Chicago, November 13, 1879.
TWELFTH TOAST.
* The meteoric display predicted to take place last Thursday
night did not occur, but there did occur on that evening a
display of oratorical brilliancy at Chicago seldom if ever
surpassed. The speeches at the banquet of the Army of the
Tennessee, taken together, constitute one of the most
remarkable collections of extemporaneous eloquence on
record. The principal speakers of the evening were Gen. U.
S. Grant, Gen. John A. Logan Col. Win, F. Vilas, Gen.
Stewart L. Woodford, General Pope, Col. R. G. Ingersoll,
Gen. J. H. Wilson, and "Mark Twain." In an oratorical
tournament General Grant is, of course, better as a listener
than as a talker; he is a man of deeds rather than of words.
The same might be said of General Sherman, though, as
presiding officer and toast-master of the occasion, his
impromptu remarks were always pertinent and keen. His advice
to speakers not to talk longer than they could hold their
audience, and to the auditors not to drag out their applause
or to drawl out their laughter, would serve as a good
standing rule for all similar occasions Colonel Ingersoll
responded to the twelfth toast, "The Volunteer Soldiers of
the Union Army, whose Valor and Patriotism saved to the
world a Government of the People, by the People, and for the
people."
Colonel Ingersoll's position was a difficult one. His
reputation as the first orator in America caused the
distinguished audience to expect a wonderful display of
oratory from him. He proved fully equal to the occasion and
delivered a speech of wonderful eloquence, brilliancy and
power. To say it was one of the best he ever delivered is
equivalent to saying it was one of the best ever delivered
by any man, for few greater orators have ever lived than
Colonel Ingersoll. The speech is both an oration and a poem.
It bristles with ideas and sparkles with epigrammatic
expressions. It is full of thoughts that breathe and words
that burn. The closing sentences read like blank verse. It
is wonderful oratory, marvelous eloquence. Colonel
Ingersoll fully sustained his reputation as the finest
orator In America.
Editorial from The Journal Indianapolis, Ind., November
17,1879.
The Inter-Ocean remarked yesterday that the gathering and
exercises at the Palmer House banquet on Thursday evening
constituted one of the most remarkable occasions known in
the history of this country. This was not alone because of
the distinguished men who lent their presence to the scone;
they were indeed illustrious; but they only formed a part of
the grand picture that must endure while the memory of our
great conflict survives. To the eminent men assembled may be
traced the signal success of the affair, for they gave
inspiration to the minds and the tongues of others; but it
was the fruit of that inspiration that rolled like a glad
surprise across the banqueting sky, and made the 13th of
November renowned in the calendar of days... When Robert G.
Ingersoll rose after the speech of General Pope, to respond
to the toast, "The Volunteer Soldiers," a large part of the
audience rose with him, and the cheering was long and loud.
Colonel Ingersoll may fairly be regarded as the foremost
orator of America, and there was the keenest interest to
hear him after all the brilliant speeches that had preceded;
and this interest was not unnmixed with a fear that he would
not be able to successfully strive against both his own
great reputation and the fresh competitors who had leaped
suddenly into the oratorical arena like mighty gladiators
and astonished the audience by their unexpected eloquence.
But Ingersoll had not proceeded far when the old fire broke
out, and flashing metaphor, bold denunciation, and all the
rich imagery and poetical beauty which mark his great
efforts stood revealed before the delighted listeners: Long
before the last word was uttered, all doubt as to the
ability of the great orator to sustain himself had departed,
and rising to their feet, the audience cheered till the hall
rang with shouts. Like Henry, "The forest-born Demosthenes,
whose thunder shook the Philip of the seas," Ingersoll still
held the crown within his grasp.
Editorial from The Inter-Ocean, Chicago, November 15, 1879.
The Volunteer Soldiers of the Union Army, whose Valor and Patriotism saved to the world "a Government of the People, by the People, and for the People."
