CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 LIBRARY 
 
 BEQUEST 
 
 OF 
 
 STEWART HENRY BURNHAM 
 1943 
 
E642 P96° me " Unlversily Llbrar y 
 J mJSSSSmSKLSS.S te ev ening of Decora 
 
 olin 
 
 3, 1924 030 917 250 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030917250 
 
THE 
 
 PROCEEDINGS 
 
 ON THE EVENING OF 
 
 Decoration Day, 
 
 JMA.Y 30th, 1877, 
 
 AT THE 
 
 ACADEMY OF MUSIC, 
 
 CITY OF BROOKLYN, N. Y. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY MEMBERS OF THE BAR. 
 
 BROOKLYN: 
 
 EAGLE JOB AND BOOK PRINTING DEPARTMENT. 
 
 1877. 
 
Brooklyn, N. Y., June 6, 1877. 
 To the Hon. Roger A. Petoe : 
 
 Sie — Your address at the Academy of Music, in this city, on the evening 
 of Decoration Day, has struck us as so valuable a contribution to the history 
 of the, time, and as so likely to conduce to the growth and strength of amicable 
 relations throughout the country, that we consider its extensive circulation 
 very desirable. To that end we respectfully ask that it may be published in 
 pamphlet form. 
 
 William C. De Witt, 
 Joecn P. Eolfb, 
 
 WlNCHESTBB BbITTON, 
 
 B. F Tracy, 
 A. W. Tenney, 
 Geo. H. Fisher, 
 John A. Lott, 
 Thos. H. Rodman, 
 Joshua M. Van Cott, 
 Jacob I. Beegen, 
 Edgae N. Cullen, 
 John Winslow, 
 Alex. McCue, 
 Henry 0. Mtjbphy, 
 
 Fbedebiok A. Soheoedee, 
 John Greunwood, 
 Samuel D. Moeeis, 
 Abeam H. Dailey, 
 Geo. G. Reynolds, 
 Albeet Daggett, 
 J. S. T. Steanahan, 
 Heney W- Sloqum, 
 Demas Steong, 
 John W. Huntee, 
 Stewaet L. Woodford, 
 J. W. Gilbeet, 
 John B. Kennaday, 
 Luoien Biedseye. 
 
 Brooklyn, 147 Willow St., June 9, 1877. 
 Gentlemen : 
 
 My aim in preparing the address was to promote the "growth and 
 strength of amicable relations throughout the country," and since you assure 
 me its publication may conduce to that result, I have pleasure in placing it 
 at your disposal. 
 
 With a grateful sense of the kindness implied by your request, 
 I am, gentlemen, 
 
 Most respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 ROGER A. PRYOR. 
 Messes. William 0. De Witt and others. 
 
DECORATION DAY 
 
 May 30, 1877. 
 
 The proceedings at the Academy of Music, being the con- 
 cluding observances of this solemn anniversary, attracted 
 great attention and rewarded it by the utterances which 
 are herewith presented. They were opened by Captain 
 Charles T. Trowbridge, who introduced the Hon. Joseph 
 ■Neilson, and announced him as the presiding officer of the 
 meeting. When the applause with which he was received 
 had subsided, the Ch. Justice spoke as follows : — 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 I thank you for this generous reception, and regard it 
 as evidence of the spirit of kindness in which we have met 
 "to-night. That spirit well becomes us in closing the exer- 
 cises of this day, a day set apart that the living might do 
 honor to the dead. 
 
 Without intending to enter upon discussions which more 
 properly belong to others, here and elsewhere, allow me to 
 say that, though the term of our National life has been 
 short, the experience of our people has been great, varied, 
 at times painful, but mainly intellectual in its character. 
 The tendency of the popular mind has been towards discuss- 
 
ion, often argumentative and reasonable, often free, hot and 
 exasperating, but still toward the conflict of words and 
 thoughts, in some form, and without intermission. On 
 questions of commerce, of economy, of the currency, of ex- 
 ternal and internal revenue ; questions as to the construc- 
 tion, and the force and interdependence of our National and 
 State constitutions, wise men, legislative assemblies, 
 authors of learning and repute, have differed, and that con- 
 tinually. The press, the great leader and exponent of the 
 local or State sentiment, has preached, rightly or wrongly, 
 at every breakfast table throughout the land. Then, too, 
 there were subtle influences growing out of early education 
 and family ties and associations, out of local interests and 
 prejudices, which gave a bent to the mind and tinged its 
 complexion. The youth, gifted, generous, receptive, thus 
 fashioned and impelled, adopted his father's politics, his 
 mother's religion, and Nature asserted her sway with the 
 tyranny of a school-master. These suggestions may suffice 
 to enable us, as we look back to the train of causes and in- 
 fluences which led to our late domestic contention, to make 
 allowance for the course pursued by some able and worthy 
 men, and especially, for the poor soldier, of the rank and file, 
 who went into the contest with a blind and unreasoning 
 fidelity. That contention— I do not call it War; that word 
 was lent to us by our friends abroad, and, having no further 
 need of it, we return it, quite after the manner of your neigh- 
 bor, who hands you back your gridiron — that contention 
 gave us a new and bitter experience, but the bitterness is 
 passing away. The result, fruitful of benefits, blessings 
 bought with a price, as most great national blessings have 
 been purchased, remains forever. Others may correct me, 
 but I believe that the people in $he most reluctant States,, as 
 
they may be wisely assisted, are growing more and more dis- 
 posed to forget old perplexities and later griefs, and to accept 
 the changed condition of affairs. But the remedial power 
 for the healing of the nation lies not in mere political man- 
 agement, or in the enactment of artificial laws. 
 
 " How small, of all that human hearts endure. 
 That part which laws or kings can cause or cure !" 
 
 The remedy is to be found in the second sober thought^ 
 in the brotherly kindness that may be shown by the people 
 of each State to those of every other State. In the*observ- 
 ance of this day, and in the provision you are making for 
 the soldier, poor but surviving, you are doing more to bring 
 about a perfect reconciliation than could otherwise be 
 achieved. Allow me also to say that I had thought it well 
 to witness the decoration of the soldiers' grave, as best I 
 could, that I might take into my mind and heart a sense of 
 its true significance. The ceremonial, so simple, so grace- 
 ful, seemed to me not only pathetic, but august. Here is 
 the soldiers' grave, a mound of earth; the winds visit it 
 freely, the rays of the sun give it illumination. Bearded 
 men, gentle women, delicate maidens come to it. They do 
 not ask in what . clime, north or south, he was born, what 
 his creed or opinion was, what influences of education or of 
 State or party policy led or controlled him, or even in what 
 ranks he stood when stricken down. He was a soldier, there- 
 fore suffered, and they crown his grave with flowers. I have 
 further to suggest that, in spirit akin to that observance, 
 is the Soldiers' Home to which each of you this night 
 contributes. The precise information desired, you have, or 
 will have from others. This much we all know, that a band 
 of devoted men, of military training and experience, some of 
 
