Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-12-20

and scattered tribes, alone tell of their former,
| and now almost forgotten greatness.
A new race OF men has succeeded them.
| Upon their ruins has risen this great Republic
Their history, together with the history of the
| ancient governments OF Europe and Asia
teaches us that their fate may yet be ours
Distant far distant, De that day But should
it come; should the time come when the sun
OF freedom that now shines so brightly in our
political armament, obscured by the murky
clouds of anarchy and confusion, shall set in
everlasting night; and where now is this glori-
Gus Constitution, where now is this glorious
Confederacy; where now is this national sub
stantial freedom, shall remain only their
phantom semblance, or shattered fra gments
depend upon it. Mr.. President, that history will
| note the fact hat the men~of Amoskeag were
found in solid phalanx. and with banners hy-
ing, doing noble battle for the law, the Consti
tution and the Union. Permit me, Mr. Presi-
dent, TO introduce to you the Amoskeag Vete-
rams, corps of troops of which glory in be-
ing the commander.
The Presidents Speech.
The President replied, in substance, as
follows:
COLONEL: recognise in your corps mem
those VINO have been the constant and cherished
friends of my mature years, and, notwithstand-
ing the martial equipment and bearing of your
fine battalion, | am inclined to greet you and
them rather as citizens than as soldiers, aud
rather as personal friends than either. Your
presence and your words fill my mind and
heart with thoughts and sentiments of home
Dear old county of Hllsboroughl She has
always been full of good men and good deeds /!
Her broken, rugged terrtory-her true, steady,
intelligent population-how familiar to me
were they all for twenty years of my life The
leaping streams and the mountain scenery, SO
well known to my childhood, and SO attractive
still, are there yet, and will be when return to
New Hampshire to pass the decline of life in
your midst, as | hope in the Providence of God
to do, not without some degree of usefulness,
but the fathers and mothers of that earlier
period are there no longer. 1t is sad to know
that the venerable men of the revolution, whom
we we're all accustomed to meet with such re-
speedway l not say affectionate reverence
have passed away, and with them the larger
portion Of those who served in the war of 1872
| remember that so late as the year 1924 four
teen men who fought at Bunker Hill lived in the
town OF my birth, and on one occasion, at least
were all assembled around my fathers table,
but now suppose not single individual in
| the county who participated in the battles of
| the rev olution still survives.
These men gave to the popular heart a tone
which has descended to you, and how far your
presence here to-day, in this graceful and hon
ored uniform, is the result Of their unseen but
potent influence no man may say think,
however, that members of your battalion before
me, who served in the war Of 1912, will tell
1 you that, when you were forming this orpani-
cation, they were reminded of companies called
"the alarm lists, which assembled and drilled
in many parts OF New Hampshire durHg that
war, and which were made up of men who bore
the scars of the revolution.
Ii is proud reflection to me, and am sure
/ 1t is to you that you are from a county which
was never found wanting when her sons we're
called to meet foreign foe. You pursue your
daily avocations within sight of the shaft which
rises over the dust of the stern, strong soldier
who, at Bennington, announced in advance
victory for the colonists or widowhood for
Molly Stark, and you have shown that you are
not insensible to the power of elevated associa-
ton. You honor, by your organization, the
memory of the gallant men who have served
and honored not only our native country and
our native State, but the whole country.
l welcome you as type OF that citizen
soldiery which constitutes the military strength
of the republic, manifested in every stage Of
its history. You are the fit representatives and
the successors of the class of men who won our
independence by the first war, who assured il
| by the second, and who have more recently
conducted a successful war in foreign country,
remote from home resources.
| The United States have never bad LARGE
standing army, nor large permanent military
marine. Is the republic, therefore, feeble in a
military sense? Far from i'll The fact that
we are not burdened by taxes for the support
Of an immense army and a vast navy, and that
our fixed and ordinary force is apparently
small, will add immensely to our strength when
the hour to try it shall come. In periods of
public tranquility, the strong hands and bold
| hearts of the nation are not withdrawn from
the cultivation Of the arts Of peace to become
burden on the revenues Of the country and
q constant source of peril to its institutions.
They are engaged in the many useful pursuits
OF life--in agriculture, in commerce. in the
learned professions, in retaining this cont.
nent Of ours to cultivation, to civilization, to
freedom and thereby carrying the flag and the
fame Of the Union TO every sea and every cline.
| IL is nevertheless true that our citizens.
although peace-oving, and pursuing peaceful
pursuits are, as It we're, "born to arms" and
to the spirit of sefreliant courage, which
teaches their exercise, and of patriotism, which
animates their use in the cause of the country.
Hence IL was, as you have suggested, that in
the war of l776, at Bunker HILL at Benninp.
ton, at Monmouth, at Saratoga, at York
town, or at Kings Mountain, there never
ceased to flock citizen soldiers to repel
invasion that in the war Of 1912, whether at
the river Thames, or at New Orleans, in the
North or in the South, determined and effec-
| tive armies we're never wanting TO the Union;
that in the war Of 1876, the farmer, the mer-
chant the mechanic, the lawyer, the physi-
clan, the statesman, emulously rushed TO the
field, at the public CALL in such numbers that
the question with my friend near me, then
Secretary Of War, Gov. Marcy,) was not
whence he should derive soldiers, but whom of
the two hundred thousand Of eager and en-
rolled volunteers should be accepted; and
hence Il was that the citizen soldiers, in con.