Show evenly eve n ty ear c S ince 11 C the gettysburg Gettys ays bur Y add address is S tf 0 OM As yau 4 aj M taffs Z ah ya mf f J A ti d A fu hl lu l u inra y efm w ev jacv e la A fv casy A amt cf if h als y 1 l fadl fl alva Va tuv 1 l o cazsy y iu AZ A Z 0 fw auff evv fe a A M of sz tasi lt AA t ifft coln taken 0 act f tu firn fi r n tl o flat egx aw aa ol t C i tc ii A X sy W uia pw t 7 u AA ie if w kovnit 4 jak 0 j at le w a KC a u ai cat uy ic fcc am avri fv ri p tac als ras C wi kf j v 2 ilsy ils y ata art f aya JA a f 43 A av W ca jaa ar afu arro ao edwa 6 f everett ait tajma LO IM jav burrt fU rrt hemn fr AS 5 aa w aa jpe j hs pe satu AJ A J N uro U ro csc fw eav icv vj I 1 autv t asu fax hoka M fa l fate 0 i A ato Y A Ayi ai 7 1 AWS 4 ec 14 4 at stuff ft lincoln spearing aXing at gettysburg manuscript or of the gettysburg address Own liand where lincoln spoke 41 sy by ELMO SCOTT WATSON IT T WAS just 70 years ago that abraham BT lincoln standing on the battlefield of H gettysburg made a speech of exactly j 1172 words that lias has been called a classic ic which will endure as long as the H anglish language Is spoken and that la Is one of the mildest tributes amid the shower of extravagant praise which has been lavished upon a speech in which the speaker himself said tho the world w will III little note nor ions kemem ber what wha t we say here thereby proving himself a poor prophet indeed no matter how ge great abe he was in nearly every other respect so ml much c h tins has been said about Lincol ns gettys burg adar ss and so bo much has been written about it I 1 including n ch ding a 24 p page age book about a word speech 1 it would seeni tint that we americans who are proud to claim this masterpiece or of mod ern engllish eloquence as the product of one of our own kind would know everything about it even down to the minutest detail dutill hut but it Is probable that most of us its know little more inore about it than the fact that lincoln did deliver an im mortal speech at gettysburg a few months after the battle and we have a wore more or less clear re of some home or of the phraseology of tile tic speech s beginning with the sonorous four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a n new nation conceived conceded in liberty and dedicated to the proposition tr all ait nien men are created equal and continuing to ti it in climax of that government of tin pe people olle by the people for thy the people shall not perish from the earth hut but beyond those things the average american knows kno ws very little about some of the facts connected with the lie speech speece w make it one of the most amazing para boxes in history most alost americans know that lincoln was Is some thing of an also ran so far as the choice of the committee in charge of the celebration at viet get disburg that day dav was concerned they remco ber that the honor of being the orator of the day fell to edward everett and unit that his one hour and fifty minute speed speech hns has been forgotten white while tile the three minute of lincoln seems destined to immortality nut lilt even though ever etts speech has been forgotten how ninny of clr fellow country men know that the man hemsell wits important enough in Anie rican history to de serve tile the oblivion trint that has lilt lib speech isu iso it seems mortn while to devote a lit ht tie space to him before continuing the narrative of tile event in fit which lie he a leiding pir par even though the honors of the day went to an other man 1 was born barn in dorchester mass apri 11 1791 a member of one of the loading leading famille of sew new Eng england lind after several years ears of traye in germany anil and england he returned to tilt till country to occupy the chair of greek at harvard an and to become the editor of th clr north amerlean lie view one of the earl earliest lest ex es amples ot of the scholar holar hc in politics everett be came successively congressman governor 0 massachusetts minister plenipotentiary to eap land and after a brief interim i president 0 Il harvard arvard secretary tary of state in president ril pit mores cabinet allnet but his chief claici to mine lies in his being i vigorous cham champion champeon plon of american institutions it was tile fashion in aurolie to sneer at our d Y and an equally vigorous champion 0 li in fr public alid a of social justice lie was vas a v solute resolute opponent of white of indian landi land i without the consent or of tho the re man to film also was due the preservation of i sound cu burrene rrene in it the panic of 18 7 iid the t of the first bearil h ird of education in tl it united still staiti Sti iti no nivan record of ment this all and when there Is added to them t f fact act that flint at 1110 ift time lie the greatest orn ora in tile the country it Is easy to understand why those in of the dedication of the gettysburg battlefield cemetery should have invited him to deliver the oration at the dedicatory ceremonies so ko important was everett that when in reply to tho the committees invitation to be present on the date which they had set october 23 he wrote that it would be impossible for him to be prepared in such a short time the dedication to suit his convenience was postponed nearly a month to november 10 19 perhaps it should be explained that nt at this time gettysburg was not the national cemetery which it later inter became even though the corporation which controlled it was called the national soldiers diers cemetery this corporation had a board of trustees made up of representatives appointed by the goer governors nors of northern states IS 18 in number from which had come the union dead at gettysburg although these trustees had general charge of laying out the cemetery of the work of removal and of the bodies of tile the union lent deal and of making the plans for imposing dedication ceremonies tile the directing force tn in all of it was david wills a citizen of gettysburg and the representative from pennsylvania on the hoard board of trustees after the late date for the dedication ceremonies had been finally set formal invitations to attend the ceremonies were sent bent to president lincoln to the members of his cabinet of both houses of congress and of the diplomatic corps to generals meade and scott and to many other prominent citizens president Lincol ns invitation to be