brilliantly tried by both contestants in that high court of last resort where the sword decides. As Pennsylvania honors this project with the presence of her whole official household, bringing also the surviving veterans of Chickamauga, Wauhatchie, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, so we, in turn, rejoice to proclaim the honors due the second state in the Union-but second to none in the practical exhibition of her patriotism and her prowess on every noted battlefield of the war. In the familiarity of our great family this State of Governor Hastings' is known as the Keystone State, and well does she deserve the name. But on these fields she established a new and prouder title to it. Never was more imposing arch erected since wars began than was traced upon the towering slopes of Lookout when the lines who wore the blue, contending long but at length successfully against the stout and desperate and memorable defense of Walthall, carried their banner to the foot of the palisades. You surviving Pennsylvania veterans, in common with the soldiers of two armies, looked upward through the night of November 24, thirtyfour years ago, and saw that arch of gleaming lights. There under the cliffs, at the highest point gained in the battle, those flashing guns were from the lines of Pennsylvania's Twenty-ninth and One hundred and eleventh-the keystone of that historic arch of battles whose fame will endure so long as Lookout stands on its firm foundations. But with the morning light there came even a prouder sight for you, and all of us. With the earliest rays of that beautiful dawn, calm and peaceful as if death had never stalked along the front of battle or the smoke of conflict obscured earthly vision-floated the flag of the Union from the summit of the palisades-above the keystone, above the banners of all the states. And so it was everywhere-nation above state-until the war ended, and in its great heat not only had states been welded into a perpetual and indissoluble union, but into a nation which to-day presents the grandest example of concord and unity of purpose to be found on the planet. Standing in this southland, we rejoice with all its thoughtful men over results which have brought renewed and most vigorous life, disenthralment from old conditions, dignity to labor, unexampled development, and the spectacle of vast communities, thoroughly American, with faces set with high purpose toward the working out of national destiny. It is a source of keen satisfaction to be afforded this opportunity to testify before these veterans and their assembled friends to the invaluable and unflagging support which the Governor of your Commonwealth has given to this park project, both in efficient action at home and encouraging visits to the field. At every point where his help has been requested his prompt response has placed the veterans of his state and all friends of the park under obligations which they gladly recognize and which they will always remember. Of your State Commission it is true that no one of the twenty-six commissions now co-operating with the National Commission has been more active or efficient, more careful of the interests committed to its keeping, more considerate of the wishes and plans of the National Commission, or more deserving of high praise at its hands. It is also a pleasure as well as a plain duty to testify in your presence to the interest taken in the promotion of this park project by President McKinley and the constant support afforded by Secretary Alger, under whose especial direction the work of its establishment is rapidly and efficiently progressing. But, my friends, while there is a deep and abiding meaning in the fact that Pennsylvania comes here to honor the military achievements of her sons and preserve their memory till the centuries shall have crumbled granite and wasted bronze, there is a deeper and more far-reaching meaning in the fact that all the states, of the south as well as the north, are engaged with equal enthusiasm under the same national authority in the same work. You have seen on the field of Chickamauga the guns of every Confederate battery that fought there against the flag, re-established by the national government to mark the points of their fighting, and to tell to the ages the military skill and courage with which they were served. You have seen the state monuments of Tennessee and Georgia and Missouri rising along their former lines of battle. You have seen the multitude of tablets erected by a National Commission under the authority of Congress, which for each side alike commemorate a story of American valor, that is a national glory and a national resource as well, since in that story may be clearly read the military possibilities of a warlike future whose fitful gleams are playing even now like summer lightning around our whole horizon. Have you ever read of anything like our park in history? Did any ration ever exist where its establishment would have been possible? In the development of the race, union between warring states has never been complete before. But in the furnace of our contest every trace of dross was consumed, and the forging of our battles was a more perfect union and a stronger and a mightier one than the world has seen. We are all conscious of this, and we glory in it. The world will learn it whenever, as a united nation, we are called to righteous war. There is no element in all our work which glorifies the lost cause. Even those who upheld its tattered banners do not seek that. But every soldier who stood in the front against them till the union triumphed and we became brothers again, knows that the magnificent military skill, endurance and valor which rallied to support that cause incited the north to military efforts and deeds which had never even floated in its dreams before. And so it came to pass that north and south, after a four years' course in their school of war, graduated this nation as a first class military power. And now we all know that the history which stands recorded on the fields around this city, repeating on monuments and tablets as it does the story of the unexampled development of American endeavor in battle, has carried this nation forward with striding steps far along the path of its great destiny. Our park first suggested that union by which the sol diers of the north and those of the south came together on a famous battlefield to unite in an equal commemoration of American valor. The whole nation responded, and has well learned the lesson which such union teaches. We are now conscious of our military prowess. We remember the tremendous blows which each section struck on many fields when the nation stood divided. And veterans of both armies will be forgiven if in all their musings over the future they picture to themselves an American army in battle array, moving forward to accomplish its purposes under a common flag, with the common inspiration of the veterans of Grant and Lee, Rosecrans and Bragg, of Thomas and Longstreet, of Wilson and Forrest and Wheeler. Unless all present signs of fast-growing jealousy of republican progress on the part of foreign powers fail and fade, there are veterans who will see this; there are armies of the sons of veterans who will take part in it, and be rendered invincible by the stirring memories of those great