lost than never to have loved at all, so it is better to have lived
greatly, even though we have suffered greatly, than to have passed a
long life of inglorious ease. Our generation,--yes, we ourselves
have been a part of great things. We have suffered greatly and
greatly rejoiced; we have drunk deep of the cup of joy and of
sorrow; we have tasted the agony of defeat, and we have supped full
with the pleasures of victory. We have proved ourselves equal to
great deeds, and have learnt what qualities were in us, which in
more peaceful times we ourselves did not suspect.

And, indeed, I would here in closing fain address a few words to
such of you, if any such are here, who like myself may nave been
soldiers during the War of the Rebellion. We should never more be
partisans. We have been a part of great events in the service of the
common country, we have worn her uniform, we have received her pay
and devoted ourselves to the death, if need be, in her service. When
we were blackened by the smoke of Antietam, we did not ask or care
whether those who stood shoulder to shoulder beside us, whether he
who led us, whether those who sustained us, were Democrats or
Republicans, conservatives or radicals; we asked only that they
might prove as true as was the steel we grasped, and as brave as we
ourselves would fain have been. When we stood like a wall of stone
vomiting fire from the heights of Gettysburg,--nailed to our
position through three long days of mortal Hell,--did we ask each
other whether that brave officer who fell while gallantly leading
the counter-charge--whether that cool gunner steadily serving his
piece before us amid the storm of shot and shell--whether the poor
wounded, mangled, gasping comrades, crushed and torn, and dying in
agony around us--had voted for Lincoln or Douglas, for Breckenridge
or Bell? We then were full of other thoughts. We prized men for what