by the Hon. WILLIAM McKAY
Comrades and welcome Guests:
It has been the custom of veterans of the war with Mexico to celebrate the fall of the capital of that Republic before the prowess of American soldiers on the 14th day of September, 1847.
Hence are assembled around this festive board in this magnificent Hotel Continental the few veterans of that war whose far-wandering footsteps have brought them to the “elbow-touch” once more on a foreign soil. We meet to-night in this splendid capital of France, yet with the radiant folds of our country’s flag above us, that flag honored of the nations:
“For grace and beauty and order draw
Around that symbol of light and law.”
In thus assembling, we commune in the sacrament of a common memory with our comrades across the seas, who on all their homestead hills are celebrating the same glorious event. With them we exult in the proud consciousness that by doing our duty as American soldiers in the days of our youth, we not only gave renewed lustre to the martial annals of our country, but through the triumph of our arms we added greatly to the sum of human happiness, by widening the area of the world’s civilization.
The occasion permits me to glance but briefly at the events of that war which to some are still vivid memories, while others must either glean them from the historic page or hear them recited by the men who then acted history.
That war had its origin in the invasion of the soil of the United States by the Army of Mexico.
On January 10th, 1845, the Congress of the United States passed an Act providing for the annexation of Texas.