DDRESS delivered at the CELE- 
 
 B RATI ON of the TWENTY- 
 FIFTH ANNIVERSARY of the 
 
 FOUNDING of the Military Order 
 
 o 
 
 f the LOYAL LEGION of the 
 
 United States. By Br evet Major 
 General CHARLES DEVENS, in the 
 Academy of Music, PHILADELPHIA, 
 April 15, 1890. 
 
^ 
 
 ^kD 
 
 ' U 
 
 M^ 
 
 ^A 
 
 p. 
 
 *>«-^. r3. ~KX-«.4-v.iv-ts 
 
address: 
 
 COMPATsTION^S OF THE ArMY AND ^N'AVY, I 
 
 congratulate you that we are assembled in such 
 full numbers to celebrate the twenty-fifth anni- 
 versary of the formation of this Order. Sufvivors 
 of many a hard-fought battle and many a des- 
 perate day, you come alike from the long marches 
 and fierce conflicts which gave us possession of 
 the South and West, from the banks of the Cumber- 
 land, Tennessee, and Mississippi, from the narrower, 
 yet not less terrible, field whei-e the Army of the 
 Potomac fought out finally to the bitter end its 
 bloody and protracted duel with the Army of JS'orth- 
 ern Yirginia, and from every field made red by 
 heroic strife. The mountain ranges, the deep 
 bayous, the rich and broad plains, the mighty rivers 
 of the fairest portion of a continent, attest your con- 
 stancy and valor. Time as well as war has been 
 generous to you in this, that for a quarter of a 
 century it has permitted you to enjoy the just regard 
 of a nation and the full fruition of your deeds. For 
 this bounteous gift let us render the homage of 
 grateful hearts. 
 
 We are fortunate in the place where we assemble. 
 
The city of Philadelphia was the capital of our 
 Revolutionary era. Here was proclaimed the hirth 
 and independence of the United States. Here, too, 
 was framed that Constitution which is the crowning 
 glory of the Revolution. The peace with Great 
 Britain, in 1783, had left us without a settled govern- 
 ment and the discords of jealous States had already 
 appeared. The years that immediately followed were 
 filled with profound distrust and anxious forebod- 
 ings. The convention that met here in 1787 made 
 of these States a people and a nation. AVhere should 
 those who offered their lives to defend that Consti- 
 tution meet more happily or more proudly than in 
 the city in which it received its birth? 
 
 ^or ought we to forget that in the hour of the 
 Rebellion this city lost none of its ancient reputa- 
 tion for patriotism. Its gallant sons were among 
 our earliest and bravest soldiers; its generous con- 
 tributions, its sanitary commissions, its Christian 
 commissions, its cordial supplies of provisions to the 
 soldiers going to or returning from the front, its 
 unfailing care of the sick and wounded, are embalmed 
 in sacred remembrance. We whose residence is 
 to the north and east had from our position the 
 largest share of this lavish hospitality. One who 
 has been through here, as I have been, with a 
 hungry regiment, and seen every man bountifully 
 fed, or has come, as I have come, a wounded soldier, 
 and known the bounty of its citizens and the skill of 
 
its justly renowned surgeons, may certainly speak 
 with something like personal feeling. 
 
 The Military Order of the Loyal Legion had its 
 inception on that saddest day, at the conclusion of 
 the Civil War, when humanity throughout the world 
 was shocked by the death of Abraham Lincoln. In 
 honor of that illustrious memory and of the great 
 cause for which we had fought, in recognition of the 
 affectionate friendships which had been inspired 
 among the officers of the army then about to dis- 
 band, in historic recollection of the Society of the 
 Cincinnati which had embraced the officers of the 
 Revolutionary Aruiy, it was determined to form this 
 Order ; and at a meeting of a few^ officers in this city 
 the initial steps were that day taken for its organiza- 
 tion. It was the first of the military societies which 
 followed, or rather accompanied, the close of the war. 
 I do not intend to pursue the details of its history, 
 except to say, that when some time later the society 
 of the Grand Army of the Republic was formed, in- 
 tended to comprehend all of whatever rank who had 
 honorably served, no antagonism was created to 
 this, nor was any reason seen why, in its more 
 limited sphere, this might not also be properly main- 
 tained. To the Grand Army of the Republic we 
 have always fully and cordially accorded as its 
 rightful place the position of the great repi-esen- 
 tative society which includes and gathers into itself 
 every association of that whole American army 
 
() 
 
 which subdued the Rebellion. That society has ex- 
 tended wide its genei'ous and open-handed charity; 
 it has cherished the noblest patriotism ; and if there 
 are those of this association who are not also mem- 
 bers of that, I urge them respectfully to join its 
 ranks, and to give to it their cordial support in its 
 23urest and highest aims. 
 
