With the example, the experience, the precedents established by these, my predecessors, I enter upon the duties of the office to which I have been elected. And if, at the close of my term, I can surrender to my successor the trusts I now assume, and know that my administration has been marred by as few faults and failures, and distinguished by such a record of duties honestly, faithfully and intelligently discharged, as are the records of my predecessors generally, I shall certainly feel that I “have kept the faith.”
THE GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC.
Speech at the opening of the “Soldiers’ Fair and Festival,” Topeka, January 28, 1885.
“Now abideth Faith, Hope and Charity, these three; but the greatest of these is Charity.”
In no age, and among no other people, have these virtues been so signally illustrated as they have been in our own age and by the people of the United States.
Faith in the Republic, in the grandeur of its power, in the beneficence of its institutions, and in the freedom, humanity and justice of its rule—this sentiment animated and inspired the soldiers of the Union during the long and dreadful years of the late civil war.
The glad picture of a country saved, disenthralled and enfranchised—this was the hope, imprinted on their hearts, that made their long marches less wearisome, that shortened the lonely hours of the night watch, and that nerved their arms amid the smoke of battle.
And the greatest of these virtues has been illustrated, during the two decades since the war, by the quick, unfailing and generous response of the people to every appeal made in behalf of those who thus risked health and life that the Republic might be preserved.
The inspiration that prompts and organizes such a charity as this, in which you, ladies and gentlemen of Topeka, have engaged, is in every sense honorable to the Capital City. Kindly consideration of the needs and sufferings of the poor or unfortunate is always a gracious sentiment. But it is doubly so when it has for its object the relief of men who once periled their lives for their country, and I am honored by the part you have allotted me, to formally open this fair and festival.
In the bustle, rush and interest of personal and public activities, the people sometimes forget how immeasurable is the debt of gratitude the Republic owes to the soldiers. I have, now and then, heard good citizens bewailing the burden of our pension list, and thoughtlessly declaring that Congress was extravagantly generous in the pensions given those who were disabled in the service. It is probably true that in some instances the generosity of the Government has been imposed upon. But would any young man in this assemblage consent to lose an arm for thirteen dollars a month, or a leg for thirty-two dollars a month, or to go through life blind and helpless for seventy-two dollars a month? Measure the sacrifice with the pension, and no true-hearted, right-thinking man or woman will say that the Government has done more than justice to its disabled soldiers.