"¦

"TOiY

RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE AMERICAN CITIZEN.

AN ADDRESS

delivered before the

A L II I S I

PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE,

ia

•Mgr

AT THEIR

ANNUAL MEETING, AUGUST 10, 1864.

v

BIG, C. MAIM), A.M.,

OF BAI-iTI'MORE, Mil,

GETTYSBURG:
H. C, NEINSTEDT, PRINTER, FRANKLIN STREET.
NEAR CORNER OF WEST.
1864.

'^)K\

j^

IZtoA.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE AMERICAN CITIZEN

AN ADDEESS

DELIVERED BEFORE THE

ALUMNI

OF

PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE,

ANNUAL MEETING, AUGUST 10, 1864,

BY G. C. MAUND, A. M.,
V-< -*
OF BALTIMORE, MD.

GETTYSBURG:
H. C. NEINSTEDT, PRINTER, FRANKLIN STREET,
NEAR CORNER OF WEST.
1864.

Gettysburg, Pa., August 11, 1<864.
£r. G. Maund, Esq.
Dear Sir : We have been appointed by the Alumni Association of
Pennsylvania College, to thank you for the excellent and patriotic Ad
dress, you kindly delivered last evening, and to request a copy for pub
lication. Allow us to add, that we shall be gratified, if you will comply with the
wishes of the .Association. With sincere regard,
Truly your friends,
M. L. STOEVER,
J. L. SCHOCK,
D. WILLS,

Baltimore, Md., Oct. 9, 1864.
Gentlemen : In reply to your note, permit me to say, that my Ad
dress was composed during the excitement of the ten days of the past
summer, when Baltimore was menaced by the Rebel forces of Early,
and when they were in such proximity to Gettysburg as to place its de
livery in doubt. It was not designed for publication, but I do not feel
at liberty to decline your request. With sentiments of high regard,
Sincerely your friend,
GEO. C. MAUND.
Prof. M. L. Stoever,
Rev. Dr. Sciiock,
D. Wills, Esq.

ADD HESS.

Gentlemen of the Alumni :
We ought never to forget that to be a citizen of a repre
sentative Republic is a great privilege which imposes solemn
responsibility. Under an oligarchy or a despotism this is not
60, or at least not to the same degree. When by the frame
work of his government he has no part in the administration
of affairs, no voice in the election of rulers, the enactment
of laws, or the choice of public measures, the citizen must
feel that at best he is impotent to impress his country's des
tiny. He may, indeed, cultivate in himself and others the *
amenities and charities of life, he may do something to fos
ter the growth of science and of art, and by the permission
and under the auspices of an enlightened and benevolent ru
ler — such as fortune will occasionally vouchsafe — he may
adopt and employ many of the agencies that have been found
useful in ameliorating the condition of man. Still, as regards
the great questions of the foreign and domestic policy of
his country, questions the decision of which determines the
character of his nation at home and its relations to foreign
powers, which affect its honor, its integrity, its renown, ques
tions of extreme importance presented by urgent crises, in a
word, as regards all those great acts, measures and resolves
of government, which direct the career of his country, de
termine its fate and create for it a history among the nations,
the citizen, or subject of a despotism knows that he is dumb
and powerless, that he must passively walk as he is led, and
that he must muse in silence his aspirations for that better
day when man's individual dignity and equality shall be con
fessed and realized.

It is far otherwise under a republican form of government;
where supreme power is exercised by the people. Let it be
observed that I am not now insisting upon any superior ex
cellence in this form of government, although I do not doubt
it, but I am claiming attention to the graver and more press
ing weight of responsibility which under this form of gov
ernment attaches to the citizen. The welfare and destiny of
the Commonwealth are at last in his hands, Upon tbe wis
dom and fidelity, the courage and devotion with which he
meets and discharges his duties, its safety, prosperity and
honor depend. It is true that under this, as under other
forms of government, the powers of government must be im
mediately exercised, not by the citizens in their aggregate
mass, but by agents, or officers. There must be agents to
enact the laws, and agents to execute them, and agents to
decide, for the time being, the measures and policy by which
affairs shall be conducted ; still as these agents are chosei)
by himself, and as it is a fundamental maxim in every well-
considered system of representative government that the
office-holder's term of service must be of comparatively limi
ted duration, it is next to impossible for the state to be over
thrown, or radically damaged by misgovernment except by
the failure of the citizen himself to perform his duty. Upon
him it devolves to elect capable and worthy men to office ; and
upon him it devolves to pass sentence upon the acts and meas
ures of those in office and to remove from office such as have
betrayed his trust. So we perceive, without further expan
sion of this train of thought, that under a republican form of
government, the weal or the woe, the prosperity or adversity
of the people, so far as these things depend at all upon gov
ernment (and they do to an almost incalculable extent,)
rest with the people themselves ; they are their own govern
ors. Now while these prerogatives and this power confer
upon the pitizen true dignity and grandeur, they also exact
from him the most solemn regard to the duties with which
these prerogatives and this power are associated. For pow
er is always associated with duty, and no power is more im-