 Of the officers who listen to me, many, almost a 
 majority, have carried the musket and the knapsack 
 in the ranks, and are justly proud that they have 
 won their way by their own ability and detei'mina- 
 tion. To some the possession of high military quali- 
 ties may have given command ; yet in all armies I'ank 
 and promotion are often the result of circumstance 
 and opportunity, and thus accident contributes to 
 success. It was especially so in our own, springing 
 as it did from the ground at once in answer to the 
 call of an imperilled country. Long and faithful 
 service to many a man brought only the proud con- 
 solation of duty nobly done, of sacrifice generously 
 offered, and of that self-respect which one may well 
 maintain, even in the humblest home. As I would 
 speak to-night of all our armies as but one, so 
 would I speak of those who composed it as but a 
 single body of men. Side by side on many a field 
 won by their valor, no useless coffins around their 
 breasts, but wrapped in the blanket which is the 
 soldier's martial shroud, officers and men await to- 
 gether the coming of the eternal day. Side by side 
 
those more fortunate, who have returned, have re- 
 turned with equal claims to the regard and love of 
 those for whom they fought. When one has done 
 his whole duty, so far as his title to respect is con- 
 cerned, it can and ought to make no difference 
 whether he did it Avith the stars of the general or 
 the eagles of the colonel on his shoulder, or in the 
 simple jacket of the private. The fame of every 
 general, even in the highest rank, must depend 
 largely on the men whom he leads. However far- 
 reaching and sagacious his plans may be, it is still 
 by strong hands and stout hearts that they nuist be 
 carried out and results achieved. 
 
 When we consider how little adapted the educa- 
 tion of the American citizen is to that system of 
 discipline which is intended to make of the soldier a 
 machine, in order that the physical strength and 
 power of thousands may be wielded by the will of 
 one alone ; when we remember how prone we all of us 
 are to criticise the acts of others, or their orders and 
 directions, — we realize how difficult it must have 
 been to yield that unquestioning obedience which is 
 the necessary rule of the military service. Yet how 
 generously they gave their confidence, how nobly 
 they strove, sometimes in disaster, often under the 
 most trying circumstances, to execute the orders they 
 received — to one who held any command the wish 
 must often have come that he could have led them 
 better and done more full justice to their merits. 
 
8 
 
 Companions, we meet not merely for a few hours 
 of social enjoyment, nor alone to renew our friendships 
 formed, although many of them were when the death- 
 shots were falling thick and fast; we meet also to 
 reassert our devotion to the great cause of the Con- 
 stitution and the Union; we meet to honor the 
 memories of those who bravely died in that righteous 
 cause, or who have passed from our side in the years 
 that have followed, and to dedicate ourselves anew to 
 country, and to the great principles of liberty and 
 justice. 
 
 In the long annals of wars with which earth has 
 been filled, it would be difficult to find many less jus- 
 tifiable than the War of the Rebellion. The flimsy 
 dogma of the right of a State to secede from the 
 Union at its own will and pleasure, and assert its 
 sovereignty against that of the government of which 
 it formed a component part, was a pretence only by 
 which the leaders of the slave States sought to dis- 
 guise their project of erecting an empire whose 
 corner-stone was to be (to use Mr. Yice-President 
 Stephens- own words) the system of slavery. 
 
 Had any one in Philadelphia in 1787 uttered the 
 gloomy foreboding that every State might withdraw 
 from the Union at its own pleasure, and that the Con- 
 stitution had thus provided its own dissolution, his 
 fears would have been scouted and laughed to scorn. 
 He would have been told this Union is not one of 
 States, but of the people of all the States — so it is 
 
9 
 
 expressly declared; as such alone can it be accepted. 
 It was a necessity of the task that the fi-araers of the 
 Constitntion had before them that the government 
 they had met to form should include two classes of 
 States. ]^or did the difficulty appear to them so 
 formidable as it afterwards proved. Fresh from 
 their own struggle for liberty, they could not but be 
 conscious that this system was utterly inconsistent 
 with the principles upon which a free government must 
 rest; yet they fully believed that it would die out and 
 drift silently away. It was not thus to pass away — 
 but in the wildest of storms and tempests that ever 
 raged on sea or land; but now that it is gone, earth 
 and sky are fairer than before. 
 
