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 Flag Presentation 
 
 BV 
 
 Lafayette Post, No. 140, 
 
 Department of New York, 
 
 G.A.R., 
 
 TO 
 
 The College of the City of New York. 
 
 June, 1888. 
 
OI^F^ICERS. 1S5S. 
 
 FLOYD CLARKSON, 
 
 Commander. 
 
 JOHN HAMILTON, 
 Senior Vice-Commander. 
 
 WM. LEE DARLING, 
 
 Junior Vice-Commander. 
 
 THEO. W. GREIG, 
 
 Adjutant. 
 
 WM. MITCHELL, 
 
 Quartermaster. 
 
 MAX G. RAEFLE, M.D., 
 
 Surgeon. 
 
 Rev. SAMUEL S. SEWARD, 
 Chaplain. 
 
 RICHARD L. SALISBURY, 
 
 Officer of the Day. 
 
 JERRY S. THOMPSON, 
 
 Officer of the Guard. 
 
 HENRY F. HERKNER, 
 
 Commissary. 
 
 CHARLES L. GUNN, 
 Sergeant- Major. 
 
 ALBERT M. CUDNER. 
 
 Quartermaster Sergeant. 
 
PRESENTATION OF A NATIONAL FLAG 
 
 TO THE 
 
 COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 
 
 ON 
 
 FRIDAY EVENING, JUNE 8th, 1888 
 
 IN THE 
 
 ACADEMY OF MUSIC 
 
 BY 
 
 LAFAYETTE POST, No. 140 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF NEW YORK 
 
 (Bxmxii %x\m of % Jlepblk , TD^^pt- «>f f^^-w Uoy^l( 
 
 h * _ I 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 PRESS OF J. J. LITTLE & CO 
 
 10 TO 20 AsTOR Place 
 
 1888 
 
£7462. 
 
 a 5- 
 
 '^.Y. Pub Ub. 
 
Mr. Floyd Clarkson, Commander of the Post, called the 
 meeting to order, and said : 
 
 As is the custom in all of the Encampments of the Grand 
 Army, we will now listen while the Chaplain invokes the Divine 
 blessing. 
 
 Eev. S. S. Seward, Chaplain of the Post, then offered the 
 following prayer : . 
 
 Lord, our Heavenly Father, our ever blessed Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ, if there is any merit in the occasion which has drawn 
 us together, it is due to the leading of thy Spirit. We humbly 
 acknowledge thine act. "We pray for thy blessing upon its consum- 
 mation. Mindful of thy wonderful providence in the preservation 
 of this country to be the theater of a new experiment in civil and 
 religious liberty, and not forgetful, our Father, of thy^ Moving care 
 and overruling providence in that struggle in which s6 many of us 
 took part here recently, we pray thee now with the -faith and trust- 
 fulness of little children approaching an earthly f-ather, for the con- 
 sideration of thy blessing. Bless, we pray thee, our country ; pro- 
 tect her from all enemies within and without. Lord, we pray 
 thee that thou wilt preserve the integrity of her institutions. Bless, 
 we pray thee, her people ; make them truly mindful of the privi- 
 leges which they enjoy under this free government, and grant that 
 they may be truly grateful for the rich inheritance that they receive 
 at thy hand. Bless, we pray thee, our Order; make it not only the 
 instrument of great good, but the means of preserving alive not the 
 traditions only, but the loyalty, the virtue and self-sacrifice, the 
 
high and pure patriotism which was called into existence in the 
 hour of the nation's peril. Above all, we pray thee that thou wilt 
 bless the youth, the rising generation of this country and city, and 
 especially the College of the City of New York. Lord, we pray 
 thee that thou wilt make them truly mindful of the great privileges 
 which they enjoy, and grant that the pure and holy flame of patriot- 
 ism may ever burn in their hearts. May the sentiment of this hour 
 never fail from their memory. May it be the means of awakening 
 in their hearts that true and loyal patriotism which, if it is received 
 and exercised in thy name, will introduce them hereafter into that 
 heavenly country for which we were all created, and unto thee, 
 Lord, and unto thy great and holy name, we will give all the praise 
 now and forever more. Amen. 
 
REMARKS OF COMMANDER FLOYD CLARKSON 
 UPON PKESENTATION OF FLAG. 
 
 Mr. President : 
 
 One of England's greatest philosophers and statesmen has said,' 
 " What is liberty without wisdom and without virtue ? It is the 
 greatest of all possible evils, for it is folly, vice and madness, with- 
 out tuition or restraint." 
 
 Our fathers, who came to these shoi'es and settled the island of 
 Manhattan, brought with them the schoolmaster ; they had found 
 through many years of adversity that the strength of a people to 
 uphold liberty depended upon their intelligence, and, they thought, 
 upon intelligence guided by the Word of God. 
 
 They opened wide the doors for all who wished to enter in and 
 abide with them, and, from the earliest days, liberty in all things 
 temporal and spiritual, was the law throughout the colony of New 
 York. 
 
 The able patriots who succeeded them trod in the same foot- 
 prints, and in the course of time, as the commonwealth grew, the 
 grand system of public school education, which is the just pride of 
 the citizens of our city and State, was inaugurated and has been 
 more and more widely expanded, until now the State extends to all 
 children such instruction as shall prepare them for the station of life 
 each one may select as the sphere of their life's work, whether it be 
 among the professions or amid the more active business or mechani- 
 cal employments. 
 
 At the head of this system stands your college, and its graduates 
 
are to be met in every phase of life throughout our broad land. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 They number among them some of the best lawyers, physicians, 
 instructors, merchants, mechanics, who are the pride and glory of 
 our city and country. They are impressing their thoughts and prin- 
 ciples upon the body politic ; they have arisen from all grades and 
 stations of life and surroundings. The young men thirsting for 
 knowledge, and without anything to help them but their energy, 
 perseverance, and determination to succeed, here find their oppor- 
 tunity, and are achieving it by dint of self-denial and hard work. 
 
 The students of your college are graduates from our public 
 schools ; they come from various nationalities ; from all sections of 
 the city ; from very different environments, and are trained under 
 widely diversified influences ; but here they find a tie that binds 
 them to each other — the tie of their Alma Mater. In the close 
 fellowship of their five years' training they come to understand more 
 of the influences which are felt in a great city like this ; the sym- 
 pathies of their hearts are gradually opened to each other, and 
 under the disciplining influences of your heart and hand, and of 
 those of the faculty and instructors, they go forth a mightier power 
 for good or ill through the training and equipping that knowledge 
 brings to their hands. 
 
 How important then that to this knowledge shall be added virtue. 
 
 This nation, Mr. President, has, in a little more than a century 
 of life, been disciplined by the severest trials that can prove a jicople 
 — by war for independence ; by those with foreign nations for the 
 defense of her citizens ; by wars among our own people — a Civil 
 War of Herculean proportions ; and in this last experience the loyal 
 sons of the North, the East, the West and the South broke asunder 
 the ties of party, and cast aside the pursuits and pleasures of civil 
 life, and threw themselves into the contest, resolved that the Union 
 must and should be preserved. 
 