 whom themselves had suffered, knowing what were the poor 
 
 * 2 
 
soldier's wants, and touched by a divine compassion, formed 
 an organization and planned this great State institution. 
 The land has been secured, the funds largely obtained, and 
 the work has been commenced. As the vision rises before 
 me, I choose, in anticipation, to regard the work as finished, 
 the last stone laid, the last nail driven, this 30th day of May, 
 1880. In the morning light it looks as beautiful as the 
 chosen City of the King. It is the more fit for its sacred 
 use, as no debt rests upon it to mar Or corrode its bloom. 
 This is the day of its consecration. You throw open the 
 gates widely and take the soldier by the hand. You say, 
 "Sir, this is your land; enter as the heir of a generous peo- 
 ple. These shady walks are yours, this house is yours, this 
 your room. Take the easy chair by this open window and 
 look out upon the landscape," You stand by him and note 
 how his poor tremulous hands move, how his face flushes, 
 how his grim visage grows almost handsome, the tears 
 coursing down his cheeks. You hear his voice and bend to 
 listen ; he is uttering thanks to God and thanks to men. 
 He repeats the word " Home ! Home !" perhaps contrast- 
 ing this with the home of his childhood, and forgetting, the 
 troubled time, a dreary waste, that lies between. But he 
 puts a question in a voice so surcharged with emotion that 
 you do not catch the sense. He repeats it, and you answer, 
 " Yes, you will have part in that also. When you leave 
 this for your final earthly resting-place upon the hill, you 
 will be remembered on Decoration Days." He seems 
 content, and you leave him to his meditations. 
 
 Ladies and gentlemen, we are told, and I think truly, 
 
 that che trees upon the range of hills, and on the moun- 
 
 •tain summits, entice to the earth the else forgetful rain. 
 
 But more surely shall such service and charity of a people, 
 
exemplifying so nearly the teachings of the Master, draw 
 down from Heaven a blessing so large that there shall uot 
 be room enough to receive it. 
 
 The " Soldiers' Memorial Hymn" was here excellently 
 sung by a choir of children from the Brooklyn Orphan 
 Asylum, led by Mr. D. P. Horton. 
 
 Prayer by the Eev. Dr. Ingersoll. 
 
 The Chairman then introduced Mr. Eoger A. Pryftr, who 
 was greeted with great enthusiasm. After the applause 
 had subsided Mr. Pryor spoke as follows : 
 
 SPEECH OF ROGER A. PRYOR, 
 
 THE SOLDIKR, THE FKIEND OF PEACE AND UNION. 
 
 While thanking you, gentlemen of the Committee, for 
 the invitation which privileges me to be present on this in- 
 teresting occasion, I owe it to candour to disclaim the affec- 
 tation of regarding your civility as implying, in any sense, 
 a personal compliment. It bears, I know, a weightier and 
 a worthier significance. In soliciting the participation of 
 Confederate soldiers in the solemnities of this day, you 
 mean to tender them an overture of reconciliation, to avow 
 your good will toward your recent adversaries, and to pro- 
 claim? your desire for the prevalence of peace and fraternal 
 feeling between the lately belligerent sections. By no token 
 more touching and impressive, cOuld you make manifest 
 these liberal and patriotic sentiments. To proffer your 
 former foes a share in the simple but pathetic ceremonial 
 
by which, on this hallowed anniversary, you symbolize the 
 perennial bloom and fragrance associated with the memory 
 of your departed comrades, to admit us into the sanctuary 
 of your sorrows, and allow us to unite in the homage you 
 render to the fallen heroes of the Union ; is indeed so 'af- 
 fecting a testimonial of your kindness and magnanimity, 
 that we unreservedly yield ourselves ' to its benign influ- 
 ences, and reciprocate, with all the warmth of our ardent 
 Southern nature, the inarticulate but heartfelt aspiration 
 for the reign of peace and good-will over our agitated and 
 afflicted land. 
 
 That from our bosoms every vindictive and uncharitable 
 recollection of the unhappy conflict, is banished never to re- 
 turn, we this day attest by the last act of concession and 
 conciliation ; even by bearing the tribute of praise and ben- 
 ediction to the tomb of those by whose hand our Confeder- 
 ate Eepublic was stricken down. 
 
 By a solemnity so impressive, by a sacrifice so transcend- 
 ent, the soldiers of the lately contending armies trust to 
 propitiate the fell spirit of discord, and to gladden the na- 
 tion once more with the blessings of a restored and recon- 
 ciled country. 
 
 And this, the highest office and most precious service of 
 patriotism, is fitly appropriated and discharged by the sol- 
 dier; for, was not the soldier ever the friend of peace and 
 the Union? 
 
 If we carry back our memories to the controversy which 
 eventually issued in the war, we shall recall the name of no 
 soldier, on either side, who aided to inflame the animosities 
 
9 
 
 of section and precipitate the collision. The bloody busi- 
 ness of secession, with all its disastrous consequences, was 
 wholly the act of the professed men of peace — the politi- 
 cians. They nullified the Constitution in its plainest aud 
 most peremptory obligation; they broke that compact of 
 pacification — the Missouri Compromise — under which the 
 Union had reposed for nigh forty years ; they rekindled and 
 blew into conflagration the almost extinct embers of the 
 abolition agitation ; they obtruded into the presence of the 
 Supreme Court with their factious clamour, and compelled 
 even that august tribunal to become accomplice in the work 
 of commotion ; they lashed the popular mind into fury over 
 imaginary wrongs, and to intercept the occurrence of ficti- 
 tious evils occasioned a catastrophe which actually afflicted 
 the country with every conceivable calamity ; to vindicate 
 the abstract right of potential secession, they challenged an 
 encounter which issued in the irresistible aggrandizement 
 of the federal power; to preserve the ideal existence of 
 slavery in the Territories they provoked a war which ended 
 in the annihilation of slavery in the States. 
 
 Meanwhile the soldiers of the nation, no matter where 
 their birth or what their political opinions, uniformly opposed 
 themselves to every act and every word of which the aim or 
 the tendency was to engender ill feeling between the States 
 or impair the stability of the Union. The illustrious Scott, 
 hero of two wars, victor on the far distant battle-fields of 
 Chippewa and Cerro Gordo, achieved, in his endeavour to 
 arrest the progress of disunion, a civic crown no less resplen- 
 dent than his martial fame.* 
 
 *Allusion to Gen. Scott's suppression of the South Carolina Nullification 
 movement in 1833. 
 
10 
 
 And that other Federal soldier, right arm of Scott in his 
 career of conquest, whom to name now might perchance jar 
 ■upon the harmonies of the occasion, but of whose exploits 
 history nevertheless will make due - celebration in her im- 
 mortal epic — he, like his great chief, was pierced with the 
 anguish of despair by the menace" of civil war. USTot the ill- 
 fated Falkland himself was more tenderly enameured of 
 peace, or more passionately prayed heaven to avert from 
 his country the agony and the ignominy of fratricidal strife, 
 than he who by the cruel irony of fate was destined to lead 
 the Confederate armies through so much carnage in a hope- 
 less struggle with the Union. 
 