 Without dweUing on the various phases of the pro- 
 tracted controversy to which this system gave rise 
 under the influence of men who were willing to 
 sacrifice the Union to its perpetuity, the failure to 
 make of Kansas a slave State, and the election of Mr. 
 Lincoln, had settled that thei'e was to be no more slave 
 territory added to the Union. Madly resolved to 
 rule or ruin, those who controlled the public opinion 
 of the South determined to dissolve the Union. 'No 
 real grievance existed, but imaginary ones could be 
 trumped up. No right of the Southern States was 
 invaded, or even threatened. The President-elect had 
 solemnly pledged himself to protect them in every 
 right ; nor could he if he would have done otherwise ; 
 as while they remained, his administration Avould have 
 
]() 
 
 an adverse majority in both honses of Congress which 
 they could substantially control. But his election was 
 made at once the occasion of secession by the cotton 
 States, which stood, however, alone during the anx- 
 ious winter of 18G0-G1. The Union feehng was still 
 strong in the States that lay north of them, and they 
 were as yet reluctant to take the decisive step. Some- 
 thing must be done to involve them, something to 
 " fire the Southern heart," as the phrase of the 
 day was, and to induce them to make a common 
 cause; and then the tempest of shot and shell was let 
 loose upon Fort Sumter. The experiment had the 
 success which was anticipated, and a success which 
 was not anticipated; for if the Southern heart was 
 fired, so was the ISTorthern also. How majestic was 
 that uprising, how former political differences were 
 forgotten, how strongly all felt that the great tie of 
 American citizenship was above all party, — I do not 
 need to remind you. There were not wanting those, 
 aghast at the gulf of fire that seemed opening before 
 us, who said, let the " wayward sisters go in peace "; 
 there were not wanting others, who, deeply sensible of 
 the evils of slavery, were ready to grasp at the opportu- 
 nity of separating from the States which tolerated it. 
 The loyal head of the country was wiser, the loyal 
 heart of the country truer, than this. As the startling 
 news flew from city to city and village to village, east 
 and west, that our flag had been insulted and tram- 
 pled upon^^ and the integrity of our government assailed, 
 
11 
 
 the stern tones of the answer of the people always 
 came back, " The United States is a nation competent 
 to assert its own sovereignty, and to subdne and 
 pnnish traitors." To them the Union was not a rope 
 of sand to be blown abont by every breeze, or washed 
 away by a summer sea, but a chain whose golden 
 links were strong as adamant. Forged in the fire of 
 that great strife which had finally separated us from 
 the most powerful nation on the earth, it was clear 
 that if the Union were once destroyed, all hope of 
 erecting any stable government upon its ruins must 
 for the time be abandoned. The conflicts of discord- 
 ant States were before us, grinding against each other 
 their bloody edges in fierce contentions, which, like 
 the wars of the Saxon Heptarchy, would be worth 
 no more to the advancement of the world than the 
 wars of the Kites and Crows. 'Nov if two distinct 
 confederacies could have been framed, was permanent 
 peace between them possible. Two great systems of 
 civilization were front to front and face to face. The 
 conflict in arms, to which we had been summoned by 
 the cannon which bombarded Fort Sumter, was in- 
 deed irrepressible. It was a necessity of empire that 
 one or the other should conquer. Rich and broad as 
 the continent is, with its great gateways on the At- 
 lantic and the Pacific seas, it was not broad enough 
 for both. 
 
 It was a great elemental struggle, where the 
 differences had their origin in the fouudations of 
 
12 
 
 society itself. There are times in the history of 
 nations when the conduct of its wars may be left to 
 its regular forces ; yet no such time had come to us. 
 It was a war of the people, waged, unhappily, against 
 a portion of the same people, yet not the less in 
 obedience to the plainest principles of justice and 
 right. I^OY let it ever be forgotten that although 
 the leaders of the Rebellion were successful in 
 drawing into it most of the States of the South, 
 there were true men everywhere who never yielded 
 and never faltered in their allegiance. If I could 
 properly give a warmer welcome to any above others, 
 it should be to the gallant soldiers of Kentucky and 
 Tennessee, of Maryland, West Virginia, Missouri, and 
 other States of the South, who came to rejoice our 
 hearts and strengthen our hands. 
 
