American Committee, on "The Freedmen of America as Factors in
African Evangelization." Dr. Beard attended the Conference on his
way to Europe to bring his family home. He is expected to return
about the first of September.

* * * * *

*GETTYSBURG, FRATERNITY, FREE BALLOT.*

The meeting of the Blue and the Gray on the field of Gettysburg at
the late anniversary celebration marks an era in national fraternity.
The orator of the day, George William Curtis, did a noble, perhaps we
might say courageous, deed in lifting the enthusiasm of the glad hour
above the remembrance of past heroism and present harmony to the
great duty of the nation--a free and fair ballot. A few lines culled
from the oration will give the thought.

"The suffrage is the mainspring, the heart of our common life.
If ignorance and semi-barbarous dominance be fatal to civilized
communities, no less so is constant and deliberate defiance of
law."

"No honest man can delude himself with the theory that this is a
local question. If there be a national question, which vitally
interests every American citizen from the Penobscot to the Rio
Grande, it is the question of a free legal ballot."

"Can we wrest from the angel of this hour any blessing so
priceless as the common resolution that we shall not have come to
this consecrated spot only to declare our joy and gratitude, nor