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buried there. When, forty centuries later, the tomb is forced, the sepulcher is empty.

We stand beside the Grecian Acropolis at Athens and ask, "What mean these stones?" The answer comes, "This was once a pile of beauty-the most famous of its kind in all history-set up to perpetuate the greatness of the land of art and philosophy; the intellectual leader of the classic world.

The Acropolis is in ruins. Greece is a power no more.

We stand beside the Coliseum at Rome, and ask, “What mean these stones?" They mean that Rome was once the mistress of the world, her emperors all powerful, her armies invincible; they mean that this power, unchecked by Christian influences, became cruel, and that within the walls of the great amphitheatre, Christian martyrs were "butchered to make a Roman holiday."

When the children of men stand beside the foundation stones of the Obelisks along the Nile, they ask, "What mean these stones?" The story is soon told. An Egyptian princess carved the record of her beauty and her riches upon the Cleopatrian Needles, and set them up to remain for all time. Now one stands by the Thames the other by the Hudson, and they tell no story to anyone, save that personal greatness, even though writ on granite, will not live forever.

We go to Waterloo, stand beside the lion's mound, and ask, "What mean these stones?" The answer comes, they mean the end of ambition, the end of a conqueror's thirst for blood. They mean that there is a Waterloo for every mere personal thirst for fame alone, and that France and freedom were to live for each other.

We stand before the German monument of "Victory" on the Konigsplatz and ask, "What mean these stones?" They mean the re-unification of Germany and the foundation of a new empire. They tell to Germany the daring deeds of a long-gone past, when the tribes slew the forces of Varus in the defiles, and sent him back to Rome to meet the sorrowful greeting of Augustus, “Oh, Varus, Varus! give me back my legions." But they tell of no slave set free, no bonds broken, no enlargement of human liberty; they tell that the dynasty of Hohenzollern is established. And while Emperor William died the oldest sovereign in the world, and the most striking figure of the nineteenth century, yet the pile by the Konigsplatz tells only of the divine right of kings, the aristocracy of the Kaiser, and the servitude of subjects. By that pile of stones we catch no glimpse of the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

We come to Bunker Hill monument and ask, "What mean these stones?" They mean that there is to be no government on this soil with taxation without representation; they mean that our forefathers "brought forth on this continent a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."

We stand beside Bartholdi's statue of Liberty Enlightening the World, and, with our hands upon its broad foundation, ask, "What mean these stones?" They mean that Columbia stands with beacon light to welcome the oppressed of every land and every clime; welcome them to our hearts and our homes; welcome them to the legacy of our freedom and our glory-to an undivided country and an unsullied flag.

And now we have come to-day to stand beside these monuments, these granite markers, set up by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the flower of its soldiery, for its gallant Reserve Corps. And when the children of men come and ask, "What mean these stones?" the answer will not be-they tell us of Curtin, of McCall, of Meade, and Reynolds, and Ord, and Crawford; of Biddle, Roberts, and McCandless, and Gallagher; of Sickel's and Talley, Mann and Woodward, and Simmons and Fisher; of Ent, and Sinclair, and Henderson and Baily; of Jackson, and McCalmont, and McCoy; of Taggart, and Hardin, and Hartshorne; of Bayard, and Taylor, Easton, Cooper and Ricketts, nor of a hundred others as daring and as noble.

The answer will not be-they will not tell us of Dranesville where the Reserve Corps fought and won a victory all its own, nor of Mechanicsville, nor of Gaines' Mill, nor New Market, nor Malvern, nor Bull Run, nor South Mountain; they tell no story of Antietam, nor Fredericksburg, nor Bristoe; no story of Mine Run, nor the Wilderness, nor Spotsylvania, nothing of the North Anna, nor of Bethesda Church. These stones will not even tell to the children of men how the Reserves fought here at Gettysburg.

No-the deeds of men, though writ in granite, fade away.

For ages the school children of Greece were taught to repeat from memory the names of the three hundred who fell at Thermopylæ. Who can tell them now?

What, then, will these stones tell to the children of men? The answer has been given by immortal lips. They will tell of Pennsylvanians who died here that this Government of the people shall not perish forever from the earth. These stones, these monuments, will say to the children of men, as Abraham Lincoln

said when he dedicated yonder monument: "Gather ye here increased devotion to the cause for which they gave their lives."

And now, in the name of the Gettysburg Battle-field Memorial Association, we accept these monuments, and will give them our tenderest care.

SERVICES OF THE PENNSYLVANIA RESERVES AT
GETTYSBURG.

A1

Ta meeting of the survivors of the Pennsylvania Reserves, held at Reading, Penna., June 7, 1886, the following resolution was offered by Colonel P. McDonough, Second Reserves, and unanimously adopted:

Whereas, On the second day of the battle of Gettysburg the Pennsylvania Reserves, then forming part of Meade's reserve, were ordered to Little Round Top to save that position, the key of the line of battle, from the then victorious enemy who had driven back the Third Corps under General Sickles and the regulars of their own, the Fifth Corps, under General Sykes; and,

Whereas, By a counter-charge of the Reserves they met and drove the enemy from said position and across the meadow beyond the stone wall, which they wrested from them, and thus saved the day, if not the battle; and, Whereas, In many of the accounts of that day's fighting great injustice has been done the services of the Reserves, they being in said accounts represented as occupying a position farther to the right and not on Little Round Top, and taking but little part in said action; now that justice be done to the memory of the grand old division,

Resolved, By the Pennsylvania Reserve Association, that a committee of seven be appointed by the president to prepare a full and truthful account of the part taken by the division in said battle and submit the same to the association at its next annual meeting.

The president appointed the following-named as the committee:
MAJOR E. M. WOODWARD, Second Reserves, Chairman.
COLONEL W. Ross HARTSHORNE, Bucktails.

COLONEL ROBERT A. McCoy, Eleventh Reserves.

MAJOR J. A. MCPHERRAN, Fifth Reserves.

COLONEL R. BRUCE RICKETTS, First Reserves, Artillery.
WALLACE W. JOHNSON, Sixth Reserves.
COLONEL P. MCDONOUGH, Second Reserves.

JOHN TAYLOR, Secretary.

[graphic]

POSITIONS AND LINES OF CHARGES OF

THE PENNSYLVANIA RESERVES.

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