 And so with all. Call the roll of fighting men, whether 
 in the army or the'navy, and mark one known to fame who 
 who was not the friend of peace, the advocate of concilia- 
 tion. The soldier is a patriot from necessity — by the hab- 
 its of education, and by the instincts of honour, which to 
 him are the principles of nature. Identified with the for- 
 tunes of no party, implicated iu the intrigues of no faction, 
 he looks to the country, the whole country, for the recog- 
 nition and reward of his valour. Meaning himself to fight 
 if peace be impossible, and well aware that war is the con- 
 summation of human woe, he shrinks back from the dread 
 arbitrament till duty bids him draw the sword. 
 
 And so, while free from the awful responsibility attaching 
 to any the least agency in causing the conflict of 1861, yet 
 when by the follies and the crimes of the politicians the 
 crisis came, the soldier was prompt to respond to the call of 
 his country. 
 
 His country — but where was his country? Upon this 
 
II 
 
 momentous question the simplicity of the military mail was 
 perplexed by the sophistications of the politicians. To the 
 ■Southern soldier, the State — the sovereign State — whose 
 guardian care he felt in every interest and relation of life, 
 whose bosom was for him the " mother earth " whence he 
 .sprang and to which he would return in the sepulchres of 
 his fathers — to the reason and affection of the Southern sol- 
 dier the State appealed with a supreme and irresistable 
 title to allegiance. But, federal soldiers ! Your country 
 was commensurate with the limits of the Urnied^ States ; 
 the symbol of your fealty was the flag floating over the un- 
 divided and indivisible expanse of the Republic; the cause 
 for which you fought was the Union inviolate and inviol- 
 able. 
 
 At this point of political divergence parted the soldier of 
 the North and of the South — each impelled by a motive of 
 genuine patriotism, each contending for a cause which 
 shone clear to his conscience, each striving after an object 
 deemed worthy of heroic effort and heroic sacrifice. Hap- 
 pily for the infirmities of human nature, the Supreme Ruler, 
 in dispensing his retributions by means of the moral judg- 
 ments of the worid, compassionates the errors of man and 
 to his motives only imputes culpability. From the reproach 
 of conscious wrong the soldier of the South is free; and if, 
 in lifting his hand against the majesty of the Republic he 
 were in fault, grievously has he answered it ! Obdurate 
 indeed must be the heart — harder than the rock hewn from 
 the Caucasus — that can look abroad over the wasted fields 
 and the desolate homes and the stricken families of the 
 South, and not melt into pity at the spectacle of so much 
 suffering and so much sorrow. In the bloody conflict 
 
J2 
 
 friends were lost to you — over their graves we have strewn 
 to-day garlands of amaranthine bloom — but far from your 
 homes and your harvests rolled the lava tide of war ; and 
 in the triumph of your cause you found a consoling recom- 
 pense for your bereavements. Men died, but the Union 
 lived; and the earth was filled with the echoes of your 
 acclamation. But, for the confederate soldier all was lost; 
 and as he came back from his captivity, silence greeted 
 him with the welcome of despair ! Feel you not that to 
 exult over his misfortunes, ill-beseems the pride of a mag- 
 nanimous foe ! 
 
 So much in any event is certain, that by fearlessly front- 
 ing death, and by the heroic endurance of pains and priva- 
 tions worse than the agony of death, the Confederate sol- 
 dier vindicated triumphantly the sincerity of his conviction, 
 and made good whatever claim to your consideration is im- 
 plied in an unselfish devotion to a cherished though van- 
 quished cause. Victrix causa diis placuit sed victa Catoni. 
 
 ~No blame, then, for that stupendous folly, the war of 
 secession, attaches to the men who bore its brunt. The 
 politician began it ; the soldier only ended it. And, dur- 
 ing its progress, whatever of barbarity aggravated its es- 
 sential ills is imputable, not to the fighting man, but to the 
 civilian. Clemency no less than courage is the ornament 
 of true knighthood ; but while the soldier's spirit is exalted 
 by the ambition of glorious deeds, the politician stoops to 
 mean resentments and ignoble reprisals. For those acts of 
 vengeance of which each side hastens now to exculpate it- 
 self to history, but over which it behooves both to drop the 
 veil of oblivion — for those dastardly and despicable inhu- 
 
13 
 
 inanities the men of the cabinet are accountable ; and the 
 lustre of Grant's and of Lee's renown, is untarnished by the 
 atrocities of the prison-camp. The columns of neither 
 army, in their intrepid onset, were inflamed by the incite- 
 ments of passion ; but, in the fury of the combat feeling 
 still for his foe the affection of a former and a future brother, 
 the soldier gladly sheathed his sword from its bloody execu- 
 tion. In every pause of battle the contending hosts inter- 
 mingled, and for their involuntary cruelties made atone- 
 ment by an eager interchange of the charities of humanity. 
 On the field of Antietam, while the carnage stayed that the 
 wounded and the dying might be taken away from the 
 dreadful scene, a Confederate General and your own gallant 
 Meagher grasped hands, in pledge of a friendship the shock 
 of war could not break asunder, and in instinctive but un- 
 spoken presage of a community of country that returning 
 peace should restore and perpetuate. 
 
 But, it was in the final catastrophe of the contest that 
 this spirit of chivalry attained its appropriate culmination ; 
 when the great captain of the armies of the Union, in ac- 
 cepting the surrender of his equally great antagonist, spared 
 him the humiliations of defeat, and to him and his van- 
 quished veterans accorded the tribute of glory due to a 
 frustrate but heroic struggle. Then was exhibited in no 
 unequal measure, the greatness of soul with which the Bo- 
 man conqueror saluted the misfortunes of the Macedonian 
 monarch; and then too did the leader of the "lost cause," 
 by his Unshaken equanimity, put to shame the supplications 
 of Alexander's degenerate successor. 
 
 Such being the spirit of the soldiers in the war, no won- 
 der they hailed with enthusiasm the advent of peace; no 
 
14 
 
 wonder that from the slaughter of compatriots their impa- 
 tient hand turned with alacrity to the blessed work of paci- 
 fication. 
 
 With what eager overtures of reconciliation did Sherman 
 signal to Johnston to desist from the unnatural contest ; 
 and with what a wise magnanimity did he lure the heart of 
 his adversary back to its early love for the Union. Brilliant 
 though be the campaign by which he cut the Confederacy 
 asunder, his most worthy achievement was the capitulation 
 of Raleigh, for, by that act of intrepid generosity, he made 
 conquest of the affections of his foe, and transformed an 
 embattled host into a community of grateful citizens. Had 
 not that auspicious compact been annulled by the intrigues 
 of the politicians ; had its benign spirit informed and actu- 
 ated all subsequent policies of reconstruction, the darkest 
 page in the history of the Republic would not remain yet to 
 be written, and this glad day of reconciliation would have 
 been anticipated by many long and agonizing years. 'So, 
 fellow-citizens ; for the interval of gloom and shame lying 
 between the baleful splendour of the war and the present 
 golden dawn of peace; for the nameless outrages and 
 ignominies of that dismal period — massacres of the helpless, 
 violations of the ballot, usurpations of force on the popular 
 will and the independence of the States — with these affronts 
 to freedom and civilization, the soldier may not be re- 
 proached. His intervention, when at times it has hap- 
 pened to arrest the operation of constitutional government, 
 was not the effect of his own volition ; for, standing guard 
 over imprisoned liberty is not the willing service of the 
 American soldier ; and if he appeared on the scene of con- 
 fusion, his presence was ever the guaranty of order and 
 
15 
 
 tranquillity. When a detachment of troops occupied the 
 oapitol of South Carolina, the hitherto unsullied sanctuary 
 of its sovereignty, they moved in submission to an order 
 from Washington; but when afterward the Federal soldiers 
 in New Orleans fraternized with Confederates in celebrating 
 the deliverance of Louisiana, they responded to the spon- 
 taneous and exultant impulse of their own gallant spirits. 
 