portaht than that which controls the happiness ahd destiny
of a nation.
What I have thus far spoken it will be seen, is of general
application. It applies to the citizens not of one, but of all
republics, whether of this or of former times, which are re
ally representative and are controlled by the people. It ap
plies equally to that diminutive republic of Amlnrre, which
confined in its sway to the limits of a narrow valley, is un
noticed beyond the Pyrenean hills which overshadow it, as to
that of mighty Rome which unfurling her victorious standards
to every breeze proudly dictated her laws to the world. Un
der all such governments the position of citizen must be
clothed with great dignity and solemn responsibility ; but
how much greater is the dignity, and how immeasurably
weightier the responsibility of a citizen of the Republic of
the United States.
It is not a self-complacent conceit of our national vanity,
but the deliberate judgment of the most enlightened minds
of Europe, expressed repeatedly, and in every form, that the
great problem of man's capacity for self-government is being
solved by the American people — that to us is confided the
fate of free republican institutions throughout the world —
that the ark of the covenant between man and man, securing
to each equal rights and equal dignity before the law, is en
trusted to our keeping, and that if it be shattered in our
hands, or be wrested from our protecting grasp, it will be dif
ficult to perceive and hard to imagine even that another peo
ple, more highly favored, will ever arise upon the earth who
will be able to preserve and defend what we have disastrously
lost. And surely there is much reason for believing (I will
not say fearing) that this view is not incorrect, and that it
does not overstate or exaggerate the critical and awful con
nection between the fate of our beloved country and that of
our common humanity. I say there is reason for believing
this when we cousider the auspicious beginning of freedom
in our land, the triumphant success by which her rule has
been vindicated, and the resplendent future which she h»s

displayed and seemed to secure for [us and our posterity.
Never before was a government so freely and deliberately
adopted by the people as this. "Delegates were appointed
to the Convention which framed our Constitution to deliberate
and propose. They met and performed their delegated trust.
The result of their deliberations was laid before the people.
It was discussed and scrutinized in the fullest, freest and se
verest manner, by speaking, by writing and by printing, by
individuals and by public bodies, by its friends and by its
enemies," and the result was, it was ratified and adopted. I
need not rehearse, what is known to us all, the magnificent
and unparalled progress which our people have made for
some seventy years, in arts and sciences, in commerce and
manufactures, in agriculture and mechanical inventions, un
der the operations of this free government, thus deliberately
adopted ; the consideration in which they have been held
abroad, and the individual and general happiness which they
had enjoyed at home. It is enough to say that we had reach
ed a commanding height of prosperity and power that won
for us the proud title of the Great Republic, that our ex
ample had become the fear of tyrants — the hope of the op
pressed ; and was compelling throughout the civilized world
the admission, willing or reluctant, that the only form of gov
ernment entitled to man's respect and acceptance is that
which is based upon the natural rights and inborn dignity of
our common nature. If to this be added that we have been
possessed of an almost boundless domain of virgin soil, wash
ed by the Atlantic and Pacific, pierced by numberless navi
gable streams and rivers, and upon which nature had bounti
fully lavished her choicest stores of wealth with profuse
hand, it may well be asked, when freedom shall perish here,
where will she survive ? If she be compelled to take her
flight from these favored shores, in what more congenial
clime may we expect that she will find an abode ? It is to;
be feared that such questions must meet a sad response, and
that our failure to preserve inviolate the precious heritage
of our institutions would not only be a misfortune and a