 The survivors of the Armies of the Union have organized the 
 Grand Army of the Republic (applause), having for the object of 
 their association not merely fraternity for all their comrades in the 
 struggle, not merely substantial charity for all needing assistance, 
 but the deepest, strongest, noblest principle and virtue of all — 
 loyalty to the Flag and to the Union. (Applause.) 
 
This Post is composed of such comrades ; full well do they know 
 that in a brief period, the generation of active participants in that 
 great crisis of the nation's life will have passed beyond the river, 
 and with deep solicitude they look to the future of this noble land, 
 and to those who are moving forward to fill their places as they 
 shall cease to answer at Roll Call ; — to the boys and young men 
 who, in our public schools, in our institutions of learning, in our 
 colleges, are preparing for the activities of life, and they know that 
 love for country, for the flag, has a mighty influence in developing 
 noble citizens. Our comrades feel with others the absorbing demands 
 made upon brain and heart and muscle by the business pursuits of 
 the day ; they see the energy with which some are pressing forward 
 those plans which shall fill their coffers, advance their interests or 
 bring honors to themselves ; — they feel the grand advance in wealth, 
 comfort, intelligence, which pervades the land, and notice its mate- 
 rializing influence ; they are not ignorant of the vast accession to 
 our population which this life and energy and prosperity attracts 
 from other lands ; and they cannot but be aware that these addi- 
 tions include also those whose views of liberty are widely different 
 from those which control here, and have made us so strong and 
 great ; they have heard the cries which are discordant with law and 
 liberty and noble earnest life, and they turn to the educated youth 
 of our city and our land, and would strive to imbue them through- 
 out their whole being with that virtue which will make learning a 
 bulwark for the people — which will stimulate learning to the most 
 earnest endeavors to lead the nation to a purer, higher life ; they 
 would have learning recognize in a deeper, fuller sense than ever 
 before, that it is only by liberty within law, by equal rights to all, 
 whether they be rich or poor, educated or unlearned, native or 
 foreign, professional, mechanical, or laboring, — by equal and exact 
 justice to all that this or any nation can reach the highest, noblest 
 development, and they would have learning recognize that the sym- 
 bol of our nation is the symbol of this liberty, equal rights and 
 national unity. 
 
 The Comrades of Lafayette Post are so thoroughly convinced of 
 the importance of this movement inaugurated by Major D. W. C. 
 Ward, and which is every day being witnessed in one or more of our 
 public schools, and to which attention has been called recently by 
 
the distinguished President of the Board of Education ; and ardently 
 wishing to attract attention to it ; to excite the Grand Army of the 
 Republic throughout the nation to aid in its more extended influ- 
 ence ; to stimulate and develop the latent sentiment of patriotism 
 in the youth of the land — they in this most public manner present 
 to you as the President of the College of the City of New York, 
 this National Flag. (Apjilause.) In the defense of that Flag, you 
 have jeopardized your health and life, and bear upon your person 
 the evidences of the ten-ific struggle between Loyalty and Treason ; 
 and we know of no one, we cannot think of any person more worthy 
 than yourself to whom they can commit such a symbol ; and whose 
 influence upon the young men of the College, and thus iipon the 
 generation and the country, shall be more elevating, more enno- 
 bling, more patriotic ! 
 
 And upon you, young Gentlemen of the College of the City of 
 New York, Lafayette Post would have me urge that this Flag — our 
 Nation's Flag, may from this day be invested with a preciousness 
 that it never had before ; may it ever bring to your mind that it is 
 more than silk or bunting, that it is imbued with a living sentiment ; 
 that it has a vitalizing power ; that it is the symbol, the embodi- 
 ment of the heroic struggles of our Fathers, who after a weary seven 
 years' contest with one of the most powerful nations of the earth, 
 achieved the right for America to govern herself ; a symbol of the 
 liberty under law which blesses this nation, and makes this the land 
 toward which the burdened, weary, and oppressed people of the 
 world turn with longing eyes and eager expectations ; a symbol 
 of the land where no involuntary hondman is to he found, but 
 where all are entitled to the same rights and privileges, whatever 
 their color, condition, or possessions ; a symbol of a restored Federal 
 Union ; a symbol of the sufferings, hardships, privations, sleepless 
 vigils, weary marches, and terrific battles which for four long years 
 were the constant experience of those who were willing to give their 
 lives that the Nation might live ! (Applause.) 
 
 Let this dear old Flag be more sacred in your eyes, more entitled 
 to your homage, more dear to your hearts, more welcome to the 
 best energies and severest sacrifices you can give ; for, next to God, 
 our Country has the rigid to all that you and I can have, can give 
 of can do — to our being — to our lives ! (Applause.) 
 
•REMARKS OF GENERAL ALEX. S. WEBB, 
 
 PRESIDENT OP COLLEGE OF CITY OF NEW YORK. 
 
 IN ACCEPTING SAME. 
 
 Comrades of Lapayette Post : 
 
 "We fought to establish forever in this country the right of our 
 Government to maintain, at any cost, the supremacy of this flag. It 
 is now more than ever it was before the dark days of the rebellion, 
 the symbol of liberty, equal rights, and unity. It is therefore espe- 
 cially fitting that you, the representatives of the men who secured 
 to us all these blessings, should insist that it should ever be to the 
 youth of this broad land what it has been to us. You are right in 
 your claim that they shall be so instructed that this flag shall be to 
 them the sole symbol of our grand Government — the only flag to be 
 venerated by American citizens. (Applause.) 
 
 By this gift from your body, and by its formal acceptance by our 
 trustees, our college is encouraged in its maintenance of the high- 
 est and most dignified of all instruction — the philosophy of consti- 
 tutional government. 
 
 I receive this beautiful emblem of freedom, token of our fidelity 
 to the Union, assuring you that we deem it an exalted honor to be 
 the chosen recipients of this priceless gift. It will be with us at all 
 times, honored in our public services, treasured in our hearts. The 
 "flag of the country" will take its place in our halls, the beloved 
 reminder of our duty to our nationality. (Applause.) 
 
10 
 
 To you, gentlemen of our Board of Trustees and Members of our 
 Faculty, through the earnest patriotic endeavors of your highest 
 officer, your president, an active growing interest in the lessons to 
 be derived from the contemplation of national questions has sprung 
 into existence during the past year in the public schools of this city. 
 Every man who has fought under that flag has at times felt, as I 
 have, the growing necessity for some well-directed movement of this 
 kind coming from the representative official source, I feel that you 
 all join with me in giving him the heart-felt merited commendation 
 and approval which it is his right to receive from this gathering to- 
 night. J. Edward Simmons (applause), a soldier who took part in 
 many battles, " who never saw a gun or a national flag captured by 
 the enemy," thanks you for reviving the spirit which protected this 
 flag and secured its possession to my fellow soldiers. 
 
 Students : 
 
 As you pass from the college halls and wend your way toward 
 your homes many chance to cross a neighboring square, on the south 
 side of which stand three imposing statues. 
 
