New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1879-11-26
CITIZEN SOLDIERS.
1poech Of Hon. Emory A. StOrrs At the
Veterans Reception to General
Grant, in Chicago.

<Poech of Hon. Emory 4. Storrs ut the
Veterans Reception to General
Grant, in Chicago.
During the late visit of ex-President
Grant to Chicago, he was given a re-
ception by the Veterans. At this re-
ception Mr.. Emory A. Storrs delivered
the following address:
If there are any ladies or gentlemen present
in this vast audience who, during the war, re-
manned at home, 1 want their sympathy. l
wish to address them as my fellow-comrades
It makes one feel deliberately and unanimous
y lonesome to sit up here among soldiers.
sympat hize with those who protected their
families, as did, at my fireside. And General
Grant and General Logan, having told you
what they knew about peace, would like to
tell you what know about war;
You will discover before get through that
have some pretty solid notions on that sub
ut things in lawyer-like way; but it never
Tor an instant occarred to me that you could
wage campaign by Chittys tactics. 1 never
tactics. 1 supposed that battles were to be
fought in a military way, and not in a legal
way. had no more idea that law-books could
that you could determine the question of flu
ture state by sct nee, the style of fertilizer
by theology. always thought that war meant
something.
never believed in conservative battle.
never sympathized with that great constitu-
tiOnal General, whose name | need not men,
ton, who, when he fired his guns, fired them
with bullet that went slow, so that there
could be chance for capitulation before they
reached their destination. His idea of bat
tle seemed to be something that was SO quiet
ly conducted that it would not result i'll a
breach of the peace, nor disturb the quiet of
the neighborhood In which the battle oc-
cured.
Inever believed in that kind of warfare. I
thought-and now am addressing the military
branch of the audience, my fellow-citizens-
I thought that there was behind our armies n
splendent cause. thought you fought for it,
l thought it was that cause which armed every
man, which took every soldier into the field.
thought you not only fought for that cause, but
against cause; and considered, in my SOL
dierly way of looking at things that q surren-
der of your adversary which involved merely
of the situation, without q surrender of the
cause for which he fought, was q gigantic and
stuPendous mockery; Was not right about
emotional, and while am not blood-thirsty on
these great topics of Government, am not
sentimental. believe that the capitulation Of
the capitalization Of their armies. I believe that
at AppomattOx Courthouse they laid down
the doctrine Of State-rights and we took it
up; that they laid down this Internal doctrine
of secession, and we took it up and pulver-
lied 1t: that they surrendered human slavery
and we took it, and say that man is a funk
VINO Will give any OF them DaCk.
am not bloOdthirsty, but mean business.
don want to see another war. And the exact
way to see it is to cOnciliate an adversary
whom you have defeated, by giving back 10
him the fruits of the victories you have
achieved.
lam talking to plain rational people, like
some plain, sensible Illustrations. Suppose
that couple of men were fighting about the
possession Of farm. Such things have oc-
Cured. Suppose that they fought with guns,
as you fought, and the man originally in pos.
session was beaten. When he was vanquished
he said: II accept the situation l lay down
my arms. Is there anything more you can
ask. l desire to be cOnciliated." The other
the farm; what want is the farm?'' Isn't
that exactly our position? We want what we
established-the doctrine of National instead
of State sovereignty. We extirpated human
public. Didn't we do it? We declared that
there was Il centralized power which we call a
Nation, and by the Fourteenth Constitutional
Amendment we made everybody beneath the
splendid declaration that any Government
ever made, since the world was made.
we made some promises to our fel-
!ow-citizcns In those amendments, and this
Is the serious question addressed to-day. and
which will be addressed for the years to come,
to every citizen: Shall the Nation that has
power to make promise have power to per.
form its engagement? Isay it shall. And the
to these battle-scarred veterans that It would
be an elegant thing If somebody should come
and c0ncilate them! Has anybody. In this
gush Of sentiment that has peryaded ana d.
luted our politics, ever proposed to eOnciliata
you? We went through the War to recon.
5trnction, and gathered into our Constitution
the fruits of these great vfctories-solid, sub.
stantial ideas: The first business and duty of
bcnevolence comes after all that duty IL per
formed. 49,