9
calamity to ourselves, but a deadly and irreparable shock to
freedom everywhere.
How serious and responsible a position then is held by the
American citizen ; serious and responsible, yet imposing and
grand. Yes, even in our days of anxiety and sorrow, of
gloom and danger and apprehension, it is a proud and glor
ious privilege to be an American citizen. Ought. I not rather
say, more proud, more glorious, because of the gloom and
danger ? It is a fair and good and pleasant thing to love
one's country, and to support and cherish her beneficent insti
tutions and laws in the days of prosperity, and sunshine and
tranquility, but when the storm falls, and darkness that may
be felt is upon the land, and old friends turn away and be
come foes, and once beloved fellow countrymen draw the
sword of treason, and the fair pillars of his government are
made to reel and totter, and to threaten anarchy and chaos
by their fall, it is a proud and glorious privilege to be an
American citizen then — however humble — standing up, erect
and resolute; unmoved, immovable in the cause of country,
of truth, of freedom and of the inalienable and eternal rights
of our common humanity. These are days that try men's-
souls by an ordeal more severe, I suspect, than that of '76,
The true men of those times have received the grateful and
well-deserved homage of their children, and I would not ap
pear enviously to disparage their renown by challenging a
comparison of great deeds, but I would venture to express
the belief that the day is coming, and that not far distant.,
when the genius of poetry, of eloquence and history will
earnestly contend together for the honor of weaving the
choicest crown of glory for the true and loyal men of this
generation. Such being the responsible position of the American citi
zen, it may not be inappropriate, on this occasion, to submi&
briefly, a few reflections upon some of the qualities by which
he should be distinguished.
It is often urged, that the safety and durability of republi
can institutions are to be found in the virtue and general in-

10
telligence of the people ; that if there be a fair diffusion of
moral and intellectual culture, the foundations of the State
are secure ; that in ignorance and licentiousness alone, are
to be discerned the seeds of decay and dissolution.
Now in avowing the opinion, that such general statements
are not strictly true and worthy of unqualified acceptance, it
will not be thought, that I would undervalue the inappreciable
importance of virtue, piety, and popular education. It is
knowledge which exalts a man, and a pious and virtuous life
which alone confers genuine beauty and worth. But let it be
remembered that while we apply to the rebellious war, now
waged for the destruction of this nation, the strongest epi
thets in the language expressive of its immoral character,.
such as wicked, unholy, and unrighteous, we are all at the
same time, compelled in candor to admit that very many men,.
intelligent, and hitherto pure and blameless in their conduct,
are engaged in its support.
Now I grant, that there may be a certain high degree of
mental culture, of pious emotion and enlightened morality,
easily imagined, but rarely realized, which concurring, would
form the perfect citizen, as well as the perfect man. But,
taking men as they actually appear in the world, the better
specimens of them too, and it will be found that they need
special training for each particular department of duty. To
rely upon mere general culture of the mind and heart, as a
sufficient education of the citizen as to his duties, is not un
like strengthening the body of a man by athletic exercises,.
and commanding him, when the battle-cry is raised, to per
form valiantly in the fight, with a sword which he has never
learned to handle, or a musket which he has never been
taught to fire. All experience shows that the Christian,.
however filled with pious emotion, needs to be instructed ia
particular virtues and virtuous habits ; that the well-disposed
merchant is none the worse for being taught the ethics of
contracts ; and that the knavish practices of trade, acquiring
from custom a seeming respectability, delude even honest men>
into their adoption. This necessity for special training is-