 To the east that of Washington, founder of the American repub- 
 lic. Will you pause with me one moment and consider the advice 
 of this great father of our statesmen ? What does he say ? 
 
 " The name of American, which belongs to you in your 
 national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of 
 patriotism more than any appellation derived from 
 local discriminations." 
 
 What means he ? He means to warn you against permitting 
 local influences to blind you to your duty to the national govern- 
 ment. He tells you to be less I*^ew Yorkers than you are, to be 
 more national in your thoughts, to study more the general interests 
 of this government, to feel acutely the growing power of those who 
 cannot decide for themselves upon national topics. He charges you to 
 prevent the improper use of the term American. Who, more than 
 New York citizens, require the repetition of this warning ? Do we 
 forget those words of Washington ? If we do, it is to our country's 
 
11 
 
 loss. See to it as you look upon this, our national flag, that you 
 who yearn to derive from a liberal education its greatest benefits, do 
 not take part in its future desecration. Inform yourselves, remain 
 or become American, and see to it that American destiny falls not 
 into the hands of the uuinstructed, the inhabilitated. 
 
 May this great lesson to be derived from the effigy of the father 
 of our country be engraved on your hearts. 
 
 And now turn to the statue erected in gi'ateful remembrance of 
 the services of the man who fought for American principles, erected 
 to him who said to the king of the French, " I regard the Constitu- 
 tion of the United States as the most perfect that ever existed ; " 
 erected to Lafayette, the friend of George Washington. For this 
 man it was said that "the prayers of millions ascend to heaven." 
 Yes, the prayers and blessings of a mighty nation followed him 
 across the broad Atlantic. While our free institutions shall endure, 
 generation after generation shall rise up and call him blessed. Look 
 on Lafayette and recall how that hero, a foreigner, fought for this 
 flag — he considered it worthy of his homage and love. Eemember 
 that his statue should be to you but another reminder of the precious 
 right of freedom delivered to your charge for preservation. 
 
 And now on the western side rises the rugged form of Abraham 
 Lincoln. (Applause and cheers.) Oh, students of our college, if 
 you would but pause and gather in the lessons taught by this one ! 
 How much could you gather to yourselves from the contemplation 
 of his acts. Would that every one of you who may read his grand, 
 dignified and scholarly address at the consecration of the monument 
 to our fallen at Gettysburg feel as I do that these words call into 
 activity every national. God-fearing, fervent fibre of the heart, and 
 make the disloyal dissatisfied, and the ungrateful recognize the fact 
 that •'' Righteousness exalteth the nation, but sin is a reproach to 
 any people." He made the people feel that he, with his firm reliance 
 upon the God of nations, could look down the grand highway of a 
 nation's progress and see the continuing and certain success of our 
 righteous cause. He, the Conservator of Union, stands noble and 
 self-reliant, — charitable and hopeful, — temperate but firm, — above 
 a fitting inscription, "With malice towards none," — a glorious 
 example for American youth. 
 
 If he could stand before you to-day, what would he say in regard 
 
12 
 
 to your future veneration for this, your National Flag ? (Ap- 
 plause.) 
 
 AVell named the place, — well placed the effigies in Union Square. 
 When next you cross it, and whenever you traverse it, let it be to 3'ou 
 a place for the calling forth of a national spirit. As you leave it 
 after one thought, I care not liow cursory, but one in the right 
 direction ; may you as students become more contemplative of the 
 necessity on your part for a better understanding of your duties to a 
 National Government, a more thorough determination to respect its 
 symbols and its officers whatever may be their political faith. Be 
 ever mindful of the fact that we can never continue in our success 
 as a nation unless we wisely provide for the inculcating of true 
 patriotic feeling for the national flag in the hearts of the nation's 
 youths. (Applause and cheers.) 
 
 Yes, Comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic, we all, 
 trustees, faculty and students, thank you again for the national 
 emblem we are to place in our halls, promising that it shall be 
 cherished, respected and honored as it should be by American 
 citizens. (Tremendous applause.) 
 
 Song, "Star Spangled Banner." 
 
 Mr. Clarkson : I have now the honor of introducing to you 
 the President of the Board of Education, Hon. J. Edward 
 Simmons. 
 
REMARKS OF HON. J. EDWARD SIMMONS. 
 
 I see by the programme that the Chairman of the Board of 
 Trustees is not expected to deliver an address or an oration on this 
 occasion, but it is expected of him that he will '^ acknowledge the 
 gift." The President of the College of the City of New York has 
 acknowledged in such graceful terms the high compliment which 
 Lafayette Post of the Grand Army of the Eepublic has paid to our 
 institution (applause) by the presentation of this beautiful stand of 
 colors, surely it would hardly be appropriate for me to attempt to 
 ' say anything further in the line of acknowledgment. Let me assure 
 you, however, that all the beautiful sentiments, so full of patriotism, 
 so full of love of country, that have fallen from the lips of General 
 Webb, meet with my hearty concurrence. (Applause.) It may not 
 be inappropriate for me, in behalf of my associates in the Board of 
 Trustees, to say that we feel exceedingly grateful to-night for the 
 handsome stand of colors you have presented to our college. We 
 feel indebted to you for the flag, but we feel especially indebted to 
 you for the patriotic motive that has prompted this patriotic act. 
 (Applause and cheers.) It was only a few months ago that a recom- 
 mendation was made to the Board of Education of this city that the 
 curriculum of study be a little more extended, so that it would em- 
 brace the inculcation of more patriotism among the pupils of the 
 public schools. Since that recommendation was made, I am happy 
 to say that the citizens of New York have been inspired by a feeling 
 of patriotism to such a degree that they— not the members of the 
 Board of Education, not the Board of Education as a body, but the 
 
14 
 
 citizens of New York — have presented to almost every public school 
 in the city a stand of colors ; and we now have the pleasure of 
 knowing that over every principal's desk, v/ith two or three excep- 
 tions, in every school in this city, the stars and stripes are displayed. 
 (Applause.) And the beautiful symbolism of the national flag is 
 taught to every youthful learner who sits beneath its protecting 
 folds. 
 
 The example set by Lafayette Post is a good one, and I sincerely 
 hope that this action of the Grand Army of the Eepublic will give 
 an impetus to the wave of patriotic fervor that has swept over this 
 city, and that it will widen, deepen and swell until it sweeps over 
 the entire nation. (Tremendous applause.) 
 
 3Ir. Clarkson : I have now the pleasure and the honor of in- 
 troducing to you a comrade of the Grand Army, one who in the 
 battle of Gettysburg was an enlisted man, and who fought 
 through the fight at Petersburg — the Rev. Dr. John R. Paxton. 
 
REMARKS OF REV. DR. JOHN R. PAXTON. 
 
 When I lie tangled in its stripes and covered with its stars, the 
 birds that revel in the air know no such liberty as under that old flag. 
 