 It was in the feeling of the most exalted patriot- 
 ism that the national army was formed, and the men 
 who composed it embraced all that was purest and 
 bravest in the young life of a nation. Counting all 
 the cost, recognizing all the danger, the path of duty 
 before them was plain, and they followed it. 'No 
 doubt the blood of youth was high in their veins, 
 and they looked forward not unwillingly to the stern 
 joy of the conflict; but love of country was still the 
 great moving principle which actuated them. It is 
 not a penalty, it is a just responsibility, that a govern- 
 ment founded by a people should look to them for 
 its legitimate defence. Certainly, I would speak 
 
neither to-night, nor at any othei- time, any words of 
 harshness or nnldndness individnally of those with 
 whom we were hitely at war. There is no body of men 
 more anxious to be at peace with all their country- 
 men than are the soldiers of the national army; there 
 are no utterances more cordial in favor of a generous 
 oblivion and forgetfulness than are theirs; but they 
 cannot, and they ought not to, forget that the cause 
 for which those who opposed them stood was gravely 
 wrong. It is the cause for which our brave have 
 died that forever sets them apart among the myriads 
 who people the silent cities of the dead. Let us be 
 generous to those with whom we had to contend, but 
 let us be just to our own. We willingly do honor 
 to their courage and valor, but those high qualities 
 have sometimes gilded with a false light causes 
 which cannot command the approval of the world or 
 bear the clear, white light of time. We know the 
 allowances which must be made for erroneous beliefs, 
 for mistaken education, for old associations, for the 
 example of others, even for temporary feeliug and 
 passion. Let us make them freely. Yet, when all 
 are made, neither the living nor the dead of a great 
 and holy cause can be confounded with those who 
 fell in the wretched struggle to destroy a nation or 
 erect a system of government false to the great 
 principles of liberty. Their cause, as well as ours, 
 is rapidly passing into history. Before that great 
 tril)unal we are ready to hold up our hands and 
 
14 
 
 plead and answer. I^or shall we fear that its verdict 
 can be otherwise than that it was the canse of order 
 against disorder, of just and righteous government 
 against rebellion, of liberty against slavery. If it 
 be less than this, then was Mr. Jefferson Davis the 
 patriot he has been somewhere lately eulogized, and 
 we, and the brave who offered their lives with us, 
 but successful traitors. 
 
 It is not for us here to review, even in the most 
 cursory way, the events of that tremendous struggle. 
 Such would be the office of the historian, not of the 
 casual sjjeaker. The problem before us we under- 
 rated in the beginning, nor since have we taken the 
 credit which is fairly due for overcoming its diffi- 
 culties. To conduct a war over such an extended 
 territory with success, to seize and hold its strategic 
 points in the midst of a hostile and warlike popu- 
 lation, to maintain the lengthened lines of communi- 
 cation for armies operating far from their base, was 
 an enterprise unparalleled in its demand for men and 
 resources. That the contest must broaden into one 
 for the liberty of all men, and that the plague-spot 
 which had troubled the peace of the Union must be 
 cut out by the surgeon's knife, was obvious from the 
 first. The year 18(32 stands forever memorable as in- 
 cluding one of those events whose occurrence marks 
 the opening of a new era, and show that the great 
 bell of time has struck another hour. " I had made a 
 solemn vow," says Mr. Lincoln himself, " that if Gen- 
 
ernl Lee was driven from Maryland I would crown the 
 result by a declaration of freedom to the slaves " Tint 
 vow was faithfully kept, for on the Monday which 
 followed the information that the battle of Antietam 
 was won, this was issued, to be followed on January 1 
 by the more formal proclamation which declared all 
 persons to be free within the insurgent States, statin- 
 the act to be demanded by military necessity, and int 
 vokmg upon it "the considerate judgment of mankind 
 and the gracious flivor of Almighty God." Such an 
 act was, from its very nature, irrevocable. On that 
 day the shifting sands of concession and compromise 
 passed from under the feet of the American people 
 and they planted them firmly on the great rocks of 
 liberty and justice to all men, to be moved therefrom, 
 we will believe, no more forever. 
 