WHEN the savagery of the lash, the barbarism of the chain, and the insanity of secession confronted the civilization of our country, the question "Will the great Republic defend itself?" trembled on the lips of every lover of mankind.
The North, filled with intelligence and wealth—children of liberty—marshaled her hosts and asked only for a leader. From civil life a man, silent, thoughtful, poised and calm, stepped forth, and with the lips of victory voiced the Nation's first and last demand: "Unconditional and immediate surrender." From that 'moment' the end was known. That utterance was the first real declaration of real war, and, in accordance with the dramatic unities of mighty events, the great soldier who made it, received the final sword of the Rebellion.
The soldiers of the Republic were not seekers after vulgar glory. They were not animated by the hope of plunder or the love of conquest. They fought to preserve the homestead of liberty and that their children might have peace. They were the defenders of humanity, the destroyers of prejudice, the breakers of chains, and in the name of the future they slew the monster of their time. They finished what the soldiers of the Revolution commenced. They re-lighted the torch that fell from their august hands and filled the world again with light. They blotted from the statute-book laws that had been passed by hypocrites at the instigation of robbers, and tore with indignant hands from the Constitution that infamous clause that made men the catchers of their fellow-men. They made it possible for judges to be just, for statesmen to be humane, and for politicians to be honest. They broke the shackles from the limbs of slaves, from the souls of masters, and from the Northern brain. They kept our country on the map of the world, and our flag in heaven. They rolled the stone from the sepulchre of progress, and found therein two angels clad in shining garments—Nationality and Liberty.
The soldiers were the saviors of the Nation; they were the liberators of men. In writing the Proclamation of Emancipation, Lincoln, greatest of our mighty dead, whose memory is as gentle as the summer air when reapers, sing amid the gathered sheaves, copied with the pen what Grant and his brave comrades wrote with swords.
Grander than the Greek, nobler than the Roman, the soldiers of the Republic, with patriotism as shoreless as the air, battled for the rights of others, for the nobility of labor; fought that mothers might own their babes, that arrogant idleness should not scar the back of patient toil, and that our country should not be a many-headed monster made of warring States, but a Nation, sovereign, great, and free.
Blood was water, money was leaves, and life, was only common air until one flag floated over a Republic without a master and without a slave.
And then was asked the question: "Will a free, people tax themselves to pay a Nation's debt?"
The soldiers went home to their waiting wives, to their glad children, and to the girls they loved—they went back-to the fields, the shops, and mines. They had not been demoralized. They had been ennobled. They were as honest in peace as they had been brave in war. Mocking at poverty, laughing at reverses, they made a friend of toil. They said: "We saved the Nation's life, and what is life without honor?" They worked and wrought with all of labor's royal sons that every pledge the Nation gave might be redeemed. And their great leader, having put a shining band of friendship—a girdle of clasped and happy hands—around the globe, comes home and finds that every promise made in war has now the ring and gleam of gold.
There is another question still:—Will all the wounds of war be healed? I answer, Yes. The Southern people must submit,—not to the dictation of the North, but to the Nation's will and to the verdict of mankind. They were wrong, and the time will come when they will say that they are victors who have been vanquished by the right. Freedom conquered them, and freedom will cultivate their fields, educate their children, weave for them the robes of wealth, execute their laws, and fill their land with happy homes.
The soldiers of the Union saved the South as well as the North. They made us a Nation. Their victory made us free and rendered tyranny in every other land as insecure as snow upon volcanoes' lips.
And now let us drink to the volunteers—to those who sleep in unknown, sunken graves, whose names are only in the hearts of those they loved and left—of those who only hear in happy dreams the footsteps of return. Let us drink to those who died where lipless famine mocked at want; to all the maimed whose scars give modesty a tongue; to all who dared and gave to chance the care and keeping of their lives; to all the living and to all the dead,—to Sherman, to Sheridan, and to Grant, the laureled soldier of the world, and last, to Lincoln, whose loving life, like a bow of peace, spans and arches all the clouds of war.