 Once, at the battle of Tolopotomy, I was sent by G-en. Barlow, 
 orderly sergeant then, to keep the Confederates quiet who were 
 shooting at us occasionally from a picket line ; there was a piece of 
 woods in front of ns, and my company was ordered out to do the 
 work. This is how the order reached me : General Barlow, Di- 
 vision Commander, ordered : " General Miles, Brigade Commander, 
 send a company down to the woods to keep those rebels quiet," 
 General Miles said, ''Captain McCulloch, send a company down to 
 the woods to keep those fellows quiet." Captain McCullough, Regi- 
 mental Commander, said, " Lieutenant Wilson, take your company 
 down to the woods to keep those fellows quiet." Lieutenant Wilson 
 said, " Sergeant Paxton, take the company down and keep those fel- 
 lows quiet." (Applause.) I had to go. We got down there. We 
 crawled, crept really, through the woods ; they could not see us ; there 
 were about four acres of solid woods ; we got behind a tree ; we picked 
 our men and fired, and somebody was hurt, and after a while you could 
 not see any heads ; then there was an old hat put up on a stick, as 
 if there was a head in it, to draw our fire. One of our men said, 
 "■ Too thin, Johnny ; we don't shoot hats, only heads." We struck 
 a truce at once, and went to trade coffee for tobacco and other 
 things (laughter) — liquid apple juice. There was a corporal from 
 Alabama, and he had his head tied in a bandage ; he was getting 
 some tobacco for us. I said, "Corporal, how long do you expect 
 this campaign to last ?" He said, "Yank, till the snow comes.'' 
 
16 
 
 I said, ''Great Scott ! Do you expect to tight all summer ?" He 
 said, "that is what we over liere expect ; that man in command of 
 you'uns over there don't know when he's whipped" — that was 
 Grant. (Cheers.) 
 
 Young gentlemen, comrades, general and president : Like Gen. 
 Grant, that flag of ours never has been whipped, and never will be. 
 (Prolonged applause.) 
 
 Commander and comrades of the Grand Army,. Mr. President of 
 the Board of Education, trustees, faculty, students, ladies and 
 gentlemen : We arc citizens of no mean country. That is a flag not 
 to be ashamed of. I am glad that it is to be in the College of the 
 City of New York. As T came down with my friend, a graduate of 
 the College of the City of New York in 1861, Mr. E. F. Hyde, 
 Vice-President of the Central Trust Co. of New York, told me how 
 one of the distinguished alumni of your college, Capt. Elliott, in 
 1861, with the most brilliant career before liim, with eight other of 
 the graduates of that class in 1861, enlisted, and Capt. Elliott, one 
 of the brightest men that ever graduated from your college, was 
 shot climbing one of the mountains from Lookout Mountain, and 
 died for that old flag of ours. 
 
 The Eoman matrons knew how to make men. (Laughter.) 
 Now I am not fnnny. The Eoman mati-ons used to take their sons 
 down to the Pantheon and trained them for civic duty and daring 
 courage in the services of their country in presence of the busts of 
 Cato, Fabius Maximus, Scipio, and may be, like them, heroes of 
 the republic. Let us trust, Mr. President, that in the College of 
 the City of New York, your young men be trained for civic duty 
 and loyalty in presence of this flag that may long wave, symbol of 
 liberty, patriotism and loyalty, over this broad, beloved land of 
 ours. Everything in life is symbolic. I take a handful of dust, as a 
 clergyman, and I sprinkle it on the coffin's lid, and that means a 
 man, earth to earth, and dust to dust. I take a piece of broken 
 bread and cup of wine, and in it I see the great crisis in human his- 
 tory, the new epoch in the life of mankind, when Jesus Ciirist died 
 to make men holy. That bread and wine signified the defeat of 
 thirty legions of CgesaK's soldiers, the establishment of Christianity, 
 and the creation of the modern world. 
 
 Now I want to interrogate that svmbol. What does it mean. 
 
17 
 
 commander ? Who carried it ? Did it have behind it a despot who 
 drenched the world in blood ? Does it stand for tyranny and op- 
 pression ? No. It has not a blot now, nor a stain. There once 
 was one, and you, commander, and you, my comrades, washed it 
 out in your blood at Gettysburg and Chickaniauga. 
 
 Now let me interrogate this emblem of our liberty, this standard 
 of ours that rises against the world. Let me ask what the stripes 
 and stars mean generally. That bunting, that silken thing of stripes, 
 red, white and blue, spotted with stars, means that you young 
 gentlemen, and I, were born free and equal in opportunity in the 
 right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That flag means 
 that in the United States there is no king, no caste, no rank, but that 
 one man of whatever color, or tongue, or race, or religion, has an open 
 door to do the best and make the most of himself that he can, by 
 the help of God. I ask that flag what else it means. God bless it, 
 I hear it say free speech. There used to be a time when thought 
 was an infant gagged and bound. There used to be a time v/hen 
 men did not dare to say that the sun shone in the sky, for fear. 
 There was a time when speech was not free, when men Avent about 
 muttering in the dark, and did not dare say that the world moved, 
 and not the sun ; but, thank God, every man in our land can speak, 
 whatever his religion, whatever his convictions, whatever his opinions 
 on the country, on our institutions, on the tarifE (applause), and 
 utter his free, unconstrained opinion. Old flag, long may you wave 
 over the land where I dare to speak my honest sentiment, and utter 
 in the gates of any city my honest conviction of truth and duty. 
 No one dare, under your bright stars, to molest me or make me 
 afraid. (Cries of hear, hear.) 
 
 Old flag, what else do you mean ? A free conscience ! There 
 was a time when men were driven with a lash, as it were, to church, 
 and when they had to worship one God, in one way, in one church, 
 with the same ritual, Avhether they liked it or not. Long may that 
 flag wave not only over a free country and a free tongue, but over 
 a free conscience, and intellect, where the God of the Jew as well 
 as the God of the Christian is honored and worshiped, each man 
 according to his faith. (Applause. ) And something else appropriate 
 to this meeting and you young gentlemen, the President of the 
 Board and the General and President of your College, that flag 
 
II 
 
 means to-night free schools and free education for the masses of 
 the people of our country. Knowledge goes hand in hand with 
 liberty, justice and equal rights. Ignorance, like sin, is a reproach 
 to any people, and long may that flag wave oyer a land where the 
 taxes of all the people, for the people, open the college of the City 
 of New York and of all the free public schools, to educate the 
 citizens of the coming generations. (Applause.) And now, young 
 gentlemen, this is the United States. You are citizens by natural- 
 ization or birth of a country that knows no rival and admits few 
 equals, and whatever nation you belong to by birth, whatever tongue 
 your mother taught you, whatever your color or your race, no mat- 
 ter, there is only one flag. This Republic is your country, and the 
 President and Gen. Webb will see that that old flag there is spread 
 out over your class rooms, and that it covers alike on equal terms 
 the Hebrew, the Irish, the German, the negro, the Norwegian, as 
 well as the son of the Puritan, and protects you all in equal rights 
 and makes you bound by equal obligations. 
 
 Now let all of us come and gather under its blessed folds. Let 
 us be tangled in the stars and covered with the stripes for the 
 gods that revel in the air know no such liberty as it guarantees this 
 land. (Applause.) 
 