 The succeeding year witnessed the splendid victory 
 of Gettysburg, which, accompanying the fall of Yicks- 
 burg, marks definitely the culminating point of the 
 conflict by the joint triumph of the Eastern and West- 
 ern armies. Although the waves were to come again 
 and yet again, no wave was to come higher than that 
 which was dashed back in clouds of broken, dissolving 
 spray as it struck the iron wall of the infantry of the 
 Army of 1 he Potomac. The causes of the movement 
 of the Confederate army into Pennsylvania were 
 never fully stated by General Lee. He intimates dis- 
 tinctly m his report that others existed than those of 
 a purely military character. Without doubt, amono- 
 
1() 
 
 them was the hope to break something of the force 
 of the impending flill of Vicksburg, which, grasped 
 in the iron embrace of Grant and the Army of the 
 Tennessee, must soon snrrender. A victory won on 
 Northern soil woiild do this. It is the good fortune 
 of the i^atriotic State in which we stand that it con- 
 tains within its borders not only this memorable field, 
 but that its fame is alhed to the victory by the mem- 
 ory of three of its most illustrious commanders. The 
 calm and judicious Meade, whose wisdom brought 
 about the encounter in which the enemy was obliged 
 to attack, and in which the Army of the Potomac 
 was able for once to stand on the defensive; the 
 splendid Hancock, the idol of the Potomac Army, 
 whose fiery words and majestic presence infused into 
 all around him something of the courage of his own 
 daring heart, are gone to-day. They lived long 
 enough to be assured of the honor and love in which 
 they were held by their countrymen; but on the field, 
 and at the head of the First Corps, died Reynolds, then 
 as always unassuming, modest, brave, contributing 
 nobly to that victoiy whose fruits he was never to 
 enjoy. Yet where could man die better than in the 
 defence of his native State, his life-blood mingling 
 with the soil on which he first drew breath? The 
 fourth of July, 18G3, was the proudest day which up 
 to that time the Union arms had ever known, for the 
 cannon which ushered in a nation's natal day were 
 mingled with those which told through the North 
 
17 
 
 the victory of Crettysburg-, and were echoed and re- 
 echoed from the West and Sonth along with those 
 which in thnnder tones announced that Yicksburg 
 had fallen, and that the Mississippi ran " unvexed 
 to the sea." 
 
 The terrible year of 1864 was yet to come. The 
 control of all the armies was to pass into the hands of 
 General Grant alone, and to be directed by his single 
 will. The west of the AUeghanies was secure un- 
 der the direction of Sherman, and as he made his 
 great march from Chattanooga to Atlanta, and from 
 Atlanta to the sea, the conflicts of the Army of the 
 Potomac with its formidable opponent w^ere to be re- 
 newed again and again on such desperate fields as the 
 Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and Cold Harbor. In the 
 spring of 1865 that great army moved to its last series 
 of battles, and the surrender of Appomattox followed. 
 The sword of Lee was laid in the conquering hand of 
 Grant, and the War of the Rebellion was over. Hence- 
 forward no shot was to be fired in anger, and the 
 surrender of the other armies of the Confederacy fol- 
 lowed. 'No executions, no harsh punishments were to 
 mark its close ; yet under God the Union had received 
 a new birth of freedom, and, purified by the fires 
 through which it had passed, had risen grander and 
 more august among nations. 
 
 Silently as snow-flakes melt into the sea, the men 
 who composed oui* armies passed into the general life 
 of that community which they had saved* yet not as 
 
18 
 
 drones or idlers, l)ut to carry with them into the occu- 
 pations of peace the honors of courage ; fidehty, and 
 patriotism, which they had earned on the grim iields 
 of war. Their bugles will wake no more the morn- 
 ing echoes as they salute with their reveille the com- 
 ing day; the descending night will hear no more the 
 rolling tattoo of their drums ; their cannon long since 
 have uttered their last note of defiance or of victory; 
 yet impartial history shall record that no army was 
 ever assembled with higher aims and loftier purposes, 
 none more ardent with the sacredflame of patriotism, 
 none more calm and resolute in disaster, and none 
 more generous and forgiving in victory. So long as 
 the flag that it bore at the head of its marching col- 
 umns shall wave above a free and united people, it 
 shall be remembered with gratitude that in its day 
 and generation it did for this country deeds worthy 
 of immortal honor, and that the army that pre- 
 served is worthy to stand side by side with the army 
 that achieved the liberty of the Kepublic. 
 