11
grounded in the fact that our virtues, unfortunately, do not
always work out their logical results ; and that the inconse
quentially of human nature is such, that the generic virtue
¦does but seldom bear in its bosom all those special virtues which
•would seem to be its indefeasable offspring.
In view of these considerations, it may be matter for seri
ous regret, that this subject of good citizenship has not re
ceived more direct and special attention in our schools and
universities ; that more pains have not been taken to imbue
the impressible minds of youth with just notions of the seri
ous and important character of their obligations as citizens
of the republic ; to possess them with some clear conceptions
of the leading maxims by which they should be guided in the
performance of their duties, as well as some of the mistakes
and delusions by which they may be misled, and that at least
something more had not been done, or attempted, to save
them, when passing into the arena of active life, from be
coming the dupes of designing demagogues, and the uncon
scious agents of their country's woe.
Now America needs in her citizens an ardent love of coun
try, patriotism ; Patriotism ! too old as a subject for discus
sion, and yet the praise and admiration of all ages ! the
truest glory of a people ; their sleepless guardian in peace,
their only bulwark in times of danger and of war. You may
contemplate its heroic sacrifices wherever the [sun has shone.
Wherever eloquence has spoken, or poesy has sung, you will
note that their noblest utterances and sweetest strains have
patriotism for their theme. And yet with what deceptive
art do we find the false to counterfeit the true. In a certain
sense patriotism is an instinct : the beast fights for his lair,
the savage claims for his home the wilderness of woods in
which he roams, and will contest its possession, along with
his tribe, no individual of which, perhaps, he loves, against
the stranger who intrudes. But as an instinct, uninstructed
and uninformed, it is blind, hasty and uncertain in its action.
It resists equally an invasion to restore, as one to overthrow;
an invasion to protect, as one to desolate and destroy. Among

12
the ignorant rabble of Spain, in 1813, it had nearly suc
ceeded in turning the sword of St. James and of Spain
against the English, their allies and friends, who came to de
liver them from the French. The alien soldier, boldly tread
ing their soil, and assuming, though on behalf of their coun
try's cause, the manner of an owner, they could, in their
ignorant way, look on but as invaders. As an instinct, patri
otism somewhat resembles that other instinctive affection, the
love of a child for its parent. Now does any man doubt that
the child, with all its wealth of natural affections, needs to be
trained to filial honor and reverence, that he may be unwav
ering in his obedience to his parents, and become the pride
and the stay of their age ? So is it with the citizen. He
needs to be trained in a true love of country, and a just con
ception of the manner in which such love is to be exhibited,
if he will be a true son of the Republic, whom she can look
to with confidence for support in her day of trial and of
need. For, I repeat it, the Republic needs of her children patri
otism, patriotism in no mean, perverted or restricted sense,
but in the fullest sense of the word ; not a light, uncertain
love which, like the marsh-light, glimmers first here, then
there, and the next moment is gone forever; but she expects
of them, and has a right to demand of them, a constant, ele
vated, unselfish, far-reaching and intense devotion of soul to
their country, their whole country, that entire body politic,
that great national unit, in whose allegiance they were born,
and to which their allegiance is eternally due; a love which,
ever burning in the soul with a pure, bright, lambent flame,
shall in her day of trial, scorch to ashes the accumulated
dross and rubbish of party prejudices, antiquated Mason and
Dixon lines, imaginary notions of conflicting local interests,
and idolized peculiar institutions. It is amazing to what vile
uses in these modern days the sacred name of patriotism has
been put; what damning deeds of treason it has been made
to consecrate. Why these bold, bad men of our times, un-
iblushingly steal this "livery of Heaven to serve the Devil in."

13
In their seats in the Halls of Congress, they plot for the
overthrow of that very Constitution they are sworn to sup
port ; and dispatching their schemes to their fellow-conspira
tors at home ; they call that patriotism. In Tennessee, North
Carolina, and some other States, they overwhelm by the force
of skilful combination the unorganized opposition of loyal
majorities to rebellious minorities, scaring and hectoring men
into treason against their will, and call that patriotism ! Be
cause tlie Constitution of the United States did not accept
African slavery as its chief corner-stone, they have shed
frightful torrents of precious human blood, to establish a form
of government that does, and they call that patriotism ! I
have known men in my own city, not strangers and adven
turers thrown by the tide of commerce on our shores, but
natives of the soil, men, not clad in rags, and haggard from
penury, but rich men, clothed in purple, and faring sumptu
ously every day ; I have known such hail with pleasure the
South Carolina movement, and wish it success in dissolving
the Union, for no other reason than that, in that auspicious
event, Baltimore would become the great metropolis of the
Southern Confederacy ! The same men, if residing in Rich
mond, upon the same principle would desire the Southern
Confederacy to be dismembered, that Richmond might be
come the metropolis of a second Southern Confederacy ; if
living in Charleston, they would desire a further dismember
ment, to make Charleston the emporium of a third Confedera
cy, and so on; thus, from mere greed of gain, holding views
which, if generally adopted, would split every great nation
into fragments, and render its integrity impossible, and yet
these men, these greedy Shylocks, whetting the paracidal
sword upon their avaricious souls, these treacherous political
Judases, betraying their country for thirty pieces of silver,
will talk to you of patriotism.
I cannot understand or conceive of a patriotism which does
not rise to the dimensions of the whole country of which a
man is a citizen, or that dwarfs itself to a particular State or
section. Would that be patriotism in a Spaniard which eir-