 Mr. President, Mr. Commander and Comrades of Lafayette Post 
 and gentlemen, I thank you most warmly for the honor and the 
 pleasure of an invitation to participate with my worthy comrades of 
 the Grand Army in the presentation of this flag to the College of 
 the City of New York. 
 
 No more worthy act of patriotism could be inaugurated as a 
 movement up and down the length of this land than to teach the 
 rising generation of our coming citizens, — many of them I must say 
 too ignorant of the events of the late Civil War, — the value and cost 
 of this glorious flag. 
 
 Gentlemen, let us who have fought and dared to die for it see to 
 it that this country which our comrades died to save shall be per- 
 petual, and the flag we carried to victory, the country we saved, 
 shall be safe in future generations of loyal citizens, and that while 
 one of us old soldiers is alive no man shall insult or touch with a 
 treasonable hand that flag which you and I followed through three 
 or four years of hardship, toil, danger and death. 
 
19 
 
 Mr. Chivkson : We expected to have with us this eveiiin<T 
 some distinguished officers to address you, whose names we did 
 not place uj, on the programme in deference to their wishes. We 
 expected Gen. Abner Doubleday, a member of our Post, the 
 man who was captain of the battery in Fort Sumter and who 
 fired the first gun in defense of that flag; but, unfortunately, he 
 is not well, and he is reserving whatever strength he has for the 
 purpose of being at Gettysburg, where he commanded the first 
 corps after Gen. Reynolds fell, to celebrate the Battle of Get- 
 tysburg from the 1st to the 3d of July. He is reserving his 
 strength for that occasion, and, upon that account, he is not 
 with us. We also expected to have with us Gen. Sherman. 
 
 Mr. Clarkson then read the following letters from Gen. 
 Doubleday and Gen. Sherman, and said : 
 
 General Sherman has been confined to his bed for some days, not 
 seriously, I hope, and our dear old Phil Sheridan (applause), we re- 
 gret exceedingly that we cannot have him with us too. After we 
 sing the next song, The Eed, White and Blue, we shall have an ad- 
 dress made by a comrade of the Post, Gen. Cyrus Bussey, who, in 
 the western campaign, had an experience fighting with those Indians 
 who were used by our adversaries, and who was afterwards Chief of 
 Cavalry under Gen. Sherman. I now have the pleasure of intro- 
 ducing to you Gen. Cyrus Bussey. 
 
5th Avenue Hotel, 
 
 ^'Ew York, May 24, 1888. 
 
 Floyd Clarkson", 
 
 CoMR. Lafayette Post G. A. K., 
 39 Beoadway. 
 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 Since reaching my room I have examined my diary, and find that 
 I am disengaged for the evening of Friday, Jane 8, next, and there- 
 fore accept your kind invitation. ***** 
 
 I heartily, approve the whole scheme, and want as long as I live 
 to give my fullest influence to your purpose to impress the lessons 
 of patriotism on the rising generation. Already we begin to forget 
 how easy men of supjDosed intelligence threw off their allegiance to 
 the United States of America for some petty State or province in 
 which they happened to be born, an event over which they hud no 
 control. 
 
 Unless called away by some unforeseen accident I will be there. 
 
 Truly your friend, 
 
 W. T. Sherman. 
 
Mendham. N. J., June 6, 1888. 
 
 To CoMKADE Floyd Claekson, 
 
 CoMK. Lafayette Post, G.A.R. 
 
 Dear Comrade : 
 
 1 regret that the state of my health will prevent me from being 
 present at the highly interesting ceremony of presenting a United 
 States flag to the students of the College of the City of New York. 
 
 It is very necessary that the youth of our country should be 
 taught that reverence and respect for the Stars and Stripes which 
 the veterans of the late civil war feel for the symbol which was 
 their guiding star in so many battles. We shall never again experi- 
 ence the exultation with which we saw it go forward to surmount 
 all obstacles, or the gloom which shrouded it in the midst of retreat 
 and disaster. 
 
 The patriotism which defended it in the hour of trial cost the 
 death, disease, or mutilation of nearly half a million of men. The 
 price was high, but it insured the permanent supremacy of unity, 
 peace and concord throughout a much afflicted land. 
 
 Should the rage of faction ever again assail it, the young men 
 of the country must learn that the highest of all civic duties is to 
 sustain it as the representative of liberty and law. 
 
 Yours in F. C. & L., 
 
 Abner Doubleday. 
 
REMARKS OF GEN. CYRUS BUSSEY. 
 
 Commander, Officers and Students of the College of New- 
 York, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 It is a great honor to be deemed worthy to stand here to-niglit in 
 the presence of distinguished men representing the best talent of 
 this great city, some of them distinguished as orators and teachers 
 whose names have become illustrious in the various professions they 
 have adorned. To have been deemed worthy to appear as one of the 
 speakers on the same platform with Gens. Sherman and Double- 
 day, before so intelligent an audience as this, gives me great 
 pleasure. I very much regret that Gen. Sherman's illness has 
 prevented his being here to-night. It was my good fortune to be 
 placed under his command with my regiment, the 3d Iowa Cavalry, 
 soon after the beginning of the war in 1861. From him I learned 
 some of my first lessons as a soldier, and soon discovered that he was 
 one of the greatest men in the army, and believed he would ulti- 
 mately achieve great distinction.' He was at this time under a 
 cloud, having been relieved of his command in Kentucky because 
 he was the only man either in the army or connected w^ith the 
 Government who had a proper conception of the great task the 
 Government had undertaken to suppress the rebellion. The truth 
 is, that he was fully two years in advance of the men who were 
 directing affairs in Washington. Sherman was placed in command 
 at Benton barracks, St. Louis, in November, 18G1, where I ^vas 
 stationed with my regiment. By invitation, I spent an evening socially 
 with him in his room at headquarters one evening, just after an 
 
23 
 
 additional three hundred thousand volunteers had been called by the 
 President, which force many believed would be more than enough to 
 suppress the rebellion. Gen. Sherman, during the conversation, 
 asked me how long I supposed the war would last. I answered, 
 having in mind Mr. Seward's proclamation that ninety days would 
 be sufficient, that it would require eighteen months. Gen. Sher- 
 man replied, " The war will last between four and five years. All 
 the volunteers now in the army, and all who can be induced to en- 
 list, will serve their three years ; those who survive will re-enlist as 
 veteran volunteers, and then the Government will have to resort to 
 the draft in order to raise men enough to restore the Union. We 
 will have to abandon the great wagon trains now being supplied to 
 regiments, and, as far as possible, live off the country ; by this policy 
 the South will become exhausted and we shall triumph." This was 
 before Gen. Grant's battles at Belmont and Donaldson, and when 
 McClellan had an army of 200,000 men on the Potomac. 'I'he his- 
 tory of the n'ext four years prove how true a prophecy Sherman 
 uttered. I deem it appropriate on this occasion while talking of the 
 flag in the presence of the students of the college to refer to the 
 grand heroes who carried it to victory in the late war. Some of 
 these young men w^ere not born then, none of them were old enough 
 to remember any of the events of that terrible struggle, but we may 
 find much in the history of our great leaders to inspire the student 
 to set his standard high, and strive to measure up to it. I am not 
 here to-night to tell you of anything I did in the war, only so far as 
 may be necessary to make plain what I want to say about others. 
 In February, 1862, I was ordered to march with my command from 
 Rolla, Missouri, to join Gen. Curtis' army, then about to attack 
 Gen. Price's army of rebels at Springfield, Mo. I marched over 200 
 miles in four days, and found Curtis' army in on Sugar Creek, 
 Arkansas, where he had driven Price, who continued to retreat 
 until he found a hiding place in the Boston mountains. As I ap- 
 proached the army I came upon a small party of cavalry in ciiarge 
 of a lot of broken-down horses and wagons belonging to the quarter- 
 master's department. My command was without tents or camp 
 equipage of any kind ; we had subsisted as best we could, sleeping, 
 the very few hours we did sleep, on the frozen ground, with the 
 thermometer down to zero. You cannot imagine our sufferings. I 
 
