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military leaders, or from the intolerable burdens and corruptions that follow vast expenditures, or that are generated and grow and fatten while the reign of law is relaxed. It is to us a matter of the most profound satisfaction that our countrymen exhibit no signs of that infatuation that sometimes follows great success; that they manifest no disposition to imitate the example of some other peoples by allowing military merit more than its just influence. They know, as we do, that, as soldiers, we did our duty, and did nothing more; and they know that, in a Government like ours, no class of citizens. can be allowed to claim for itself any privileges or honors on the score of services done to the Republic.

My comrades, we were citizens of a free and powerful Republic that was happy under wise and equal laws; it was threatened by those who desired its overthrow that they might make its great and only crime eternal. We became soldiers, and encountered death on the battle-field, and in pestilential camps and on weary marches, not to win honors or privileges. for ourselves, but to maintain liberty and equal rights for all. By the blessings of that Divine Being that guided us through dangers, seen and unseen, while so many of the noble and the brave perished, we have won the right to be again called the free citizens of a free Republic. We have secured an inheritance of liberty and protection for those little ones whose gentle faces would steal into our presence while we sat by the solitary camp-fire on distant fields, or who would come to us in our dreams and nestle in our arms and whisper to us words of hope and encouragement, and our grateful country has conferred upon us the only title of honor a free government can or ought to bestow, or that free citizens can accept, that of "citizens who, having done their duty, deserve well of the Republic." It has founded homes for our destitute comrades; it has pensioned our disabled, and has cared for the orphans

of our slain; and if I had not said enough to excite our gratitude or justify our pride, mark the magnanimity of the restored Republic to the citizens whose unpatriotic passions inflicted upon the whole country so much suffering, so many woes. They erred sadly—yes, wickedly; for they took up arms not only to destroy us but themselves; but they have suffered terribly. Who can control a feeling of pity when he contemplates the condition of these brave but misguided men at the close of the war, who had struggled so long and so gallantly, even in the bad cause of their country's overthrow? They had fought their last battle; they had seen the last thin lines melt and disappear, leaving them all alone, and then all hope perished. They laid down their arms, and, clad in the thin-worn uniform that we had hated but they had worshiped, they depart on their weary way alone to seek desolated homes, if any homes remain to them after the land had been torn by the hoof-prints of war. I pause; I have said enough. Who is it that has a soldier's heart and knows what a soldier may suffer, that would not reach forth his hand to help them, and, as they disappear in the dim distance, drop a tear of sympathy with their sorrows?

We may then forgive all. And now that our work is done, and this broad land lies before us, inviting us to engage in all the pursuits of its profitable industries, with a country free, and its flag honored everywhere, who will say that the patriotic, faithful soldier has not his rich reward? And we,

my comrades, will assemble from year to year in our hospitable cities, and grasp the friendly hands that will be offered us, and that will be none the less dear that they will be withered; and when our locks are whitened and our steps become unsteady, we will then talk over our battles and shoulder our crutches and show how fields were won.

In Memoriam

GEORGE HENRY THOMAS

Born

July 31, 1816

Died

March 28, 1870

Aged

53 years, 7 months, 28 days

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