14
cumscribes itself within the boundaries of old Castile, as the
home of the chivalry of the "Sangre Azul? " or within the
boundaries of the rival Aragon ? If so, the Spanish State
could not exist. Is he a true German who knows only the
Bavarian land, or the Rhine land as his country? Or he who
•despite the formal lines which kings and princes, for their self
ish objects, maintain, looks only at all Germany as the land
of heart and home ? No, the true German knows that con
sanguinity, language, contiguity, make a nation, in spite of
kings and of parties. He recollects that in the war of De
liverance, men did not fight for Prussia, or Hanover, but for
Germany ; and that in 1807, although Saxony might be the
petted ally of Napoleon, and Prussia alone be conquered, yet
it was all Germany that suffered the common humiliation.
True patriotism must elect the true object, for it is a genu
ine worship of the heart, not an idolatry. It must select the
true object, else it is injurious, not beneficial. It tends else
to divide and to narrow, not to draw men together into those
widely extended fellowships which are at once the creatures
and the creators of civilization. It must be for that politi
cal unit which a man terms his nation, his country, and with
which his real interests and concernments are in truth and in
fact bound up. If it be for anything less than this, then it
is a delusive and self-obstructive feeling, for the simple rea
son that it is directed away from the natural to a factitious
object, and hence cannot stand the test of experience. For
what is patriotism but a love ? And where do all those trea
sures which our affections have garnered up from the first
moments of conscious life lie ? In what limits are all those
interests which have, one by one, attached their cords to our
hearts ? In what body are all those multiplex and multiplied
concernments in which we willingly or unwillingly have a
part, included ? In our own State, be it Pennsylvania or
Maryland? No, in our country ! The very word bears testi
mony ; for who, by that word, has ever meant less than the
territory covered by the flag of the Union ? Nowhere else
but in an old number of the Southern Quarterly Review,

15
published in Charleston, did I ever read that South Carolina
was a,nation indeed, and that the blessed territory from the
Cape Fear river to the Savannah, was the COUNTRY of the
Carolinians. This was thirty years ago, when they were
busily contending that obedience alone was due to the United
States, but allegiance, the true and lasting tie that binds the
patriot to his country, was due to South Carolina, because
she, like another heavenly Jerusalem, was "the mother of
them all." Experience, proverbially styled the teacher of
fools, has at last taken these men in hand, and imprinted, let
us hope, a lesson on their hearts. It has shown them and us
that every man is really more connected with, more inter
ested, yes, vastly more, in the country at large, than he is
with his own little State. How many times has the Consti
tution of Maryland been changed in the last fifty years. Yet
I, and not one in ten of her citizens, can recollect the dates.
To what humble individual did the prospect of such change
give a wakeful night? Who found himself a dollar poorer
.or richer under the new, than under the old Constitution?
Twice have her boundaries been in dispute, and are to this
day unsettled. Yet no cloud of fear of war has thence
spread over her horizon. Her immediate neighbor, Virginia,
has passed through like changes ; and in the days of men,
yet living, underwent even the knife of division, and yielded
to the solicitations of Congress the severance of her vast
western territory, and her vaster claims. Yet the survivors
of those days have no tales to tell us of universal alarm, of
public shock or of blood. Yet how different is it with the
government of the country. Who could, in the most quiet
times, have proposed other than mere formal changes in its
Constitution, without alarming every proprietary interest ?
without agitating every man's breast with fear and uncertain
ty ? When was its boundary ever in dispute, that the war-
cloud did not rise in the sky ?
Now, this country, the only proper object of our patriotic
love, whose history has been the unbroken record of glories
and blessings to us and to our fathers, this country, this day

