This is the spot of earth supremely blest—
A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest.”
AMERICAN SOLDIERS.
Address of welcome, delivered at the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Reunion, Topeka, Kansas, September 29, 1885.
Commander Stewart, Comrades of the Grand Army, and Soldiers of the Union: To me has been assigned the delightful duty of welcoming to the Capital this great multitude of patriot heroes. Yet it seems to me that words of welcome are unnecessary. There is no town or city within the boundaries of Kansas where the soldiers of the Union would not be greeted as friends or comrades, and honored as guests; and I know that the loyal people of the Capital, one and all, will welcome you with a hand-clasp far more eloquent than speech.
They will welcome you as men who brought from the gloom of the past the lights of the present and the hopes of the future. They will welcome you as soldiers who rescued the Republic from anarchy; as heroes who brought Union, Liberty and Peace out of the smoke and flames of civil war. They will welcome you as fellow-citizens whose energy, enterprise and industry are building up, here in the heart of the Continent, the greatest and most prosperous State in the Union. One and all, they will welcome and salute you.
You are survivors of the greatest war the world has ever known. You were prominent actors in the grandest epoch of history. You fought for the noblest cause that ever warmed the hearts and nerved the arms of heroes. You have lived to witness the grandeur of your triumph, and the growth and prosperity it has brought in its train. You are here to meet old comrades; to revive recollections of scenes and events that should never be forgotten; to sing the old songs; to touch elbows again in the steadily dwindling line that once reached from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic. And I am glad and proud to say to you: “All hail! and welcome, thrice welcome, to the Capital!”
I know that dyspeptic, envious and small-souled people regard the fact that soldiers’ reunions are steadily increasing in interest, with ill-concealed distrust. Some years ago, following a meeting similar to this, a gentleman said to me: “The boys have had a pleasant time, no doubt. But of what practical benefit are these great gatherings of soldiers? They keep alive, it seems to me, recollections of a period of strife and bloodshed, and what good does that do?”
I replied: “My friend, did you ever object to the celebration of the Fourth of July? That keeps alive memories of a period of strife and bloodshed. Yet we have been celebrating the ‘Glorious Fourth’ for over a hundred years, and nobody has ever objected that it did no good to celebrate it.”
Similar objections are sometimes made to the “Grand Army of the Republic.” It is said that such an organization not only keeps alive the memories of the war, but perpetuates the feelings and prejudices of a period when the land was aflame with passion; and that there is something of egotism in these associations and assemblages of men to celebrate events in which they were actors.