34 
 
 wanted to find the quartermaster, hoping he would be able to fur- 
 nish us some tents temporarily until my trains came up. I inquired 
 of this small party where I could find that officer; one of the party 
 answered that he was the quartermaster of the army. Any of you 
 who have seen Gen. Phil. Sheridan, the present general of the army, 
 will know what he looked like, for it was Captain Phil. Sheridan. I 
 found him in that capacity a most courteous and efiicient officer. 
 He did promptly everything in his power for the comfort of my 
 men. 
 
 The history of this distinguished general during the next six 
 months will illustrate what it is possible for a man to achieve in this 
 great country of ours who has the energy to make the effort. A 
 wise Providence evidently had a higher station for Capt. Sheridan 
 than the issuing of rations to the men who were to do the fighting. 
 Within a few days after I joined the army it was announced that 
 Capt. Sheridan had been removed from his place as quartermaster 
 and sent back to St. Louis under a cloud. He reported to Gen. 
 Halleck at St. Louis, and was assigned to duty as acting commis- 
 sary with Gen. Grant's army at Shiloh. Col. Gordon Granger of 
 the 2d Michigan Cavalry, of which Gen. Eussel A. Alger was a 
 captain, was promoted to brigadier general after the battle of 
 Shiloh, leaving the office of colonel of the 2d Michigan Cavalry 
 vacant. When he entered upon his duty as a brigadier he said to 
 Capt. Alger, "I have found a colonel for your regiment, Capt. Phil. 
 Sheridan, acting commissary." Capt. Alger replied that Gov. Blair 
 had just gone to Pittsburg Landing, thirty miles distant, to take 
 a boat for his home in Michigan. Armed with a letter from Gen. 
 Granger, Capt. Alger rode to Pittsburg Landing, found Gov. Blair, 
 secured Sheridan's appointment as colonel, which he placed in that 
 officer's hands the next day. Within thirty days, Avith his cavalry, 
 Col. Sheridan fought the battle of Booneville, Tenn., capturing 
 fifteen hundred Confederate prisoners, for which he was made a 
 brigadier general. About this time Gen. Bragg, with a large 
 Confederate force, threatened the invasion of Kentucky. Gen. 
 Nelson organized a force at Louisville to confront Bragg ; Gen. 
 Sheridan was ordered to report to Nelson and assigned to the com- 
 mand of a brigade of Nelson's army. Before the army moved. Gen. 
 Nelson was killed by Gen. Jeff. C. Davis, one of his division com- 
 
25 
 
 nianders. This gave Sheridan the command of the 3d division. 
 The battle of Stone Eivor was fought, and it was Gen. Sheridan 
 who turned the fortunes of the day with his division after the first 
 and second divisions of the army had been practically defeated. 
 For this he was made a major general, and his glorious record in 
 the subsequent years of the war furnish many of the brightest pages 
 of its history. The cloud which temporarily overshadowed Sheridan 
 at Pea Ridge was a very fortunate circumstance for him. Had he 
 remained as quartermaster, five months would have elapsed before 
 Curtis' army reached Helena, Ark., on the Mississippi River. It is 
 doubtful if he could then have been spared from the quartermaster's 
 department, as the army had been swelled by several hundred 
 thousand new troops, or whether an opportunity would have been 
 given him to secure a place in the line of promotion in the field. 
 
 During the month of Februar}^ 1882, while Curtis' army were 
 waiting supplies at Sugar Creek, I went with a force of cavalry to 
 Fayetteville, thirty miles in advance of our army. Here I had an 
 opportunity to know how dear our flag was to those who had lost it. 
 In that beautiful mountain town, the homes of a refined and cul- 
 tured community, the seat of three colleges, were men who had re- 
 mained true to the Union ; they had waited, watched, and prayed 
 for the coming of an army which would restore the Union. As I 
 charged into the town, driving a rebel force from the place, my at- 
 tention was attracted to a gentleman who waved us a greeting, which 
 made me know that he was our friend. After the excitement of the 
 chai'ge was over, I rode back where I found Judge Tibbetts, a prom- 
 inent lawyer, who evinced great joy at our coming. After inform- 
 ing me who he was, he went into his house, and brought out a large 
 American flag which he had kept concealed between the mattresses 
 of his bed for many months. We took this to the court-house, 
 where Judge Tibbetts raised it over the building. When its folds 
 filled with the fresh mountain breeze a cheer went up from patriotic 
 hearts, who had not dared to give expression to their feelings since 
 the day Sumter was fired upon. While Judge Tibbetts made an 
 eloquent speech, expressing his love for the old flag, I saw many 
 strong men, with hands clasped and tears running down their 
 cheeks, as with upturned face they gazed upon the starry flag, which 
 had so long been shut out from their sight. It would be impos- 
 
26 
 
 sible for me to give you a realizing sense of the condition of that 
 once beautiful town on that morning. The rebel army had re- 
 treated through it two or three days before. The private stores had 
 been broken open and pillaged by the soldiery, many of. the public 
 buildings, a large flour mill and one of the colleges, had been 
 burned by order of Gen. McCulloch, and the ruins were then smok- 
 ing. Almost every able-bodied man had been forced into the rebel 
 army, and a reign of terror prevailed. Our coming was hailed as a 
 deliverance. These Union men believed we were the advance of the 
 army, and had come to stay. All I have related took place in less 
 than an hour after our arrival. We were only a small part of the 
 army, nearly two hundred and fifty miles from our base of supply 
 at Eolla, Mo., with almost impassable roads over which to haul our 
 supplies. An army greatly superior to that of Gen. Curtis were in 
 camp only fifteen miles south, organizing to attack us. We must 
 fall back to the position held by Gen. Curtis near Sugar Creek. I 
 shall never forget the look of sadness which was visible on the faces 
 of these Union men and their devoted wives when they realized this 
 fact. Some of them went with us to the army. Others got to- 
 gether a few things and went into the mountains, where they found 
 a hiding place in the caves and forests. Judge Tibbetts determined 
 to remain with his familj'. Within a week I made a second expedi- 
 tion to Fayetteville. I called at Judge Tibbetts' house, where I 
 found his wife and children in the greatest distress. The rebel 
 Gen. McCulloch had sent a force and arrested Judge Tibbetts, and 
 sent him a prisoner to Fort Smith, declaring he would hang him as 
 a traitor as soon as he returned from the annihilation of Curtis' 
 army. Treason ! Think of it,, young men ! Here was a man who 
 had been for twenty-five years an honest citizen, about to be hung 
 because he loved the flag under whose folds he had lived all his life. 
 The rebel army, under generals Van Dorn, Price, McCulloch, Mc- 
 intosh and Pike, marched to attack our army at Pea Eidge on the 
 6th of March. The rebel army outnumbered our forces two to one. 
 After three days most desperate fighting the rebels Avere defeated, 
 and sent flying to their hiding place in the Boston Mountains. 
 Gen. McCulloch and Gen. Mcintosh, both graduates of West Point, 
 were killed. In that battle, my own command, a brigade of cavalry, 
 engaged in a hand-to-hand battle with Mcintosh's Texas Cavalry, 
 