16
and this hour, assailed by treason, and in the convulsive throes-
of a struggle for existence itself, appeals in earnest, pleading,
solemn tones to her children, one and all, to be true and
faithful in the path of duty. In what spirit will the true
citizen respond to the call ? Who are the men, I beg you to
consider, who are the men to whom, in these days of tribula
tion, the Republic must owe her deliverance ? I speak now,
not of the soldiers in the field, but of citizens at home. Is it
to the men who sigh for peace, and are willing, at any price,
to receive it ? Is it to the men who, ready enough at first to
resent national outrage and insult, to resist dissolution and
ruin, have become weary of a prolonged contest, and doubt
ful of the result? who quake at the rumor of a rebel incur
sion, and who, faint-hearted, perceive destruction to the Union
cause, in every reverse to the Union arms ? No, but to those
who, from the beginning, have heard the wail of sorrow, and
have seen and felt from their inmost souls the infinite depth
of national disgrace which must await our defeat; who, with
calmness, viewing the resources of the Republic, have delib-.
erately resolved that eternal war is better than blasted hope
of free government ; and that no evils, no pains are so intol
erable as those ever-enduring execrations of mankind, which
will rest upon those who, being the chosen guardians of free
institutions, have shown themselves unwilling or incompetent
to defend them.
No greater calamity could befall us as a people, than this
terrible war, except an ignoble peace. I think no man can
predict the end of this strife. Its course may yet lie through
years of toil and fields of carnage ; army after army may
sleep upon the field in the cold embrace of death. The gar
ments of the Republic may be dyed in blood, and her treas
ure exhausted. We may be called on for more personal self-
sacrifice than our enemies have shown, but be it ever so long
a contest, be our homes desolate and our hearths deserted,
the sure triumph, at last, is to patient, enduring, indomitable
fortitude; the dawn of perpetual freedom will be heralded by
that virtue, and by that alone. It is the spirit, the earnest,

17
persistent, unconquerable spirit of Warsaw's last champion,
who saw his country, the country of his heart still, beneath
the waste of ruin, with which its fair features had been mar
red by his Vandal foe—
" What though destruction strew these lovely plains,
Rise fellow-men, our country yet remains."
It is the spirit which shone forth in the speech of that Un
ion officer, who, when a prisoner in Virginia, under a rebel
guard, addressed them upon the state of the country, and
told them to go on to burn Washington, sack Baltimore and
Philadelphia ; that he wanted them to do so, that only then
would the Northern heart be aroused to proper earnestness in
the prosecution of the war.
Throughout the continuance of this contest, a great multi
tude will be oscillating ; now elated, and now depressed.
The report of a victory will make them strong, and the ru
mor of a defeat will depress them equally.
There were those in Holland who, during the eighty years
of her terrible conflict with Spain, sighed for the return of
that commerce which had made her a State. Thousands
among her people were daily and nightly oppressed with the
thought that to wage war with a nation of the power and re
sources of Spain, was futile, and that only folly could
advise, and ruin follow it. But while cities were plundered
and sacked, whole counties laid waste, her bravest and no
blest slaughtered, the men of unfaltering heart still perse
vered, and the little sand bank, carved out of the sea, main
tained an unequal contest for near three-fourths of a century,
and triumphed at last. The ocean was let in, when arms
were unequal to the conflict ; the unretreating sea buried the
national selfishness beneath its bosom, and the Lake of Har-
laam, which was drained but yesterday, gave forth, after cen
turies, its buried witnesses to the noble sacrifices of a people
who were true to themselves and their destiny.
Surprised and confounded as we have been by the propor
tions of the Rebellion we have not been more overwhelmed'

18
and mistaken than the national enemy. They thought, that
trade and wealth had so demoralized the Northern people, that
ease was necessary to life. When they fired upon Fort Sump
ter they thought the echo of the guns at the North would be
peace, but the echo said War ! They thought the sound, re
verberating from the Green Mountains all along the Alle
ghanies, would be Aristocracy forever; but the old Granite
Hills replied Democracy forever ! They assured themselves
that throughout the demoralized Republic the response would
be Slavery always and everywhere, but the universal defiant
reply, even from the central States was Free Labor forever
and Slavery nowhere — nowhere, if it demands the destruction
of American unity ; and mighty hosts of valorous men in
arms, confronting them this day attests the fatal error of
their views.
Those of our fellow-citizens who dread the issue of the
war, who expect that through all the embarrassments of un-
forseen trials, failures and misfortunes and blunders will not
come, who fondly hoped that the children of the Republic
could spring forth at her call from all the employments of
civil life, not only with souls full of love and self-sacrifice for
her, but with all the experience of hardy veteran troops,
who thought that to wield the scythe was to learn to wield
the sword have necessarily been mistaken.
Military experience is learned upon the field alone, and
the bravest are a mob, until they have acquired a knowledge,
to be derived from the actual practice of war. And those of
our countrymen who breathe wifh pain every morning, lest
the public papers may announce a defeat, should remember
the day of trial of other lands, and other people, before
they were thought worthy to wear the crown of empire ami'
to bear the sceptre of a continent.
For sixteen long years, without victory did the Republic
of Rome contend with her Carthagenian foe. Her eagles
were driven from Spain across the Alps; her colonies dev-i-,-
. ted, and consul upon consul, with consular army after army,
slain or destroyed. When Hannibal met Varro at Camme

