The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1879-01-15
PRESIDENT GRANTS SPEECH.
The Speech TO which the Corkonians took
Exception and Hence Released
the General a Reeep-
tion Last
Week.

- H g.
At the meeting Of the Society of the
Army of the Tennessee, held at Des
Moines, Iowa, Sept. 30, 1875, President
Grant spoke as follows:
CoMRADEs-It always affords me
much qualification to meet my old COM
rades in arms of 10 to IA years ago, and
to live over again in memory the trials
and hardships of those days, hardships
imposed for the preservation and per-
petuation of our free institutions. We
believed then and we believe now that
we had a government worth fighting
for and, If need be, dying for. How ma
ny of our comrades of those days paid
the latter price for our preserved union.
Let their heroism and sacrifices be ever
green in u memory. Let not the re-
suits of their sacrifices be destroyed.
The union and the free institutions for
which they fell should be held more
dear for their sacrifices. We will not
deny to any of those who fought
against us any privileges under the gov
eminent which we claim for ourselves.
On the contrary, we welcome all such
to come forward in good faith to help
build up the waste places, and to per-
petuate our institutions against all enc
mics, as brothers in full interest with
us in a common heritage. But we are
not prepared to apologize for the part
We took in the war. 1t is to be hoped
that like trials will never again befall
our country. In this sentiment no class
of people can more heartily Join than
the soldier who submitted to the dan
gers, trials and h~ardships of the camp
and the battle field, on which ever side
he may have fought. No class of peo-
pie are more interested in guarding
against a recurrence Of those days. Let
us then begin by guarding against every
enemy threatening the perpetuity Of
free republican institutions. / do not
bring into this ~assemblage politics, GER
tainly not partisan politics, but it is a
fair subject for soldiers in their deliber-
atoms to consider what may be necessa-
ry to secure the prize for which they
battled. In a republic like ours, where
the citizen is the sovereign and the
official the servant, where no power is
exercised except by the will of the peo-
pie, it is important that the sovereign
the people-should possess intelli-
gence. The free school is the promoter
Of that intelligence which is to preserve
us as q free nation. If we are to have
another contest in the near future of
our national existence, l predict that
the dividing line will not be Mason and
Dixon's, but between patriotism and
intelligence on the one side, and SUI
perstition, ambition and ignorance on
the other. Now in this centennial
year of our national existence, 1 believe
it a good time to begin the work
of strengthening the foundation of the
house commenced by ~ patriotic fore
fathers one hundred years ago at Con-
cord and Lexington. Let us all labor
o add all needful guarantees for the
more perfect security of free thought,
free speech and free press, pure morals,
unfettered religious sentiments and of
equal rights and privileges to all men,
irrespective of nationality, color OIL reli-
gion. Encourage free schools and re-
solve that not one dollar of money ap-
propriated to their support, no matter
how raised, shall be appropriated to
the support of any sectarian school
Resolve that neither the state or nation,
or both combined, shall support institu-
tions of learning other than those suf-
ficient to afford to every child growing
up in the land the opportunity of Il
good, common school education, un-
mixed with sectarian, pagan, or atheis-
teal tenets. Leave the matter of reli-
gion to the family altar, the church,
and the private school, supported en-
tirely by private contributions. Keep
the church and state forever separate.
With these safeguards 1 believe the
battles which created 1.-THE Army of
the TENNESSEE" will not have been
fought in vain.