27 
 
 and four regiments of Indians under Pike. Some of my men were 
 killed with long knives made in a blacksmith's shop, and many of 
 them were scalped by the savages. The battle of Pea Ridge was 
 one of the most decisive of the war. The death of McCulloch and 
 rebel defeat caused the release of Judge Tibbetts, who returned to 
 his home. Very soon Union men of Arkansas commenced to enlist 
 in the United States service, and before the war closed there were 
 ten thousand loyal Arkansas troops in the Federal army. 
 
 In the winter of 1863 I was with the army at Helena, Ark. Gen. 
 Sherman came down from Memphis with an army to move against 
 Vicksburg. His army was reinforced by a division under Gen. 
 Steel from the army at Helena. While waiting the embarkation of 
 these troops, an army of camp followers, for whom Gen. Sherman 
 had no love, endeavored to go with the army to Vicksburg to 
 engage in trade. Gen. Sherman had issued stringent orders against 
 these men before leaving Memphis. A gentleman from the North, 
 who wished to make a fortune while others fought for their country, 
 came to me with letters from governors and United States Senators, 
 commending him to commanders in the field as worthy of confi- 
 dence. He asked me to give him a letter of introduction to Gen. 
 Sherman as I was personally acquainted with him. I assured him 
 it would avail nothing, as Sherman always enforced his orders. He 
 urged, and I gave him a letter. A few hours later he returned 
 and reported that he presented my letter, which Gen. Sherman 
 read, and, turning, took him by the hand and said : " Certainly, I 
 shall be delighted to have you go with us." I thanked him, talked 
 with him a few minutes about the weather, the army, etc., and bid 
 him good day, and had started to get my baggage on board, when 
 he called me back, saying: "Excuse me, but I omitted to ask you 
 which line of service you prefer — whether the infantry or artillery. 
 We have a very fine battery on board this boat, into which you can 
 be enlisted if you wish." I explained that there was evidently a 
 misunderstanding ; that I did not wish to enlist in the army. Then 
 Gen. Sherman gave me a look which made me wish I was at home 
 or anywhere else than there. He said : "Sir, the men you see here 
 in the army left their homes in the North and came down here to 
 fight for their country. We are going to Vicksburg to fight, and you 
 ought to have more self-respect than to wish to follow for such 
 
28 
 
 selfish motives." This incident illustrates a vein of humor charac- 
 teristic of that great general. One of the best soldiers of the Army 
 of the Southwest, with whom I was associated for months, was 
 Colonel John B. Wyman of the 13th Illinois Infantry. While on 
 the march through Arkansas, Wyman's regiment was approaching 
 a town, when the colonel, who was riding at the head of the regi- 
 ment, turned to his band and said : "Boys, give us some music." 
 The band commenced to play, and Wyman noticed that one of the 
 drummers did not drum ; reining in his horse, he cried out : 
 
 "Why in don't you drum?" The drummer, very much 
 
 alarmed — for Wyman was a severe disciplinarian — left his place in 
 the ranks, and approaching the commander, said: "Colonel, I've 
 got a big fat turkey in this drum ; if you won't say anything about 
 it, I will give you half of it," The colonel replied in a loud voice : 
 "If you've got the headache, why don't you say so ! Of course you 
 need not drum ! " The colonel dined on turkey next day. Gen. 
 Sherman's army left Helena for Vicksburg December 21st. When 
 the fleet were about leaving the wharf. Colonel Wyman walked out 
 upon the stage plank of the boat on which his command was em- 
 barked, and, taking me by the hand, bid me good-bye and said : 
 "Here's for a brigadier's commission or a glorious death." Ten 
 days later I was in command at Helena. A steamer landed at the 
 wharf-boat, where I had my headquarters, with the dead body of 
 Colonel John B. Wyman, who had found a glorious death, fighting 
 at the head of his regiment, just one week after leaving Helena. 
 
 In the Vicksburg campaign, as our worthy commander in- 
 formed you, I had the honor to command the cavalry in Gen. 
 Grant's army at Vicksburg, and was chief of cavalry under Gen. 
 Sherman, and charged with the duty of watching Gen. Joseph E. 
 Johnston, who had concentrated an army of 35,000 men on the east 
 side of Black River, with which he i)roposed to raise the siege of 
 Vicksburg ; Gen. Sherman commanded that portion of Grant's 
 army detailed to take care of Johnston, should he make the at- 
 tempt. One evening I received an order from Gen. Sherman to 
 move at two o'clock the next morning with 2,000 men, and march 
 to a point on Big Black Eiver twenty miles distant. After marching 
 three-fourths of the distance I discovered a great cloud of dust in 
 the road, rapidly moving towards the river, which I supposed to be 
 
29 
 
 a part of the rebel Gen. Jackson's cayalry, they having, a sliort time 
 before, attacked a portion of my command in that vicinity. I fol- 
 lowed this force as I'apidly as possible, and, after a chase of two or 
 three miles, was much surprised to find Gen. Sherman, who had 
 preceded me with a small body guard, for the purpose of examining 
 the roads over which Johnston's army would have to travel should 
 he cross Black Eiver, Gen. Sherman did not inform me that he 
 was going to Black Eiver. The weather was as hot as ever known 
 in June in that southern climate. An officer less diligent in the 
 performance of duty than myself might have turned back, in which 
 case Gen. Sherman would have been in some danger within one 
 mile of the enemy's line, where I found him ; but this illustrates 
 the energy and character of one of the most remarkable men our 
 war produced. There was not a road or brid1e-path anywhere 
 within twenty-five miles of Vicksburg, with which he was not 
 familiar. Had General Johnston placed his army on the west side of 
 Big Black he would have met with such a warm reception at the 
 hands of Gen. Sherman that it is extremely doubtful if any portion 
 of his army would have escaped, as we were fully prepared for any 
 number of troops the enemy could bring against us. After the 
 battle of Shiloh, Gen. Grant was relieved of his command, and for 
 more than a month was under a cloud. Halleck was finally called 
 to Washington, where he was better fitted for administrative duties 
 than for the command of an army in the field, and Gen. Grant was 
 permitted to again assume command of the army which had under 
 his leadership been victorious on every field where it had been 
 engaged. The surrender of Vicksburg, as the result of the grandest 
 strategy our war produced, established Gen. Grant's reputation as 
 one of the greatest generals the world has ever known. To have 
 served in the same armies, on the same field, under the command of 
 the three greatest generals our war produced, is an honor which 1 
 am proud to acknowledge. The contemplation of what Grant, 
 Sherman and Sheridan wrought in behalf of the flag we are here to- 
 night to honor, shoukl fill all our hearts with a sublimer patriotism 
 and a deeper love of country. 
 
