Page images
PDF
EPUB

2223-29

1862, Pent: 2.

Gift

Hon. Chas. Sumner, W. S. I,
of Bosten.
(Class of 1680.)

SEP 101905

ADDRESS,

BY HON. ALFRED A. ABBOTT, OF SOUTH DANVERS.

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE SOCIETY:

Since your last public festival, another year with its rolling seasons has passed away, and again we are gathered together, to hold friendly communion, to witness the result of each other's new experiences, to exchange congratulations upon what has been accomplished, to gather fresh courage for futnre labors, and reverently to acknowledge and devoutly to thank that kind Providence, which, sending the sunshine and the rain alike upon the just and the unjust, has smiled upon our efforts and has crowned all with his blessing. We meet to-day under circumstances peculiar and unparalleled in the history of this Society, now celebrating its forty-fourth anniversary. To be sure, all Nature is the same,-in none of her great operations has there been any change. No earthquake has shaken, no famine scourged the land, no pestilence has walked in the darkness or wasted at noon-day. The seasons have come and gone in their appointed order. Seed time and harvest have not failed. Upon the hills and valleys, the fields and meadows, which, when we last met, were rejoicing in the ripening crops, and from which our barns and granaries were plenteous

ly filled, descended as of old the white frost and mantling snows of winter. Then came once more the welcome spring, with its warm south winds and gentle rains, and swelling buds, and fresh verdure upon the hills, with all its new and wondrous birth of vegetable life, till the summer's sun poured out its full effulgence to nourish the labor of man and ripen the fruits of the earth,-and until now again the autumn, in all her golden pomp has come, bearing in her bounteous arms the varied products of the soil, to reward the labors of the husbandman and to gladden the hearts of the sons of toil.

But while nature has thus been the same, unvarying, beneficent and true, in the political relations of men, in public affairs, a fearful revolution has sprung up, and is now in mid and mad career. Instead of being at peace with all the world, instead of living in harmony with each other, the United States are involved in a bloody war,—and worst of all, a war in which those who for so many years have dwelt in prosperity and happiness together, are contending with and have turned their swords against each other. It is a war in which are involved two momentous issues, perhaps the most momentous which have ever been staked in any struggle since Christian civilization began. The first issue is, whether the experiment, the last, greatest, best experiment of a free government, is a failure or a success; whether the hope of the world, the desire of ages, for which patriots in all times and in all lands have struggled and died, a Free Republic,-so vast in extent and rich in resources as to wield imperial power, so based upon justice and truth, imbued with knowledge and morality, and actuated by virtue and honor, as to exercise that power for the benefit of mankind,-whether such a republic can exist and survive, and go on culminating in glory and might, and be for a light and a joy to all the nations, or whether it must follow in the sad train of barbarous kingdoms and despotic powers, and like the dynastics which survive only in their crumbling ruins, go out in anarchy and blood. This is the issue in which all Christendom is interested.

The second issue is involved in the first, but it is one which more immediately concerns ourselves. Our fathers, who came to this western world to enjoy religious liberty, soon and naturally imbibed in its exercise the idea of political freedom. And when they and their children found the yoke of kingly power oppressive and galling, they declared, and fought for, and established their independence as a nation. And then, with calm deliberation, seeking wisdom from the past, planning blessings for the future, and ever while acknowledging still imploring aid from above, they proceeded to frame a constitution and ordain a government, the Constitution and Government of the United States of America. Under these the Republic has gone on, steadily, rapidly, expanding its borders, developing its resources, increasing its power, the intelligence, moral culture and refinement of its people, keeping pace with its material growth, its manufactures and arts rivaling in skill and beauty the productions of the old world, its agriculture not only sustaining its own vast population, but sending of its abundance to foreign shores, the sails of its commerce whitening every sea, and glistening over waters which the keel of no adventurer ever before ploughed, its navy upon the ocean, its army upon the land, bearing aloft its proud stars and stripes through storm and battle to triumph,-until, by all the world no nation was more respected or admired, until through all the world there was no nation whose people were more prosperous and happy.

In the midst of this sunshine came the storm. Almost from the clear sky fell the thunderbolt. No foreign foes assailed us, but in our very midst, led by those who had enjoyed the highest honors and emoluments of the Republic, sustained by those who had been nourished by its bounty and had received its choicest benefits, there sprang up as in a day, matured, full-grown, full-armed treason and rebellion. Their avowed purpose was to subvert the government, and to destroy the union of the States. To this end they have violated their oaths, have plundered the public revenues, by cunning and

fraud, or with a strong hand, have seized arsenals and forts, have marshaled vast armies, have fought sanguinary battles, have wrought misery and ruin and death, have wasted and desolated the land,—until now the solemn question is, and this is the second great issue, whether we are any longer to have a government, and with power to enforce its laws and protect its subjects, whether the institutions which have thus far secured to us such moral and material blessings are any longer to shield, protect and preserve us,-whether the Union, hitherto our pride and strength, and the only certain security for our progress and prosperity hereafter, is further to endure,-or, whether, on the other hand, our very national existence is passing away, and with it all that has made our American citizenship so prized and dear to us,-whether, torn and rent asunder, we are for the long dreary future to be embroiled in strife, and lasting wars are to dwarf our civilization and blast our very life,-whether, in fine, we are to be domineered over and trod under foot by rebels and traitors, and mad ambition, and cruel selfishness and unreasoning hate are to engulf alike the cherished memories of the past, the treasured realities of the present, and the once fond hopes for the future, in one common ruin.

Such are the issues involved in the war which is upon us,—a war which has given new color to all our thoughts and new form to all our actions,-which has filled the land with martial spirit and the air with the strains of martial music,-which has put to flight the well-nigh settled ideas of the beauty of peace, and has smoothed and made glorious the rugged front of war,-which has almost displaced the waving grain and tasseled corn with serried ranks and bristling bayonets-which from town and country, from workshop and farm, from field and fireside, from shop and study, from all pursuits of life and all ranks of society, has sent forth armed hosts to fight, and, if need be, to fall in defense of what our fathers fought and fell to establish, and to transmit unimpaired the rich legacy they bequeathed to us.

« PreviousContinue »