military deeds which their fathers performed either under the stars and stripes or the battle banner of the south. But the winter of war has gone. The breath of spring has covered all our battlefields with flowers and verdure; and summer has ripened fraternal harvests into the majestic nationality in which we all take equal pride. In the beautiful language of a true poet who was visiting the battlefield of Antietam when orchards were blooming, and the husbandwas busy everywhere: man "There are domes of flowers where spread the white tent, And now, sir (addressing Governor Hastings), commissioned by the Secretary of War, it becomes my duty, as it is my privilege, to receive these monuments with which Pennsylvania has honored her heroes, and by which gift she now honors the Nation, into the perpetual keeping of the Great Republic. After General Boynton's address, General J. P. S. Gobin asked the audience to join in singing the first stanza of "America." As they sang the last line the Chautauqua salute was given, and the national flag was unfurled from the rostrum. It was a beautiful and inspiring incident. MR ADDRESS. HON. H. CLAY EVANS, COMMISSIONER OF PENSIONS. R. CHAIRMAN, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania:- The good people of Chattanooga, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge have gathered here today to greet you, to welcome you on this historic, war-famed Orchard Knob, where Generals Grant and Thomas stood on that ever memorable afternoon of November 25, 1863; and from this knob witnessed the boys in blue climb to the top of yonder ridge in the face of shot and shell hurled down upon them from the battery crested summit; from here they witnessed the march of the stars and stripes to victory. I confess to no little embarrassment on this occasion, (with a military history so inconspicuous as mine,) surrounded as I am by men whose military services here and hereabouts contributed to make the name of the American soldier the proudest boast of a grateful Republic. You have come from your distant homes to visit the places made dear to you by the hardships and dangers incident to camp and battle of a third of a century ago to commemorate the memory of your brave comrades who stood with you then, many of whom, no doubt, have journeyed to that world where there are no wars. When the Civil war began there were two things necessary to successmen and money. Money was necessary to buy commissary and quartermasters' supplies, arms, ammunition, and all the paraphernalia necessary to equip an army; the amount of money necessary was in excess of any demands theretofore, and by many considered as impossible to secure, but the great men of this nation, the statesman, the official, the accredited agents of the government, secured the necessary loans, and then promises were made that with the dawning of peace and the return of prosperity, which was sure to follow this, people would pay back these loans in the good hard yellow gold of the Republic. This promise has been kept, and I regard it as one of the brightest pages in the history of this glorious Republic. Everywhere our praises have been sung, and while we, as citizens of this great government, take a commendable pride in the maintenance of the honor and integrity of our people, we are particularly pleased at the commendations from other nations. While the financial credit of this nation was so gloriously maintained there was another contract made, another promise far more sacred and inviolable than that for money. From the beginning to the ending of the war, from the first enlistment to the last, from the firing on Fort Sumpter to the surrender at Appomattox, there was an appeal being made to the patriotism of the people, to the young men of the nation. Everywhere the promise went out, from the pulpit, from the press, from the Legislature, State and National, aye, from the people all, to those that would join the Union Army, go to the front and battle and save the nation, preserve the union of states, that they should be forever thereafter kindly and . considerately cared for; the dead were to live always in the hearts of the living, the maimed should be appropriately provided for, and the returning heroes should be cared for and the wants of the widow and the orphans were to be as sacredly provided for as were the ashes of the fallen husbands and fathers most vigilantly guarded. The first contract, the one for money, was made in the usual legal form, the second contract, that with the soldier, was made upon the field of battle, surrounded by the rattle of musketry, the roar of cannon, the clashing of sabres, and signed with the bayonet dipped in blood. The first contract was carried out to the letter of the law. The second contract will be carried out to the fullest measure. This generous govern ment that you contributed so much to preserve; this government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish, but will carry out all its promises to its soldier defenders, and will all over this broad land, erect monuments, as you have done here, to the memory of its heroes, and their bravery and heroism shall be told to generations yet to come. ADDRESS. C BRIG-GENL. THOMAS J. STEWART, ADJUTANT GENERAL OF PENNSYLVANIA. OMRADES, Ladies and Gentlemen:-With no thought of having a word to say on this occasion, assigned no duty, or place in the published order of exercises, the subject treated so fully and eloquently by the able speakers who have already addressed you, leaves me at a great disadvantage. But there is an inspiration about these scenes, these fields, and this day, which all must feel. We are removed by three decades from the great Civil war. In all the years of man, never had such a conflict been waged. Never had better, braver, or more determined men met in battle. Never did victory or defeat mean so much. If victory came to Union arms, the great problem of universal liberty and the brotherhood of men was solved. Here men contended who were not enemies. They were brothers, sons of the same soil, framers of the same laws-not men of different races. They had contributed as brethren in all that made American valor and American soldiership glorious. "Brothers in blood were the men of the blue and men of the grey." Men of the blue, this is your day, and this one of your fields of glory. There are other fields where men just as brave as you stood with their faces illumined with the joy of battle. They were friendly rivals with you at the nation's altar of patriotism, and to-day your heart and your hand goes out to them in patriotic greeting and gratitude, but it was here and for you and yours that Heaven seemed to take the stars from the flag you carried, and lit up the clouds that rested on yonder mountain. It was you and your comrades, living and dead, of those days in 1863, that made Chattanooga, Chickamauga and Lookout Mountain fadeless and immortal, and gave new meaning and new glory to the American volunteer soldier. Three decades have been woven into the life and the history of this Republic since these and other fields ran red with blood-were strewn with dead and dying, with hopes that were shattered, with altars that were shivered, with hearts that were broken. Since then these fields have paid tribute to the husbandman and the seasons in their unceasing round |