 The material evidences of the conflict pass rapidly 
 away. The earthworks with which the land was 
 covered sink to the level of the surrounding soil, and 
 scarp and counterscarp meet in the ditch that once 
 divided them. So let the evil feelings it engendered fade 
 away. It is marked definitely only by the great amend- 
 ments to the Constitution of the United States. That 
 these embody more than its fair results ; that they are 
 intended to do more than to state in a definite and 
 
19 
 
 permanent form the prineij^les of justice, freedom, 
 equality before the law for all men ; that they should 
 be fully and generously obeyed, — cannot be seriously 
 contested. The victory gained was for the South as 
 well as the IMorth. Already in agriculture, formerly 
 almost her only source of revenue, her production 
 has vastly increased; while the opening of mines, the 
 development of manufactures, the rise of great towns 
 and cities where formerly existed but scattered ham- 
 lets, attest the inspiration she has caught from free- 
 dom. Year by year, as time rolls on, she is destined 
 to feel the influences of that steady force which is un- 
 pelling the country forward, nor will she lag behind 
 in the march of peace and prosperity. 
 
 Companions, while we have a right to rejoice in 
 all that brave hearts and strong arms have won, no 
 occasion that draws together those who survive of 
 the armies of the Union can be one of unmixed joy. 
 With proud memories come also those that are grave 
 and sad. ^ov if I recall those who are gone before 
 us, would I do so to diminish one jot or tittle of 
 the pleasure of our present gathering, but rather to 
 ennoble and dignify it. I would remember them as 
 each one of us would wish to be recalled in the hour 
 of dearest mirth and of social enjoyment, when hand 
 clasps hand in friendship and mutual esteem. There 
 are no woi'ds which can render a just tribute to 
 those whose deeds are their true eulogy; there is 
 no honor too high for those who gave their lives 
 
20 
 
 willingly rather than that a single star should l)e 
 obscured on the mighty shield on which are em- 
 blazoned the arms of the Union. 
 
 ^NTor do you need to be reminded how many have 
 passed away since the war, and how steadily the 
 fierce artillery of time is doing its work. Close 
 np the ranks as best we can, we are an army to 
 which there come no recruits. Generous as is this 
 gathering at our Twenty-fifth Anniversary, how few 
 can expect to join in its Fiftieth ! Without doubt 
 there will be some who will with more feeble voices 
 seek to raise the ringing cheer with which we once 
 answered the rebel yell, even if soon they too must 
 yield to the common lot of man. The chiefs of this 
 organization, the predecessors of its present com- 
 mander, who I trust may long be spared, — General 
 Cadwallader, that model of a gentleman and soldier, 
 the splendid Hancock, the fiery and impetuous 
 Sheridan, — all are gone. Yet let me not mention 
 names, lest by mentioning some I might seem to 
 omit others equally worthy, save the great name of 
 Grant alone. He was the Commander of all the 
 Armies, and to his trumpet-call each one of us has 
 answered, and to him it was given to end our great 
 strife with a victory which enabled him to exclaim, 
 " Let ns have peace ! " 
 
 How many are missing to-day at the roll-call 
 you know but too well. Even if our voices may 
 falter and our utterance choke as the name of 
 
21 
 
 some honored chieftain who has led us rises to 
 our hps, or of some dear friend, it may be, who 
 has shared our mess, we recall them in honor, and 
 not in sorrow. So would we remember all, not 
 alone the great chiefs who urged forward the onset 
 of mighty battalions, but the humblest, faithful 
 soldier who did his duty manfully. Wherever those 
 gallant spirits have passed to their long repose, — 
 whether they sleep in the bayous of the Mississippi, 
 or by the waters of the Potomac, the Cumberland, or 
 the Tennessee, in the tangled wild-wood, or in the 
 shadow of their own homes with the monumental 
 marble high above their breasts, — all in memory are 
 welcome here. " The whole earth," says Pericles, " is 
 the sepulchre of illustrious men," and our mountains 
 seem to lift their heads more loftily for the brave who 
 lie upon their crests, and our rivers to move to the 
 sea with a prouder sweep for those whose life-blood 
 has mingled with their streams: — 
 
 "They fell devoted but undying; 
 The very gale their names seems sighing, 
 The watei'S murmur of their name, 
 The woods are peopled with their fame. 
 The meanest rill, the mightiest river, 
 Roll mingling witli their deeds forever." 
 
