Tuesday is the 139th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's famous speech at the dedication of the national cemetery in Gettysburg, Pa., for the Union dead from the costly Civil War battle there in July 1863.
The anniversary will be marked a living-history presentation and memorial services starting at 10 a.m. at the national cemetery. Lynne Cheney, wife of the vice president, will be the featured speaker.
Tuesday's ceremonies will complete this weekend's activities in Gettysburg, where a Remembrance Day parade and other events have been traditional, almost since that first sad remembrance day on Nov. 19, 1863.
The Sun's report
Here is how The Sun reported Lincoln's Gettysburg Address when it happened:
The two special cars furnished by the officers of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company - one for the convenience of Governor Bradford and his aides, and the other for the use of Baltimore city council - arrived here about 11 o'clock last night.
The president, with Secretaries Seward and Usher, Postmaster General Blair, and others, had arrived previously.
The President and party were serenaded by the band of the Fifth New York Artillery, from Baltimore, at the residence of David Wills. The President, in response, desired to be excused from speaking. Mr. Seward made a brief speech.
"Fellow Citizens -- I am now sixty years old and upwards. I have been in public life, practically forty years of that time, and yet this is the first time that ever any people or community so near to the border of Maryland was found willing to listen to my voice.
"And the reason was that I saw, forty years ago, opening before this people a grave yard that was to be filled with brothers falling in mutual political combat. I knew that the cause that was hurrying the Union into that dreadful strife was slavery, and when I elevated my voice, it was to warn the people to remove that cause while they could by constitutional means, and so avert the catastrophe of civil war which has fallen upon the nation.
"I am thankful that you are willing to hear me at last. I thank my God that I believe this strife is going to end in the removal of that evil, which ought to have been removed by peaceful means and by deliberate counsels. I thank my God for the hope that this is the last fraternal war which will fall upon the country."
Messrs. Horner, Root, Hayward, and others, of the Baltimore Musical Association, also serenaded the President, when he again excused himself from speaking until today.
The weather this morning was very pleasant, and at an early hour the streets of Gettysburg were thronged with many thousands. In the lengthy procession to the cemetery, Major General Schenck and staff, and the military from Baltimore, were quite prominent.
The President and the members of the cabinet were on horseback, surrounded by Chief Marshal Lamon and his aides, and his tall presence was conspicuous to every eye.
A spacious stand was erected upon the cemetery grounds, and the military were formed in line extending around, the area between the stand and the military being occupied by civilians, comprising about 15,000 people, and including men, women and children.
The attendance of the ladies was quite large. The military escort comprised one squadron of cavalry, two batteries of artillery and a regiment of infantry, being the regular personal escort of honor paid to the highest officer in the service.
The exercises were commenced about 12 o'clock, with an eloquent prayer from the Rev. Thomas H. Stockton, chaplain of the United States Senate, after which there was the solemn music from the band.
The Hon. Edward Everett, the orator of the day, was then introduced by Marshal Lamon. At the conclusion of the oration an original hymn, composed by J.B. Percival, Esq., was sung in an admirable manner by the members of the Baltimore Musical Association.
Gettysburg Address
The President then delivered the following dedicatory remarks:
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any other nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.
"We are met on a great battlefield of that war; we are met to dedicate a portion of it as the final resting place of those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who straggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or to detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we may say here; but it can never forget what they did here.
"It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work that they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us here to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us; that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that those dead shall not have died in vain. That the nation shall under God, have a new birth of freedom; and that governments of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth." [Long continued applause.]
Cheers were proposed and heartily given for the President and the Governors of the several States.
After another dirge had been sung the benediction was pronounced.
A salute was then fired by the artillery, and the procession returned to Gettysburg, where the President was visited by a large number of persons, to each of whom he offered his hand.
Among the distinguished persons on the platform were the following: - Gov. Bradford, of Maryland; Governor Curtin, of Pennsylvania; Governor Morton, of Indiana; Gov. Seymour, of New York; Governor Parker, of New Jersey; Governor Tod, of Ohio; ex-Gov. Dennison, of Ohio; John Brough, Governor-elect of Ohio; Major Generals Schenck, Stahl, Doubleday and Couch; Brig. Gen. Gibbon and Provost Marshal General Fry; ex-Gov. Wright, of Indiana; ex-Gov. Peirpont, of West Virginia; Mrs. Commander Henry A. Wise, daughter of Hon. Edward Everett.
After the dedication
In the afternoon, after the dedication, there was considerable speaking. Gov. Seymour, of New York, presented a handsome silk regimental standard to the 5th New York regiment, on behalf of the merchants of New York City. He said: "The love of our whole country, without reservation, was not inconsistent with that perfect and generous loyalty to love and be proud of your own State." He charged them to bear the flag triumphantly in battle. &c.;
Major Gen. Schenck also made an address on the occasion.
A representation from Baltimore city fire department, under Chief Engineer Holloway, was in the procession, each member bearing a flag.
President Lincoln and party left Gettysburg for Washington late in the evening, in a special train. No trains were permitted to leave town until after the President's departure, and thousands of citizens were unable to leave for their homes until the next morning.
The whole number of remains already interred in the cemetery is 1,188, of which 606 are from States known, and 582, unknown. In the lot appropriated to Maryland there are 15 graves, most of them with the name of the deceased on the headboard.