A MORE PERFECT UNION[47]
GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS
Upon this field consecrated by American valor we meet to consecrate
ourselves to American union. In this hallowed ground lie buried, not
only brave soldiers of the blue and the gray, but the passions of war,
the jealousies of sections, and the bitter root of all our national
differences, human slavery. Here long and angry controversies of
political dogma, of material interest, and of local pride and tradition,
came to their decisive struggle. As the fate of Christendom was
determined at Tours, that of American Independence at Saratoga, and that
of modern Europe at Waterloo, the destiny of the American Union was
decided at Gettysburg. A hundred other famous fields there are of the
same American bravery in the same tremendous strife; fields whose proud
and terrible tale history and song will never tire of telling. But it is
here that the struggle touched its highest point. Here broke the fiery
crest of that invading wave of war.
This is one of the historic fields of the world, and to us Americans no
other has an interest so profound.
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