 ]^or, companions, in this hour do we fsiil to remem- 
 ber him, not a soldier indeed, but to whose military 
 capacity, developed by years of anxious study, tardy 
 justice is just beginning to be done, Avho was, by the 
 
22 
 
 Oonstitutiou, the coiiiiiiaiider oi' its iivmy and navy, the 
 then President of the United States, — him ui)on whom 
 the faith of all, citizens and soldiers, old oi- young, 
 rich or poor, alike, had i*ested secure during those ter- 
 rible years, and whose own heart was large enough 
 to embrace in love and charity all that people over 
 whom Providence had placed him to be their ruler 
 and guide in the supreme hoiu' of their destiny. 
 Twenty-five years ago to-day he passed from the 
 ranks of living men, yet each year has added to that 
 pure and splendid fame. Every record, every newly 
 discovered act or letter which loving industry brings 
 to light, but serves to reveal how kind and good, how 
 wise and great he was. 
 
 On the day after its capture, when he visited Kich- 
 mond, it was my own good fortune to ride side by 
 side with him in the headquarters' army-wagon, 
 which conveyed him through the streets of that city 
 so long the citadel of the Confederacy. He seemed 
 weary and tired, graver than I had ever seen him, 
 less rejoicing in the triumph that had been won than 
 anxious about the new problems looming np before 
 him. It may be that I interpret the recollections of 
 that hour in the baleful light of the dreadful tragedy 
 that so soon followed; yet, as I recall it, he seemed 
 to me like one who felt that his hfe's work was done, 
 and who would willingly rest from his labors, that 
 his works might follow him. The ways of Provi- 
 dence are not always ours; it may be that it was 
 
99. 
 
 decreed that this great life should end in the very 
 lionr of victory by the assassin's hand, because it 
 was seen by a wider vision than we possess that to 
 that life of self-sacrifice and patriotic devotion, the 
 noblest close was that which has invested him forever 
 with the martyr's crown. It is not always to those 
 who achieve success that its temporal enjoyment is 
 granted; the reward of high heroic souls is in their 
 own sense of duty performed, of trial and sacrifice 
 resolutely endured, in the consciousness that others 
 will reap all for which they have bravely striven. In 
 the older Scriptures the stately figure of the great 
 Hebrew law-giver and warrior stands on the lonely 
 hill in the land of Moab to gaze out over the Prom- 
 ised Land, which it is decreed he shall never enter. 
 Fair before him stretch the fertile fields, yet no 
 crops from them shall ever fill his garners. The 
 sparkling waters dance in the sunlight, yet no 
 draught from them shall ever refresh his weary lips. 
 He has crossed at the head of the children of Israel 
 the stormy waters of the Red Sea; he has led 
 them through the forty years of wandering in the 
 wilderness. For them the hour of enjoyment has 
 come; his work is done; for him it remains but to 
 rest in his lonely grave. So to this our Moses, who 
 had led us through the Red Sea of rebellion, is 
 vouchsafed but a glimpse of the Promised Land, as 
 he passes from mortal sight forever. 
 
 "Beautiful upon the mountains," says the prophet 
 
24 
 
 Isaiah, " are the feet of him that bringeth good tid- 
 ings." Yet as the messengers approach we see that 
 their countenances are grave, that their garments are 
 Avorn, that their feet are torn by tlie flinty way; but 
 beautiful are they still for the glad tidings which they 
 beai*. And as in imagination there rises again be- 
 fore us the tall figure of Abraham Lincoln, not grace- 
 ful according to the rules of classic art, yet not with- 
 out its own simple majesty; as we behold again that 
 rugged countenance, deep graven with the lines of 
 princely care, we see it illumined with a nobler light 
 than the cunning hand of the Greek could give to the 
 massive brow of the Olympian Jupiter; beautiful in 
 the radiance of truth and justice, while the scroll that 
 he holds in his strong right hand bears the glad tid- 
 ings of liberty to all men. 
 
 Companions, my brief task is ended. In the con- 
 flict and in the years that have followed, half of what 
 were once our numbers, it is probable, have passed 
 the barrier that separates the seen from the unseen 
 w^orld. They are the advance of that army of which 
 we are the rear-guard. Somewhere they have halted 
 for us, somewhere they are waiting for us. Steadily 
 we are closing up to them. Let us sling on our 
 knapsacks as of old, let us cheerily forward in the 
 full faith that by fidelity to duty, by loyalty to liberty, 
 by devotion to the country which is the mother of us 
 all, we are one army still. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 012 187 007 1 %