 In the system of American government the autonomy of 
 the State is a no less essential principle than the liberty of 
 the individual ; exists, indeed, only as the support and 
 safeguard of the personal rights ; and when in the march 
 of encroachment the independence of the State is subdued, 
 the freedom of the citizen is exposed to an easy and irre- 
 sistible subjection. 
 
 But a scheme of administration by which the civil was 
 subordinated to the military power, and the prodigy of re- 
 publican institutions under the patronage of bayonets ex- 
 hibited to the wondering gaze of the world ; by which that 
 most precious principle of American liberty, the right of 
 local self-government, was subverted, and on its ruin erect- 
 ed a repulsive compound of alien rule and federal domina- 
 tion ; by which sovereign States were reduced to the impo- 
 tence of satrapies, and a commandant of the barracks 
 invested with the majesty of the people ; such a scheme of 
 administration, however specious the pretext of its exist- 
 once, and however formidable the forces enlisted in its 
 support, was doomed from the beginning, and by the organic 
 vice of its being to an inevitable and ignominious over- 
 throw. Fallen it is at last ; fallen like Lucifer never to 
 hope again ; fallen by the thunderbolt of the people's 
 
16 
 
 wrath ; and as it topples down " in hideous ruin and com 
 bustion," the nation hails with acclamation the returning 
 reign of freedom and peace. 
 
 And by none is the auspicious day of liberation and re- 
 conciliation, saluted with more enthusiasm than by the 
 veterans of the Union army. In the phantom of " the 
 bloody shirt," and the spectre of the " prostrate State,'' 
 factions found available topics of incendiary appeal, and 
 politicians combine now to accuse and obstruct a pacifica- 
 tion which threatens to leave neither party a cherished 
 wrong to expose or a fondly nursed grievance to denounce ; 
 but the soldier, instinct with a better patriotism,, seeks no- 
 object besides the welfare of the country, and informed by 
 a truer wisdom knows no other policy than the counsels of 
 conciliation. 
 
 Yes, fellow-citizens, the Union is re-established; re- 
 established not only in the supremacy but in the beneficence 
 of its power : re-established not merely over the wills but 
 over the hearts of the people, and of all the people. While 
 its privileges and protection were unequally dispensed; 
 while toward the South the constitution shone with a dark- 
 ened and sinister aspect, the affections of the people were 
 chilled and their confidence repelled ; but now that every 
 State is respected in her sovereignty and every man in his 
 rights, the Union is restored in all its ancient strength and 
 glory : and be pursuaded, you may repose with as serene 
 a trust on the loyalty of Louisiana, as upon the well-tried 
 fidelity of your own great commonwealth. In obliterating 
 all discriminations between States and between citizens^ 
 you have effaced the ill-omened distinction of sections, and 
 
17 
 
 henceforth in the vocabulary of American politics the South 
 is only a geographical expression. 
 
 And this is the tribute a Confederate soldier brings to-day 
 to the graves of the fallen heroes of the Union — the solemn 
 assurance that they fell not in vain — that the work they 
 died to achieve you have accomplished — that as they by 
 their devotion saved the Union from overthrow, you by 
 the policy of justice and magnanimity have enshrined it In 
 the hearts of its once furious but now reclaimed an& recoD 
 oiled foes. 
 
 If we may suppose the men whose deeds 'you now com- 
 memorate, to be attentive still in their blest abodes to the 
 transactions of their surviving comrades, with what joy and 
 exultation do they contemplate the incidents of this day. 
 Insensible though they be to the echoes of earthly ap- 
 plause, even their chastened and exalted spirits must be 
 soothed by the solemn acclaim of a nation rendering 
 homage to the virtues of its heroic dead. But, not in the 
 hush of a gracious holiday, nor in floral offering, nor 
 martial requiem, nor the pomp and pageantry of a funeral 
 procession ; nor yet in the voice of renown reverberating 
 their exploits through the ages, — not in any nor in all of 
 these celebrations so dear to the heart of mortal hero, does 
 the supreme reward, the true triumph, of the departed 
 soldiers of the Union consist. In this/alone is their glory 
 consummated, that the cause for which they gave their 
 lives has prevailed ; in this alone is their victory complete, 
 that the republic has emerged from the cloud and carnage 
 of war unbroken in unity and undimmed in lustre ; in this 
 is the ecstasy of their exultation, that hands once red with. 
 
18 
 
 fraternal blobd are this day clasped in pledge and procla- 
 mation of a restored and perpetual brotherhood. While 
 man applauds heaven ratifies the re-union, . and beams 
 approvingly on the prevalence of charity in the councils of 
 nations ! 
 
 That the memories of intestine war oppose no obstacle 
 to the re-union and harmonious co-operation of the once 
 hostile parties and dependencies, experience attests by 
 abundant and most instructive instances. Indeed, from 
 the largest induction we may infer it as a principle of 
 political philosophy, that the development of national unity 
 is accomplished by the method of internal agitation, and 
 that the coherence of the aggregated parts of a State, is 
 proportioned to the violence with which they are brought 
 together. For illustration we have no need to recur to the 
 remote if not imaginary examples of classic history ; for, of 
 the annals of modern times the monotonous lesson is, that 
 empire is composed of a succession of conquests, and is 
 consolidated by the fierce but ineffectual efforts of its con- 
 stituent members to resist the process of assimilation. In 
 France the war of the Fronde issued in the establishment of 
 that compactest of nationalities ; and of the followers of 
 Napoleon in his conquest of Europe, the most faithful were 
 those Vendeean Bourbons who so desperately resisted the 
 regime of the revolution. In the united Germany of to- 
 day we see the result of centuries of civil and religious 
 struggle : nor of the provinces ruled by the Kaiser are they 
 the least docile and devoted that the victory of Sadowa 
 gave him. Sweden and Norway have accommodated their 
 traditional feuds by union under a single crown; while 
 Austria and Hungary having replaced the subjugation of 
 
19 
 
 1849 by an alliance of choice and equality, move onward in 
 the path of prosperity under the impulse of the same will 
 and an identical interest. In Italy the hates and revenges 
 of a thousand years' domestic conflict, have yielded at last 
 to the undying instinct of nationality ; and Florence and 
 Genoa, Tenice and Rome, are once more embodied in the 
 unity of a free and mighty empire. Most significant of all 
 is the instance of Great Britain ; for it conveys at once a 
 promise and an admonition ; and by the examples of 
 Scotland and Ireland, teaches statesmen as well tfae folly 
 of a prescriptive as the wisdom of a magnanimous policy. 
 The boast of Chatham was not an idle vaunt; the here- 
 ditary foe of the Lowlander he enticed from his mountain 
 fastness, tamed his wild spirit to the arts of peace, and by 
 according him the rights of a freeman inspired the devotion 
 that stayed the onset at Waterloo and brought relief to the 
 despair of Lucknow. But Ireland — after ages of conquest, 
 her heart still spurns the Saxon's caress ; and her gallant 
 sons, finding; in their native land neither civil nor religious 
 liberty, to the aggrandizement of England's rival contribute 
 the strength of their arm and the wealth of their genius. 
 Ireland to-day repeats the mournful refrain of history, that 
 injustice and intolerance are the blight of empire ; while in 
 the opulence and repose of Scotland we behold the never- 
 failing effect of a policy of conciliation. 
 