present ent was not a written individual request such as hall hail been sent to hdward everett and others says doctor barton in his hook book lincoln at it did not occur to any member of tile the commission that such a missive should be addressed to him what wits was sent to him film was ai a printed circular of which many hun fileds were mallet and wits was in no respect differ ent from lint sent to the most obscure congress man from minnesota or a consul from patagonia the sending of it to tn tile the president was a mere formality when mr air wills villa informed his fellow of mr air Lincol ns acceptance that group was very greatly surprised and they cannot be mid to have been overjoyed the statement made earlier tn in this article lint lincoln was ns an also ran at the gettysburg Is bissil upon both verbal and written of the late dark clark K R carr member of she ilie board or of trustees front from illinois it was ft as carr who lini suggested to the other members of the corn com nettee vint the resident president be invited to speak and 0 ve o have bove ills ida word for it that his suggestion was lot received with uh any great enthus enthusiasm lasin by some it if the kotlier members in hla his book lincoln nt at ae lurg carr says tile the proposition to ok ask mr air lincoln to speak it the gettysburg ceremonies was an after thought the president ot of the united states had ike the other distinguished personages been invited incited to bo be present but air lincoln was not at that time invited t to n speak in fact it did not wm to occur to any one that lie ho could speak on meb inch an occasion scarcely any member ot of the board excepting tie lie member representing illinois had ever heart heard ilm alm speak nt at all and no other member had ever heard or rend read front from him blin anything an thing except cal discussions when the suggestion was made that lie he he limited invited to speak while all expressed high appreciation of his great abilities as a political sp as aa shown in his de ue bIte i tc with stephen A t Doa douglas glas and in his cooper coner institute address the question was aa raised r FJ 1 to his ability to erik gp ak upon such a n arme and dolcin occasion as that lint of the memorial ser service Berv vIre lre besides it wits was sald that with his important duties and nal lie could nut not possibly have the to prepare tin on address for such un occasion in an awer to this it was urged that ho he himself better than anyone else could determine as to these questions and that if ho he were invited to speak lie he was sure to do what under the circumstances would be right and proper it was finally decided to ask president lincoln after the oration that Is to say after mr everetts Ee oration as chief executive of the nation to set apart formally these grounds to their sacred use by a few appropriate remarks this was done in the name of the governors of the states as was the case with others by mr air wills but the invitation was not settled upon and sent to mr lincoln until the second of november more than six weeks after mr air everott everett had been invited to speak and but a little more than two weeks before the exercises were held so abraham lincoln accepting this tardy invitation vi went to gettysburg to make his few remarks which the dubious members of the com hoped although they were not sure would be appropriate even lincoln himself was probably a bit dubious about it for as doctor carton barton says sais lie he was vas painfully aware that on the next nest morning lie he must make a speech from the same platform that was to be occupied by a scho scholarly larland and eloquent orator there was only one hotel in gettysburg and it was so crowded that there was no room in it for tile president of the united states so he became a guest in tile the home of david wills in his room that night he made a farst draft of the speech which he proposed to give and the next morning lie he made a n few alterations anti and copied it over the next day ho he rode on horseback to the battleground tle albeit on a horse which was too smal so that lie he was far from being an impressive figure so all in all it would seem that the fates were bent upon ank making ing one of the greatest events in american history a veritable comedy of error and then when he did arrive at tile the cemetery it was discovered that mr air E had not yet arrived so the exercises began an hour late but eventually they were under tinder way and at last the great moment for which tile the crowd had bad been waiting arrived edward everett stood before them and the thrilling voice of a trained orator began standing beneath this serene sky overlooking these broad fields now reposing from the labors of the waning year ear the mighty al legh legli enles dimly towering before os its the graves of our brethren beneath our feet it Is with hesitation that I 1 raise my poor voice to break the eloquent silence of god and nature put there seemed to be no hesitation as the rich voice of the eloquent new englander glander Cn went on and on breaking the eloquent silence of god and nature for a matter of one hour and 57 minutes at the end or of which his listeners it if wo we lire are to believe tile the statements of some who were there were somewhat wearied of the flow of oratory there was a certain revival of interest when the president arose to speak four score and seven years icara ago the high pitched voice shrilled out over the crowd and b before his hearers could become accustomed to it lie stopped just ns as they thought he was begin birg after EYe everetts oration tile tho flen lents ts speech seemed almost no speech at all people were disappointed everett a great man himself could recognize greatness in another 1 I should be glad it if I 1 could hatter flatter myself that I 1 came as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours ns you did in two minutes lie ho said nut lilt not even eren this tribute could cheer tho the man alan of sorrows lie he went back to washington depressed in mind ns as lie was sick in body for lie thought tic he had failed lie he did not know lindhe and he could not know any more thin than the hundreds who heard ills words but failed to grasp spir significance that hat those few appropriate remarks of his would go ringing down the years rears to deathless glory B C by Wail tern union |