenty-nine years. They are all rich in a nation's gratitude.
During our
Civil War there were men in every Northern State of an age and in a physical
condition to qualify them for the service, and had no ties binding them to their
homes stronger than those which bound you and me to ours, but who could not be
drawn into the ranks even by the draft. Some of cannot prove to-day by their substitutes
that they ever bade God speed one of these substitutes, or to any other soldier
as he marched to the field. Some of them cannot prove by their own families that
in the hour of the Nation's peril they did so much patriotic service as to even
breathe the hope that the next news from the front would bring tidings of a
Union victory. They spent time criticizing the government - cursing Lincoln's
hirelings and damning the draft law. And when the war was over, disappointed
that it had not proven a failure, some of them sought to rob the government
creditor by compelling the redemption of his bonds by an unlimited issue of
paper money.
Now, my comrades, I know not of what you think of this breed of
patriots, I have no hesitation in saying, that, in my judgment, the poorest old
soldier that served on this field, as he hobbles past you on crutches and in
rags, is rich in comparison with one of them.
Once more I congratulate you on
the happy circumstances under which are permitted to return to this field which
reflects so much honor upon you. To-morrow you go to the Nation's Capital, and
will march once more over the same route that you followed at the Grand Review
at the close of war. You will find the Capital greatly improved. Instead of a
straggling village with unpaved and dirty streets, you will find one of the
most beautiful cities in the world - a city teeming smith life and prosperity.
The improvement in the city of Washington is typical of that of our entire
country. We are a prosperous and happy people, and to you and to your comrades
the Nation is indebted for this prosperity and happiness.