 No cause have you, people of the North ! to mistrust the 
 professions of fealty to the Union, by which the Confeder- 
 ate soldier requites your fidelity to the Constitution. To 
 his forefathers history ascribes, and you will not refuse, an 
 equal hand in forming the Union, an equal contribution to 
 its resources, and an equal courage and devotion in its de- 
 
20 
 
 fence. From the day a Southern soldier took command of 
 the army of the Revolution in the dapital of Massachu- 
 setts, down to that recent time when another Southern 
 soldier led the armies of the Union to the Capital of Mex- 
 ico, the men of the South have borne a not inferior part in 
 every eifort and every sacrifice for the glory of the Union 
 Pardon me if I recall that it was a Southern man — even 
 Washington — with whom, by the suggestion of the Confer- 
 ence at Annapolis, in 1.786, originated the idea of the 
 Union ; that by another Southern man, Randolph of Vir- 
 ginia, the fundamental plan of the Union was propounded 
 to the Convention at Philadelphia; that Virginia, in con- 
 junction with New York, determined the final adoption of 
 the compact of Union ; that it was Marshall, the Virginian, 
 who, by authentic and authoritative construction of the 
 Federal Constitution, endowed the Union with the energies 
 of a nation and enabled it to survive the strain of civil war ; 
 that it was Monroe, the Virginian, who, by asserting the 
 freedom of the New World from the intrigues of European 
 ambition, opened for the Union an unimpeded and unbounded 
 arena of development ; that Virginia, of her bounty, brought 
 to the bridal of the young Eepublic the gift of an imperial 
 domain — and, let me add, all shrunken and beggared as she 
 is, she does not repent that she impoverished herself for the 
 aggrandizement of the Union ; — that by the skill of a South- 
 ern statesman the navigation of the Mississippi was liber- 
 ated from foreign control and made the priceless monopoly 
 of American commerce ; that by a Southern President the 
 second war of independence was conducted to a successful 
 termination ; that by the diplomacy of another Southern 
 President Texas was wooed and won to the embrace of the 
 Union; that under the administration of still another 
 
21 
 
 Southern President the Union was enriched and embel- 
 lished by our golden conquests on the Pacific : bear with 
 me while, not in the ostentation of sectional vain-glory, but 
 merely to verify the fidelity of the Confederate soldier to 
 ■the Union, I recount these among the many services and 
 trophies which his forefathers have contributed to the 
 strength and grandeur of the Nation. 
 
 With the people of the South affection for the Union 
 was a sentiment of ancestral pride, as well as a principle 
 of traditional policy; and only by the urgency of some 
 casual and extraordinary crisis, could they ever have been 
 precipitated into secession. They went about to erect a 
 separate government for themselves, not from an impulse 
 of hostilty to the Union, but from attachment to principles 
 they had been taught to think paramount to the Union it- 
 self; and in parting from the Union they felt all the pangs 
 of violated nature as well as the griefs of baffled hope. 
 But, now that slavery -no longer impinges on their under- 
 standing with a sinister bias, and the idol of State sover- 
 eignty no longer challenges of them a divided duty, love of 
 the Union resumes its original ascendency in their hearts ; 
 the beneficence of the Union claims a supreme considera- 
 tion in their counsels. 
 
 Be assured, Southern statesmanship is not so blinded in 
 its proverbial sagacity as not to see that henceforth the 
 strength and security of the South are to be found only 
 under the shield of the Union. Against the perils of foreign 
 invasion it gains in the Union the bulwark of a mighty 
 prestige and an invincible army. As a guaranty of peace 
 between its discordant peoples the ever-imminent, interven- 
 
22 
 
 tion of the federal arm will operate to deter the unruly and 
 to tranquillize the timid. Freedom and facility of access to 
 every part of this vast and opulent land, opens to the en- 
 terprise of the South a boundless field of adventure, and 
 imparts to its industrial and commercial energies a quick- 
 ening impulse of development and fruition. Meanwhile, an 
 expedient devised to balk the ambition of the white race 
 recoils upon its source, and by augmenting the political 
 power of the South, enables its aspiring spirits to play a 
 splendid and superior part on the theatre of Federal affairs. 
 
 If, in contrast with the brilliant future offered to the South 
 in the Union, you contemplate for a moment the destiny to 
 which it would be condemned by another civil convulsion, 
 caused by another revolt against the Federal power ; the 
 havoc and carnage of a war aggravated by a conflict between 
 races and issuing inevitably in the catastrophe of a remorse- 
 less subjugation, you cannot, on the supposition that the 
 Southern people are rational beings, impute to them any 
 other policy or purpose than to cleave to the Union as their 
 only and their all-sufficient shelter and support. 
 
 But you say, perhaps, that these dictates of reason, ob 
 vious and imperative though they be, are counteracted by 
 the blind impulses of passion ; that rage at the miscarriage 
 of his cause, revenge for the many calamities and contume- 
 lies he suffered from the victorious North ; that all the un- 
 appeased and inappeasable resentments ot the war still 
 operate to cherish in the Confederate soldier undying hate 
 of the Union. Now, I do not pretend, it is not essential to 
 my argument to pretend, that the Southern soldier contem- 
 plated the fall of the Confederacy with indifference. Born 
 
23 
 
 of an enthusiasm for liberty, erratic, if you please, but not 
 the less genuine and exalted ; endeared by the memory of so 
 many sacrifices and so many sorrows heroically borne in its 
 behalf; gilded by so much glory and hallowed by the blood 
 of the brave and the tears of the fair, its disastrous over- 
 throw smote upon the heart of the Southern soldier with 
 an anguish he may not utter, but which he disdains to dis- 
 semble. Nor will you, its exultant but not ungenerous foe, 
 grudge, him who followed its flag through the few years of 
 its battle-crowded' career, this mournful recollection of its 
 tragic story. 
 
