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 THE MILITARY ORDER OF THE LOYAL LEGION 
 OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 BREVET MAJ.-GENERAL RUTHERFORD B. HAYES 
 
 FIFTH QUADRENNIAL CONGRESS 
 
 CHICAGO ILLINOIS 
 
 April 17th 1885 
 

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Fifth Quadrennial Congress of the Order, Chicago, April 15-17, 1885. 
 
 Extract from the minutes : — 
 
 Brevet Major-General E. W. Hinks, representative from Massachusetts. 
 
 Resolved, That the remarks of our Acting Commander and presiding 
 officer be printed and forwarded to the several Commanderies of the 
 Order. 
 
 The resolution was unanimously adopted. 
 
 Attest : 
 
 John P. Nicholson, 
 
 Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel, U. S. V., 
 
 Acting Recorder-in-Chief. 
 
Companions, this motion will close the business of 
 the Congress. I am greatly obliged to the represent- 
 atives of the various commanderies for their kindness 
 and support during the performance of unfamiliar duties, 
 and I trust that the acquaintance now made, and the 
 fraternal regard which will date back to the meeting 
 of this Congress, are to continue as lang as we shall 
 live. I feel assured that all who shall be informed 
 of the facts will be satisfied that there has been a 
 degree of harmony, of good temper, and of fairly 
 good judgment in our action which is entirely worthy 
 of the order to which we belong. I trust that it 
 will be discovered that this is true of our work ; and 
 to be worthy of this order is certainly the highest 
 praise. For we believe — we begin to feel sure — that the 
 order of the Loyal Legion that was established in 1865, 
 on the 15th of April, in the midst of the deep gloom 
 that then fell upon the country, is to be entirely 
 worthy of the good cause in which it had its origin, — 
 a cause which may be said to be, as was said of the 
 Revolutionary war by Emerson, — "a spotless cause." 
 
Indeed, it was the best — the divlnest — cause for which 
 men ever went to war. We ourselves did not fully 
 appreciate the cause for which we were risking our 
 lives when we were engaged in the great conflict. It 
 is certainly true of this war, that it stands alone in the 
 wars of all history, as the one war that accomplished 
 all — completely and exacdy — that the friends of the right 
 wished and sought when they were forced to take up 
 arms. It established the Union; it maintained the 
 supremacy of the General Government; it abolished 
 slavery. This was all that we then thought of; But 
 it can be said further, if wars are to be judged by 
 their results, that our war was the greatest war in all 
 history. Its results have transcended immeasurably the 
 most sanguine anticipations of those who took part in 
 it. It is our good fortune to have fought on the right 
 side in our country's time of need. The four years of 
 the war are therefore the best years of our lives. 
 Those years are indeed golden. The inheritance 
 which that service enables us to leave to those who 
 shall come after us, is an inheritance more precious 
 than the best success in accumulating wealth, or the 
 highest gratification of ambition for civil honors. Think 
 of the war and its results. The vanquished now admit, 
 in every form, that they have gained by this war more 
 than it can be shown that the victor in any other war 
 ^ver gained by the most complete and brilliant triumph. 
 
The brave men of the South who foueht against us -^ 
 are now ready with us to stand guard around the couch 
 and the home of the illustrious soldier by whom they 
 
 were beaten at Donelson and Shiloh, Vicksburg and - 
 
 Mission Ridge, Richmond and Appomattox, and fer- 
 vently to pray with us, God bless General Grant. But, 
 companions, I must not detain you. I trust you will 
 have safe and agreeable journeys to your homes, and 
 that there you will find that your families have enjoyed 
 the protection and blessing of the Divine Being who 
 holds in his hand the lives and destinies of individuals 
 and of nations. 
 
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