19
three consular armies and one-fourth of the fighting popula
tion of Rome had been— not defeated, but slaughtered ; not
routed, but destroyed.
What fortitude was here ! what indomitable firmness !
What think you our people would feel or think, were they to
morrow to learn that the three great Armies oft he Republic,
in Virginia, in Georgia, and in the South- West, were destroy
ed, and that from the Army of the Potomac, three thousand
men had only escaped . How would their hearts be appall
ed as they walked the streets to see the badge of mourning
on every door ! Such was Rome after the battle of Cannae ;
but God intended for her the Empire of the World, and
the hearts and words of the people were being fitted for so
high a design. Her Senate immediately met, and with a
wisdom, not deemed doubtful in that ancient Republic, since
her sons were slaughtered, called on her slaves to defend
Rome. There are those of our countrymen who unwavering in
their country's cause, yet forgetful of the lessons which his
tory has already taught, seem inclined to have them repeat
ed. They sigh for a stronger hand at the helm — constantly
pray for a great military head — a Bonaparte and a Caesar to
lead the armies of the Republic. It appears to me that
Providence has been kinder to us than we have asked, and
thought, in vouchsafing to us no such man. The purpose of
the nation is not only to put down the Rebellion, but to sus
tain the existence of the Republic. We hope now not to be
required to ask ourselves, when the war is over, who shall
seize the sword from him who wields it. Not every great
hero is a William of Orange, or a Washington. They are
the wonders of a thousand years. Many a nation before us
has had the man for which these mistaken people sigh, and
but two nations have survived him. Think you, what con
stitutes a people great? Is it that they can put great armies
into the field ? Is it that with unexampled credit, founded
upon immense resources, they lavish millions to maintain
them there. No ! but that to all these things they superadd

20
an indomitable fortitude, a generous willingness for personal
sacrifice, and deprivation that the right, whereof they are
guardians, may stand firm and triumph.
But there is another important truth illustrated by this
contest, which it were well for the good citizen to remember
— I mean the necessity that exists in times of sedition and
rebellion for prompt and decided adhesion to the cause of
government and law. No one doubts the right of revolution
in cases of extreme and insupportable oppression, for which
there is no other adequate remedy. If the citizen in any
case feels that he is not compelled to support rebellion, then
in that case he is compelled by his solemn obligations of citi
zenship to aid in its suppression. There is no middle ground.
There is a law of Solon which has occasioned much perplex
ity to the Commentators. Plutarch declares that he, to whom
God has committed the care of government, "will receive,
and to his power imitate the rest of Solon's ordinances, but
will doubt and wonder what it was that induced him to de
cree that he, who, when there arises a sedition in the city,
adheres to neither party, should be reputed infamous," and
Mr. Grote tells us that "among the various laws of Solon
there are few that have attracted more notice than that which
pronounces the man who in a sedition stood aloof, and took
part with neither side, to be dishonored and disfranchis
ed." Plutarch unreservedly condemns the ordinance of Solon,
and advocates almost in their very words, the position of
neutrality assumed by many well-meaning Border-State men
at the opening of the contest, and which, had it been con
sistent with any correct view of the citizen's duty, was soon
demonstrated by experience to be utterly impracticable in a
severe and prolonged contest for national existence. "Yet
does it not become you," says he, "in the time of sedition, to
sit as if you were neither sensible, nor sorry, praising your
own unconcernedness as a quiet and happy life, and taking de
light in others' errors, but on such occasions chiefly should
you put on the buskin of Therarueues, and conferring with