 But this is the effusion of feeling ; an homage of the 
 heart for which it does not solicit the sanction of reason. 
 From the vantage ground of a larger observation ; with a 
 more calm and considerate meditation on the causes and 
 conditions of national prosperity ; I, for one, cannot resist 
 the conclusion that, after all, Providence wisely ordered the 
 event, and that it is well for the South itself that it was 
 disappointed in its endeavor to establish a separate govern- 
 ment. Plain is it to be seen now, that such government, it 
 once established, could not in the nature of things have 
 long endured; since in. conceding the right of any State to 
 secede at will, the Constitution of the Confederacy made 
 express provision for its own dissolution. A little while and 
 its members urged by some special interest or sinister am- 
 bition, would have receded from the alliance ; and then, one 
 after another, have fallen a prey to foreign aggression or 
 domestic anarchy. Moreover, the process of disintegration 
 would not have ceased With the exit of the South nor have 
 been limited to the confines of the Confederacy ; but the 
 example of successful dismemberment communicating its 
 
24 
 
 contagion to the remaining States, and the principle of co- 
 hesion lost from- the Union, North America would have 
 exhibited that dissolving view of crumbling governments 
 and chaotic societies, which, in other quarters of the New 
 World,- so disheartens the friends of freedom and civiliza- 
 tion. 
 
 Nor to the restoration of the Union, is the Confederate 
 soldier any the less reconciled by the destruction of slavery. 
 True, the material interests of the South were essentially 
 implicated in the maintenance of the system ; but, philo- 
 sophically, it was the occasion not the cause of secession. 
 For the cause of secession you must look beyond the inci- 
 dent of the anti-slavery agitation to that irrepressible conflict 
 between the principles of State sovereignty and Federal 
 supremacy, which menacing the Union in the conception 
 as the twin children of the patriarch wrestled for the mas 
 tery in their mother's womb, again endangered its existence 
 in 1798 on occasion on the Alien and Sedition laws ; and 
 againan 1819 on occasion of the admission of Missouri, and 
 still again in 1833 on occasion of the protective tariff; and 
 which arrested by no concession and accommodated by no 
 compromise, continued to rage with increasing fury, until 
 provoking the revolt of the South, it terminated finally in 
 the absolute and resistless ascendancy of the. national 
 power. In 1861 the people of the South resented the in- 
 tervention of the Federal Government to restrict the ex- 
 tension of slavery ; but it was the principle not the object 
 of the interference that encountered their opposition; and 
 any other usurpation of Federal power on the sovereign 
 rights of the States, would equally have challenged their 
 resistance. Nor, suffer me to say, was slavery any more 
 
the point of your attack than of our defence ; for otherwise, 
 in beginning the war the Federal Government would not 
 have been so scrupulous to proclaim through all its organs, 
 its purpose not to touch any the least of the securities of 
 slave property. 
 
 No, people of the North, impartial history will record that 
 slavery fell not by any effort of man's will, but by the immedi- 
 ate intervention and act of the Almighty himself; and, in 
 the anthem of praise ascending to Heaven for the emanci- 
 pation of four million human beings, the voice of the Con- 
 federate soldier mingles its note of devout gratulation. The 
 Divinity that presided over the destinies of the Eepublic at 
 its nativity, graciously endowed it with every element of 
 stability save one ; and now that in the exuberance of its 
 bounty the same propitious Providence is pleased to replace 
 the weakness of slavery by the unconquerable strength of 
 freedom, we may fondly hope that the existence of our 
 blessed Union is limited only by the mortality that meas- 
 ures the duration of all human institutions. 
 
 But, why argue on speculative grounds, to prove the 
 patriotism of the Confederate soldier; since within these few 
 months he has, by so memorable an illustration, vindicated 
 his fidelity to the Union? You oannot have forgotten — for 
 the land still trembles with the agitations of the crisis— 
 that when of late a disputed succession to the Presidency 
 appalled the country with the imminence of civil war : when 
 business stood still and men held their breath in apprehen- 
 sion of a calamity of which the very shadow Sufficed to 
 eclipse all the joy of the nation: you cannot but remember, 
 how, obdurate to the entreaties of party, and impenetrable 
 
26 
 
 to the promptings of resentment, and responsive only to the 
 inspirations of patriotism, the Confederate soldier in Con- 
 gress spoke peace to the affrighted land. Your difficulty 
 was his opportunity; he had only to say .the word and the 
 fatal fourth of March would have passed without the choice 
 of a Federal executive, and the Union have been involved 
 in the agonies of a dynastic struggle. But, with a sublime 
 magnanimity he spurned the proffered revenge — and yet 
 do you say the Confederate soldier is false to his allegiance ? 
 Pardon me if even in this presence, I make bold to protest 
 that he was never faithless to his trust : to declare that 
 when you thought him treacherous to the Union, he was 
 only true to his State : and to tell you that when he braved 
 all the wrath of your majestic power, it was only in heroic 
 fidelity to a weak, but with him, an all-commanding cause. 
 If your reproach be just, and the Confederate soldier were 
 a conscious culprit, then indeed is reconciliation a folly and 
 a crime ; for if false to you once he may betray you again ; 
 and instead of alluring him to your embrace by these over- 
 tures^of fraternity, you should repel him from your pres- 
 ence as a perfidious outcast. No, patriots of the Union ! 
 The Confederate soldier offers not to your confidence a con- 
 science stained with the guilt of recreancy. Veterans of the 
 Union ! He comes not into your companionship with 
 confession of criminality ; but for the credentials of his loyalty 
 to the Union, he proudly adduces the constancy with which 
 he clung to the fortunes of his ill-starred Confederacy. 
 
 And so, fellow citizens, by the reciprocation of esteem 
 and the kindly offices of mutual confidence, the soldiers of 
 the late war are brought to-day, to fraternize over the, 
 graves of their departed comrades, and to renew with cere- 
 
27 
 
 monies of impressive solemnity, their vows of fealty to the 
 Constitution and the Union. While, on the one side, the 
 soldier of the North engages to keep watch over the rights 
 of the. State, and to see that its liberties be not profaned by 
 military usurpation, nor its sovereignty disparaged by Fed- 
 eral intervention, the Confederate soldier, on his part, 
 pledges himself to repel every approach of danger to the 
 Union. Of this alliance so propitious to the peace and sta- 
 bility of the nation, no ill-omened reminiscence shall inter- 
 pose to imperil the integrity ; but whatsoever of common 
 glory may be gathered from the annals of the Eepublic, 
 shall be culled out and collected into an indissoluble bond 
 of brotherhood. The memory of Washington and Mont- 
 gomery, Greene and Putnam, of Jefferson and Hamilton, 
 of Jackson and McDonough : the shades of the nameless 
 heroes of the Eevolution, whose unforgotten graves were 
 not passed without honour in the processions of this day;* 
 all, all shall be invoked to still the clamour of sectional 
 jealousies. Nay, even the incidents of our unhappy con- 
 flict, gaining as they recede from view the halo of historic 
 illustration, shall lose their irritating and repulsive aspect; 
 and the victories of the war shall be recounted with equal 
 and impartial exultation, whether they signalize Federal or 
 Confederate valour. And hereafter, should the menace of 
 foreign aggression summon us to marshal the heroes of the 
 past for present encouragement and emulation, the images 
 of Grant and Lee, of "Stonewall" and Sherman, shall speak 
 a sufficient assurance at home and' admonition abroad, that 
 for the most puissant power on earth, the conquest of 
 
 *The American soldiers who fell in the battle of Long Island were buried 
 at Fort Greene. ; and part of the performances of the day was the decoration 
 of their graves. 
 
28 
 
 America is an impossible achievement. Thus, even in the 
 tomb the Federal and the Confederate soldier will prove 
 the friends of peace ; and their blended memories serve as 
 a safeguard of the Union. 
 
