Various / 2008-09-27 00:00:00

Nor was our country
gladdened then by news from Gettysburg alone. The army that day
twined noble laurel garlands round the proud brow of the
motherland. Vicksburg was, thereafter, to be forever associated with
the Declaration of Independence, and the glad anniversary
rejoicings, as they rose from every town and village and city of the
loyal North, mingled with the last sullen echoes that died away from
our cannon over Cemetery Ridge, and were answered by glad shouts of
victory from the far Southwest. To all of us of this generation,
--and especially to such of us as were ourselves part of those great
events,--this celebration, therefore, now has and must ever retain
a special significance. It belonged to us, as well as to our
fathers. As upon this day ninety-three years ago this nation was
brought into existence through the efforts of others, so upon this
day six years ago I am disposed to believe through our own efforts,
it dramatically touched the climax of its great argument.
The time that has since elapsed enables us now to look back and to
see things in their true proportions. We begin to realize that the
years we have so recently passed through, though we did not
appreciate it at the time, were the heroic years of American
history.
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