The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1865-08-04
ALUMNI DINNER AT HARVARD
UNIVERSITY.
Remarks by Gen. Meade and Ralph
Waldo Emerson at the Cambridge
CommemOratiOn on Friday, July
2l, 1865.
REMARKS BY GENERAL MEADE.

2l, 1865.
REMARKS BY GENERAL MEADE.
MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLE
MEM had hoped that upon this occasion
YOU would permit me to be silent spec
tator. I came here to unite with you in
the honors that you are paying to the
memory of those whose names are in
scribed upon that roll. Many of those
names were familiar to me by somewhat
active participation in the scenes in which
they fell; and I considered it sacred
duty, when I heard that the alumni of
Harvard College were to hold festival in
commemoration of those of their number
who had fallen upon the field of battle and
to welcome those of the living who had
returned to them, l felt it sacred duty to
unite my humble voice in chanting those
praises, and to mingle my tears over the
graves of those who had fallen. l feel
oppressed, standing here before so many
men distinguished for their learning, be.
fore gentlemen who preside over this great
institution, which for centuries has been
known as the foremost on this continent,
and equal to any in the world, and in the
presence of so many of my fair country
women-whose presence, if l may not say
it is embarrassing, l trust they will permit
me to say, it is distraction Laughter and
applausel, for, like true soldier, there is
no shrine at which worship with so much
ardor as at that of beauty and loveliness
Tapplause1-under these circumstances, l
say it is extremely embarrassing to me,
an humble individual, who has never ad-
dressed public assembly, except in few
instances, on such occasions as this, and
that very recently, to undertake to give
expression to my thought, and cannot DO
it as I should be glad to do it.
But when remember the gallant dead,
when think of those who have fallen un-
der my eye-among them two on my i'm
mediate staff, young Dehon and Parker,
who left my side and were stricken down
almost before they had left my sight;
when I think of OtherS-Of Mills and
Wadsworth and the A5botts, who, at the
moment of their death, | mourned as
deeply and sincere as l mourn them now,
and who, though not so near to me as
to some around me here, yet almost as
dear-I am saddened to think how much
you have suffered in this contest. And
then when l look around me and see so
many whose faces have been familiar to
me on fields of conflict, my heart is lifted
up with joy and gratitude to the great Su-
preme, the Ruler of the Universe, who has
brought back SO many of your brothers
and sons, that you might give them this
great and glorious welcome. 1t is hardly
possible for me to add anything to what
has been said to-day, both in the church
and here 1t seems to me that the histe-
ry of Massachusetts, and of her soldiers
and a great and glorious history it is-has
been well put bOfore you. Still, as the
leader of the army of the Potomac, it may
be agreeable to you to hear, that my per-
soral testimony is, that no troops in the
field in this great war that has been waged
for human liberty and for the preservation
of the noblest institutions the world has
ever seen, have exceeded in gallantry, in
fidelity to the cause, and in the sacrifices
they have made, the troops of Massachu-
setts. Grrolonged applause | am glad
that T have this opportunity to make
known that fact to You.
With these few remarks, thanking you,
sir, tor the kind manner in which you have
been pleased to speak of me, and begging
you to excuse me when frankly say that
feel that more has been said than l de-
serve. and that / cannot claim these high
honors that have been Conferred upon me.
Thanking you all, / beg you to believe
that shall, to the end of my days, pre-
serve the most grateful recollection of all
those / have met here. Loud applause.
Remarks of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Me-. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN: With
whstever opinions we come here, think it
is not in man to see, without feeling Of
pride and pleasure, tried soldier-the
armed defender of the right. l think that,
in these last years, all opinions have been
affected by the magnificent and stupendous
spectacle which Divine Providence has
offered US of the energies that slept in the
children of this country-that slept, and
have awakened. l see thankfully those
who are here; but dim eyes in vain ex-
plore for some who are not. They shine
the brighter "in the domain of tender
memory" The old Greek, Heraclitus,
said, "War is the father of all things"
He said it, no doubt, as science; but we
of this day can repeat it as political and
social truth. War passes the power of all
chemical solvents, breaking up the old CO.
hesions, and allowing the atoms of society
to take a new order. Its not the govern
ment but the war that has appointed the
great Generals, sifted out the pedants, put
in the new and vigorous blood. TGrest
applause The war has lifted many other
y