 The children here sang "Peaceito the Brave" with great 
 acceptance, and an original poem of merit was read by Mr. 
 William A. Grofut. 
 
 The Chairman then introduced G-en. Isaac 8. Catlin, who 
 spoke as follows, amid frequent applause : 
 
 GEN. CATLIN'S ADDRESS. 
 
 Mk. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 The most appropriate service that could be performed at 
 this moment would be to pronounce the benediction, and 
 allow this delighted audience to repair to their respective 
 homes, thrilled with the eloquent and noble words that 
 have fallen upon their ears. After the able and well-timed 
 address of the honorable gentleman who was spontaneously, 
 and unanimously chosen to preside over this meeting, and 
 after the magnificent oration of our illustrious fellow-citizen, 
 General Pryor, it would be audacious in me . to mar the 
 pleasant sensations which their eloquent words have pro- 
 duced. 
 
 But I am announced upon the programme to deliver an 
 address, and it would be unmanly not to acknowledge the 
 
lionor thus oonterred upon me by saying something on so 
 •important an occasion. What I shall say, however, will not 
 reach the dignity of an address, for I have no written 
 speech, and have had no opportunity to prepare one. And 
 I am glad of it, my friends, for I have no heart to talk to- 
 night. I have visited, to-day, the City of the Dead, and 
 feel more like mourning than talking. I have stood by the 
 .graves of dead comrades, and have wept over those graves. 
 To me, the sublimest eloquence is the deepest silence — the 
 silence of the sun, the silence of the night, the silerife of the 
 •dead. For years it has been my custom to participate in 
 the solemn and beautiful ceremonies of this anniversary, 
 but never before have I been so deeply affected and pro- 
 foundly impressed with its sadness and solenfnity. While 
 time has removed the asperities of the battle-field, and 
 "smoothed the wrinkled front of war," it has only deepened 
 my grief for the brave men who fell at the post of duty. 
 
 I love the memory of a soldier. I love the very dust that 
 ■covers his mouldering body. And I love the living hero as 
 well as the memory of the dead. Wherever, in this broad 
 land, or on foreign shores, breathes a true soldier, there my 
 heart goes forth to meet him and greet him as a brother. 
 Wherever in this cold world I meet father or mother, 
 brother or sister, lover or friend,, of him who fell fighting 
 for Fatherland, to him and to her my heart wells up in 
 boundless love and sympathy. Wherever is a soldier's 
 .grave, be it on the barren battle-field, or in the quiet shades 
 •of the cemetery, there, in spirit at least, I keep sentinel, 
 and every day I drop a tear and plant a flower upon it. 
 Towards the living and the dead of our battle-fields I enter- 
 tain an inexpressible love and affection. And it is a love 
 
30 
 
 stronger, deeper and holier than that for friend or kindred, 
 it is a love engendered by common feelings, common suffer- 
 ings, common dangers and a common cause. To-day all 
 the old feeling, the old love, the old sympathy, has been 
 stirred up afresh. I have had such experiences and wit- 
 nessed such scenes that that love has been quickened and 
 intensified into hero-wOrship. I have seen strong, stalwart 
 men fall prostrate upon the graves of their former comrades. 
 I have seen stern-visaged men weep like children as they 
 sprinkled their floral offerings over the earth that covered 
 the remains of their dead. I have seen fair girls and 
 stately matrons sob as though their hearts would break 
 while strewing the rose and the lily upon the graves of the 
 loved ones whose lives were freely offered up as sacrifices to 
 their country. But oh, fellow citizens, I have seen some- 
 thing more solemn and more touching than this, something 
 really grand and heroic, something absolutely Christlike. 
 Men who, fifteen years ago, were arrayed against each 
 other in the most deadly struggle in the annals of warfare, 
 marched, to-day, in the same line, under the same flag, and 
 decorated the same graves, decorated alike the tombs of 
 the blue and the gray. Men who fought under Lee, and 
 men who fought under Grant, to-day clasped hands around 
 the graves of Union and Confederate dead, achieving, in 
 that act, a greater victory than any that was gained in the 
 ten hundred battles of the four years war. 
 
 " Sadly, but not with upbraiding, 
 The generous deed was done ; 
 In the storm of the years that are fading, 
 No braver battle was won. 
 Under the sod and the sea, 
 
 Waiting the judgment-day ; 
 Under the laurel the blue, 
 Under the garlands the gray. 
 
31 
 
 ' ' So, when the summer calleth 
 On forest and field of grain, 
 With an equal murmur falleth 
 The cooling drips of rain. 
 Under the sod and the sea, 
 
 Waiting the judgment-day ; 
 Wet with the rain the blue. 
 Wet with the rain the gray. 
 
 ' ' No more shall the war-cry sever, 
 Or the winding riyers be red ; 
 They banish our anger forever 
 When they haunt the graves of our dead. 
 Under the sod aid the sea, 
 
 Waiting the judgment-day ; 
 Love and tears for the blue, 
 Tears and love for, the gray." 
 
 Jt was a brave act; it was a patriotic act; it was a 
 Christian act. It was at once the expression of the noblest 
 and most generous qualities of the heart and the exercise 
 of the most exalted statesmanship. The first duty of a 
 patriot, the first duty of a statesman, is to pursue a course 
 that will obliterate old hatreds and old prejudices. 
 While renouncing no duty to the State, patriotism and 
 statesmanship alike dictate the use of all honorable means 
 to establish perfect harmony, to cultivate mutual confidence 
 and regard among the people heretofore estranged and 
 alienated. 
 
 Disunion now is almost as bad as disunion in 1861. 
 Geographical union, the union of political bodies, the Union 
 of States is not enough. Union of hearts and union of 
 hands, union of interests and union of hopes is what we need. 
 
 I have no sympathy, therefore, with those honest but 
 over-zealous patriots who would keep open the wounds 
 which the gentle influence of time and circumstance are 
 fast healing. The work of to-day, the work of the present 
 and future is to build up, to rehabilitate, to bind up the 
 
32 
 
 wounds of the nation, and to pour upon them the healing 
 halm of peace and good-will. The truth enunciated eigh- 
 teen hundred years ago that a house divided against itself 
 cannot stand is equally the truth to-day. A nation, a 
 people, divided against itself cannot stand. Where party 
 frenzy, where sectional hate and prejudice, constitute a 
 harrier between the consciences, the intelligence and con- 
 victions of the masses of different sections of the country, 
 it cannot be prosperous ; it cannot hope to be permanent. 
 I repeat, therefore, the work of to-day is to unite, not to 
 pull asunder — to drive out all sectional feeling and pre- 
 judice, not to tear open the old wounds. Indeed, there 
 should be no sectional feeling ; in the larger sense, there 
 should be no North, no South, no East, no West ; there 
 should be one united country, one constitution, one flag 
 under which and around which the men of all creeds, of all 
 colors -and of all nationalities could gather as American 
 citizens. And it is the duty of the men on both 
 sides who bore the brunt of the battle to be the 
 first and most aggressive in bringing about perfect 
 reunion, perfect peace and the old time prosperity. 
 While insisting that the Constitution of the country shall 
 be respected and kept inviolate, while insisting that the 
 laws shall be strictly enforced, while insisting that every 
 citizen, whoever he may be, or wherever he may be, shall 
 be secure in his rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of 
 happiness, let us, henceforth, try to forget the dark days of 
 the past, and look forward to brighter, and happier, and 
 more prosperous ones in the future. The great aim of the 
 Grand Army of the Eepublic, the noble organization 
 under whose beneficent auspices the interesting cere- 
 monies of to-day have been conducted, should be to 
 bring about this consummation. The brave men who 
 