 They reconstructed the foundations of republican government in 
 this country. They made the people of every race free. Our suc- 
 cess demonstrated to every European government the success of fi'ce 
 
30 
 
 institutions, and gave an impetus to freedom and liberty throughout 
 the world. Our flag, the stars and stripes, is the proudest banner 
 that waves in the universe. It has been sanctified by the heroes of 
 the Revolution, waved in triumph over our victorious army and 
 navy in the war of 1812, floated in triumpli over the halls of the 
 Montezumas, and was dyed witli the blood of 300,000 gallant patri- 
 ots who gave up their lives in the war of the Rebellion. A million 
 widows and orphans have mourned in poverty and loneliness that 
 this flag might remain the emblem of a preserved Union, without 
 one star effaced. To whom is it sacred if not to the men who bore 
 it over two thousand battle fields in the late war, who are well 
 represented here to-night as members of the Grand Army of the 
 Republic ? I well remember, when I was a bo}^ just after the war 
 with Mexico, standing before a picture of the death of Major Ring- 
 gold, where I felt my heart swell with that something called patriot- 
 ism, which makes a man willing to die for his country. It was that 
 feeling which sustained me when the conflict came, and I felt the 
 agonized beating heart of a lovely wife when the hour came to say 
 farewell, when leaving for the front. It was that feeling when the 
 sound of rebel guns which fired upon Fort Sumter echoed over the 
 hills of New England, and away over the prairies of the West, which 
 caused a boy of fifteen, a descendant of Israel Putnam, to carve a 
 sword out of wood, on which he inscribed, "Not to be drawn except 
 in justice, not to be sheathed except in honor,"' and buckling this 
 about him he went to a recruiting station, enlisted as a soldier, and 
 died on the field of battle near Richmond. It was patriotism which 
 enabled men, in the late war, to lead a forlorn hope when they knew 
 death was certain. In the last Century Magazine Gen. Horace Por- 
 ter tells us that men detailed the night before to assault the enemy's 
 works the next morning, sewed cards in their clothing upon which 
 they had written their names, and given direction concerning the 
 disposition of iheir bodies when they should be found dead, after 
 the battle was over. What sublime courage was that ! And yet 
 there was not a regiment in the army that did not contain many 
 men ready to step in the deadly breach whenever they were called 
 for heroic duty. 
 
 Nearly all soldiers were brave and ready for the post of danger ; 
 occasionally there were men who feared to go into battle. I had one 
 
31 
 
 such man in my regiment at the beginning of the war. He was one 
 of the finest looking men in the command, but would not go where 
 any fighting was to be done. This weakness was observed by the 
 men, who frequently made remarks in his presence calculated to 
 wound a sensitive nature. This caused Millan, for that was his 
 name, to come to me one night when 1 was ordered to send out a 
 part of my command to march against a force reported in camp 
 about fifty miles distant, and ask permission to go on the expedition. 
 I said to him, "Millan, it is something new for you to want to go 
 where there is any fighting to be done." He answered, "I know 
 that the men of the regiment have questioned my courage, and it is 
 for that reason I come ; I have always believed that I would bo 
 killed the first time I went into an engagement, and have not been 
 able to drive that feeling out of my mind. At the same time, I have 
 made up my mind to go, be the consequences what they may be. I 
 expect to be killed." He then gave me instructions how to com- 
 municate with his family, and left with me some articles which were 
 to be sent them in the event of his death. I made light of his pre- 
 sentiment, and told him he would come back all right. He left me 
 to get ready to march with the expedition at daylight next morning. 
 A few days prior to this time Millan's father, who lived at Canton, 
 Missouri, wrote his son a letter which I now have in my possession. 
 He, too, seems to have had a presentiment that his son would never 
 receive the letter. After addressing it as he had always done before 
 to the regiment, division and Army of tiie Southwest, he wrote : "If 
 Gen. Bussey sees this letter, and the one to whom it is addressed 
 cannot see it, he will confer a favor by opening the letter and 
 informing the writer of the facts." No such indorsement had ever 
 before been made on any of Millan's letters. The expedition started 
 on the 28th of May, 18G2. The official report of the engagement 
 states : "Our loss was Sergt. Stanton.B. Millan killed ; Capt. Israel 
 Anderson and Private Joseph T. French shot through the tliigh." 
 Poor Millan ! It was his first and last scout. He was the only man 
 killed. (See Official Eeport, Rebellion Records, vol, 13, page 88.) 
 Nearly a quarter of a century has passed since tlie war ended. Our 
 army, which at its close numbered a few more than one million names 
 on its muster roll, soon dwindled to twenty thousand men, A few 
 men at the various posts tliroughout the country are all that are re- 
 
32 
 
 quired. The love of the flag and the patriotism it inspires is equal to 
 an army of a million men should an emergency arise requiring their 
 services. These students should cultivate a spirit of patriotism and 
 a holier love for the flag, remembering that every position of honor 
 or trust in this great country will become vacant by death or other- 
 vrise, and that the places of the men who are to-day distinguished 
 throughout the country will be filled by the young men of tlie jires- 
 ent. There is a future before every boy in America worthy his best 
 efforts. A pure Americanism, a love for the flag, habits of morality, 
 sobriety, and energy, will enable some of the boys before me to reach 
 positions of the highest distinction among men. 
 
 Comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic, your gift of the 
 flag of your country to this great college is a noble one. May all 
 who look upon it become inspired with the same love for it which 
 burns in your hearts. Your organization was founded to disiiense 
 charity, and to hold in grateful memory the names and heroic deeds 
 of those who gave their lives for their country. It has been your 
 mission to cover their graves with nature's sweetest gift of new-born 
 life to men. A few more years and your work will have been 
 finished. The Grand Army of the Republic will cease to exist, and 
 if our graves are covered with flowers it will be because those who 
 come after us will feel the same love of country that inspired us in 
 the hour of our nation's peril. I have a sublime faith in the future 
 of our nation, and pray that the time may come when this glorious 
 flag, the stars and stripes, shall be the chosen loved emblem of all 
 nationalities who seek a home in our midst, when every inhabitant 
 shall become an American citizen, ready to uphold our flag in every 
 crisis. Then will peace and happiness reign in the land. (Tre- 
 mendous applause.) 
 
 The audience then sung "John Brown's Body," wdien 
 the meeting was declared closed. 
 
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