| |
PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT'S
SPEECH AT SHARPSBURG
September 17, 1937
208-210
FDR's Speech - National Archives.
ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT
Antietam Battlefield, Sharpsburg, Maryland
Friday, September 17, 1937, 12.00 N.
MEN AND WOMEN OF THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH:
The passage of time has a strange effect on all great crises, especially
on those which have occurred in comparatively recent (years) times
. History, in the strict interpretation, covers the events of
yesterday and of the past week. But, actually in the minds of
almost everyone, we do not class as history those things which have come
to pass within our own memory or that of our parents.
Young people, as I well know in my own family, who are in their
early twenties, (today) have little or no personal recollection of the
recent World War of only two decades ago, but (it) that war
entered into their childhood memories. On the other hand, they think of
the War with Spain, which most of us remember, as ancient
history.
In my own case, though I came into the world some seventeen years
after the close of the war between the states, the results of that war
and of the difficult years that followed it do not make me think of it as
history.
And today, seventy-five years after the critical battle of Antietam,
there are still (many) among us many who can remember it. It is,
therefore, an American battle which thousands of Americans, middle-aged
and old, can still visualize as bearing some relationship to their own
lives.
We know that Antietm was one of the decisive engagements of the Civil War
because it marked the first effort of the Confed-
-2-
eracy to invade the North --- tactically a drawn battle, but actually a
factor of vital importance to the final result because it spelled the
failure of the attempt.
Whether we be (old or) young or old, it serves us little good
purpose to discuss again the rights and the wrongs of the long four
years war between the states. We can but wish that the war had never
been. We can and we do revere the memory of the brave men who fought on
both sides --- we can and we do honor those who fell on this and other
fields.
But we know today that it was best, for the generation of Americans who
fought the war and for the generations of Americans who have come after
them, that the (conflict) war between the states did not end in a
division of our land into two nations. I like to think that it was the
will of God that we remain one people.
Today, old and young alike are saddened by the knowledge of the bitter
years that followed the war --- years bitter to the South because of
ecomomic destruction and the denial of its population of the normal
rights of free Americans --- years bitter to the North because victory
engendered in the North among many the baser passions of revenge
and tyranny.
We must not deny that the effects of the so-called "era of
reconstruction" made themselves felt in many evil ways for half a
century. They encouraged sectionalism, they led to misunderstanding and
they greatly retarded the unity of the (Nation) people of the United
States.
It is too soon to define the history of the present generation; but I
venture the belief that it was not until the World War
-3-
of twenty years ago that we acted once more as a nation of restored
unity. And I believe also that the past four years mark the
occasion, the first occasion, certainly since the War between the
States, and perhaps during the whole 150 years of our Government, that we
are not only acting but also thinking in national terms.
Deeply, we appreciate that the distress or difficulty of any one part of
the Union adversely affects each and every other part. We stand ready in
all parts of the land to lend a helping hand to those Americans
who need it most.
In the presence of the spirits of those who fell on this field --- Union
soldiers and Confederate soldiers --- we can believe that they rejoice
with us in the unity of understanding which is so increasingly ours
today. They urge us on in all we do to foster that spirit of
unity, foster it in the spirit of tolerance, of willingness to
help our neighbor, and of faith in the destiny of the United States
of America.
|
|
Underlined text and text in parentheses are in the source document - Ed.
|
|
|