21
both parties, join yourself to neither, for you will not seem a
Stranger by not being a partaker of injustice, but a common
friend to them all by your assistance. Grote, more nearly
comprehending the meaning of Solon says, in effect, that his
law was intended to discourage the ambitious mal-content by
impressing upon his mind the conviction that not every man
who was not actively in his favor, would be actively against
him, and that this would render his enterprise much more
dangerous. But Grote, if he had written durng this war
might have seen that the law of Solon contained a still pro-
founder wisdom, strikingly illustrated by one of the most
astounding phenomena of these times ; he would have seen
that the leaders of sedition will almost inevitably conquer in
to submission all men, by whom they are not resolutely op
posed — that being for the most part men of passionate zeal,
unscrupulously adopting the most violent and flagitious meas
ures, they will in time overwhelm the very minds and souls
of all who do not act as promptly and sternly as themselves.
If one-half of the Southern people, opposed in the outset to
disunion, had deemed, as Solon did, that neutrality was in
famous, and had promptly, and before a military despotism
was fastened upon their neck, seized arms to defend the
country, which they felt ought not to be destroyed, the Re
bellion would have been strangled at its birth.
Had the men, or a large proportion of the men who op
posed the alliance of Virginia with the unholy cause she now
defends, resolved to stand defiantly against the rude efforts
to swerve her from her allegiance the fate of the nation would
not now be trembling in the balance, and the mother of
Presidents, would have had the prouder satisfaction of being
the mother of Patriots !
Brethren of the Alumni ! I haste to leave an unexhaust
ed theme. There is one thought that claims a word in clos
ing. It has been said that offences must needs come, while
indeed the malediction is not withheld from those by whom
they come. I have long regarded our present troubles as
the sure result of forces unavoidable and irresistible, and

22
have seen that many fair villages, hamlets and fields were
doomed to bear the stains of fatricidal strife. In this con
viction I have felt that it was indeed a matter of felicitation
that while other towns have been desolated and despoiled,
without acquiring fame, it has been the better fortune of
this, the home of Alma Mater, to give both place and name
to the most memorable battle and victory of the Republic.
In the earlier months of this war, seeking to gain some
military knowledge, I was. studying the great campaign of
Bonaparte, in Italy, of 1796. I called to my aid the larg
est map that I could find, of the North Italian States. So
expanded was its scale, I was continually tempted to mistake
neighboring hamlets for cities, separated by extended distan
ces. Yet in vain I explored that map, once and again, for
Marengo. Picking up, however, my old school Atlas, the
first name that encountered my eye, was Marengo. There
it stood, prominent, in full capitals. For a time I was puz
zled by its incongruous omission from the large map. But I
soon found the solution ; it was engraved in the year 1794
when the battle of Marengo had not been fought. It was
reserved for that great battle — a battle which, for a term of
years, determined the fate of Italy — to bring forth that
name from its local obscurity, to cause the hitherto unnoticed
site, one at this day marked out to the eye of the traveler
by but a single dwelling-house on the border of a large grain
growing plain, to become a spot of world-wide and historic
significance ; thenceforth to appear forever in the map of
Italy, there to claim the eye of the student, and to shine
forth in the group of its illustrious places along with Genoa,
Florence and Milan.
So shall it be with Gettysburg ! The student, of after
times, in India, or England or the Sandwich Islands, will
not in vain look on the map of the United States for Gettys
burg ! And the youth who shall hereafter repair to this hon
ored seat of learning, in the surrounding stretch of hills, and
vales and wood, which here shall greet his eye will observe,
not that pleasing landscape merely, upon which our eyes

23
have lingered, in those happy by-gone days. Round Top,.
Culp's Hill and Seminary Ridge are now all classic ground?
hallowed by the blood of the martyred children of the Re
public. Yes, the young Academic, while fondly musing here
over anticipations of his after life, and of the generous deeds
that shall embellish it, will see in the turf which enwraps the
patriot dead, and the monumental shaft, erected to their com
memoration by a grateful people, witnesses of the inappreci
able value of that country and of that freedom, which here
exacted such precious sacrifice ; and may learn from these
silent monitors, as from no living tongue, the solemn respon
sibilities of the American Citizen.

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