33 
 
 fought and conquered are the men who should lift up 
 and build up. A brave man, a true soldier, never taunts 
 nor strikes a fallen foe. Eather will he magnanimously 
 reach out a helping hand to lift him up and place him 
 firmly on his feet again. The men we fought were brave 
 men, were our own kinsmen, our own countrymen; they were 
 worthy of our steel. They are, then, worthy of our friend- 
 ship to-day ; worthy to be taken to Our hearts as brethren, 
 who will stand shoulder to shoulder with us in the future, 
 fighting on the same fields, if need be, and for the game 
 destiny. 
 
 Fellow citizens, we are sure of the fruits of the late 
 war; we have a right to be proud of the new glory it 
 has shed upon the nation ; we have a right to be exultant 
 that no slave or shackle mocks the name of freedom. Is 
 this not enough 1 Is it not enough that we are all Ameri- 
 can citizens, that our country is saved, that our country is 
 one ? Is it not enough that to-day we all read the same 
 Declaration of Independence, clothed in all its new glory 
 and new significance .? Is it not enough that to-day we 
 have all marched to the same music, under the same flag, 
 and stood around the same graves forgetting, for the time, 
 which rested under the laurel and which under the willow 1 
 Oh, yes ; it is enough. Every consideration appeals to us 
 not to prolong the contest of bitterness. The highest pa- 
 triotism, the most enlightened statesmanship, the lessons 
 of the past, the possibilities of the future, aye, the voices of 
 the< dead, proclaim to us the divine doctrine of forgiveness 
 and conciliation, of peace and good- will. May I not say, 
 then, to the men of the North and men of the South — to 
 the men of the blue and men of the gray— that we greet 
 them as Americans all 1 May 1 not give them joy that 
 
34 
 
 after the pains and throes of civil strife, after the shock and 
 uproar of battle, the old; flag of the Stars and Stripes is our 
 common flag still ; that the old Union, do, not the old, but 
 the new Union, without a fetter or a bondsman, is our com- 
 mon Union ? May I not say to our enemies of 1861 "You 
 are our brothers to-day ? " May we not stretch out our 
 hands, over no bloody chasm, over no line of dead, but over 
 a common country, to clasp their hands in the sweet 
 spirit of patriotism ; and may we not conjure them for the 
 sake of the honor, the glory and perpetuity of the Union, to 
 take them in the same spirit 1 May we not implore them 
 to let the dead past bury its dead, and to remember with 
 us the prophetic words of America's greatest statesman, 
 that it is to that Union alone we owe our safety at home, 
 and our consideration and-dignity abroad. 
 
 Fellow citizens, the anniversary which we celebrate to- 
 day has practically become a national anniversary. Its 
 observance is not confined to any section or to any class. 
 It does honor to the heads and hearts of the American 
 people. It is eminently fitting and proper that this respect 
 should be paid to the memory of the dead. I trust this 
 commemorative custom, so. beautiful and appropriate, may 
 pass down from generation to generation as long as the 
 American republic shall stand. But, my Mends, while you 
 remember and honor the dead, in the name of God and 
 humanity, I beseech of you not to forget the living. While 
 you heap flowers over the graves of the dead, in the name 
 and by the memory of those dead heroes, I implore you not 
 to forget their poor maimed comrades who are living. 
 They need your help; they need your sympathy; they 
 need the open hand and the extended arm of clfarity. 
 False and hypocritical, a poor, mean, empty show is this 
 
35 
 
 ceremony over the^ dead if you pass by and disregard the 
 living. Woe be to the nation, w # oe be to the people tbat 
 forget the living of their battle-fields. By remembering 
 and caring for the living, you show a true, vital, practical 
 patriotism which gives life and spirit and character to your 
 solemn ceremony in honor of the dead. 
 
 And do the American people appropriately remembei 
 the living ? Do they fittingly remember the men who took 
 their fives in their hands and went forth to do battle in the 
 cause of their country? When they went out from "among 
 you, you applauded their courage and heroism. You prom- 
 ised them then that they should never suffer from cold or 
 hunger or nakedness. If the country should be saved and 
 your firesides and fields protected, you promised to bestow 
 upon them position and honor and comfort. But I ask you 
 friends, you patriots, if the promises made to the ear have 
 not been broken to the hope? I ask you, where is the 
 fruition of the promises, iterated and reiterated, again and 
 again, when the battle was raging ? 
 
 Look ! look, men and women of Brooklyn, for the soldier, 
 the poor, maimed, broken-down soldier, and where do you 
 find him ? Look in the departments of State and do you 
 find him there ? So ! Look in your shops and stores, your 
 banks and counting-rooms, and, do you find him there? 
 No ! Where, in heaven's name, can you find him, then? 
 Listen, and I will tell you. Look in your poor-houses,, and 
 there, covered with rags and filth, you will find him. Look 
 in your almshouses, on Blackwell's Island and elsewhere, 
 and there you will tind bim. Look in your public work- 
 houses, your houses of correction, where vagrants and crim- 
 inals are huddled together, and there you will find him 
 
36 
 
 Look in your insane asylums, and there s you will find him r 
 driven to madness, through the neglect of the nation 
 he served and the people he protected. Look among the 
 beggars of the streets in your great cities, among those who- 
 beg from door to door, and there you will find him. Six 
 hundred soldiers, six hundred heroes, once the pride of your 
 armies, are to-day in the poor-houses of your State. And 
 how long, fellow citizens, oh, how long shall this thing be t 
 The answer rests with the people of the State. It rests 
 with the people of the great Empire State whether their 
 promises shall be redeemed, or whether they be guilty of 
 the basest ingratitude. In the words of a great journalist, 
 the remembrance of those promises and their fulfillment 
 should be stirred up anew to-night. It cannot be safely 
 delayed longer. The impoverished soldiers of our war are 
 dropping away from us day by day as the withered leaves 
 in autumn; and very soon the compact of charity can 
 hardly" be fulfilled, for many who need it most will have 
 passed beyond the bounds of human honor and gratitude. 
 Tou tenderly handle the rent and riddled battle-flags which 
 were brought from the war, arranging with delicate and 
 dextrous care the splintered staff, the torn and war-worn 
 colors. You lay up the battered hulks of naval victory as 
 proud mementoes of their service. Here, however, at your 
 very doors are the men who carried those flags, not less 
 tattered and torn by service and splintered by hostile bul- 
 lets, and here are the hulks of wrecked humanity, claiming 
 by their services and scars, that as they -cared for you in 
 times of danger and peril, you shall now care for them. 
 
 The proceedings were closed with vocal and instrumental 
 music. 
 
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