Morning journal and courier., 1881-10-08

or the nearest and dearest family relations, his comradeship feeling exceeds any one in he human economy.
 Our club although called the Army and Navy club, is really more cosmopolitan than he army military societies. They have mem- ,ers from one army only. Our association ,as representatives from all of the armies hat fought in the war. We do not even ask hat they shall have belonged to Connecticut l All we ask is that, no matter | where or in what capacity they served, or rom what State they came if they served in | regiments not of this State, they shall have | lone themselves the honor to have taken up | 3 residence in Connecticut since the war. | Applause |
 'eWhen Johnny comes Marching Home" was sung by the club.
 THE STRUGGLE FOR THE 4UNIoN-Response by Major B.. P. Learned 11st H. A.) of Nor wich sz.s .se
 Mr. President and Gentlemen :-
 When corps of teachers is to be selected, due regard must be had to their fitness to in- struct in the branches of science or letters assigned to them. The professors of astron- omy and geology should have worldwide fame, won by great scientific attainment, the professors of Greek, Latin and belle-letters should be men of equal mark for scholarly in the great world of literature but when it comes to selecting teacher for the rudimentary branches, one fit to impart first principles, the alphabet, or the s'three R's :" then a person of much less distinction will do, provided he is thoroughly imbued with these principles and he loves his work. For this reason, MT. President, suppose, I was selected to reply to this sentiment, ''the struggle for the Union ;' for where, tell me. can you find any reason for our being here to- reason for our being at all "Ths Army and Navy club of Connecticut,' D more fundamental, more clearly standing as cause to our existence as it's effect, than the ''strug- gle for the Union ?" Would anything else have brought us into the army and navy, most of us in early manhood, with our voca- tions in life already chosen and entered up- on? Whose voice. comrades, but that of our mother in her bitter struggle for life, calling every true son to hasten and help her, would have drawn you from home and family and occupation, and kept you for four years from them all?. (Applause.) Surely then this and none other was the cause of our be- coming soldiers and our vital principle while we were soldiers.
 I cannot rehearse the story of the struggle; you all know it as well as I. Connecticut's part was well done; she poured out her rich est blood in it. may not dwell on names, that were needless and invidious. The whole record belongs to us all alike, from the high est grade in the service to the lowest, and two years ago we gathered up it's worn and tattered volumes and placed them carefully in our State library at Hartford. There is the record-from Bull Run to Appomattox court house-from Hampton Roads to Mo bile Bay-0ur part in the struggle for the Union. Go to those flag and read it. (Applause.) May drop for the moment the gravity of my subject and ask those of you who were connected with any branch of the adjutant's department to remember those more personal, frantic struggles for the Union Gas one might call them), when fight ipcy yxuoC C1ao1x and xuinfar dnIT and the applications for leaves and furloughs be- gan to pour in. Didn't it seem as if the whole marriageable portion of the command was seized with simultaneous desire to go home and consummate the unions on which their hearts had so long been set Struggles for Union indeed were those-only the ob- jective point was to establish @ union, not to preserve one. Daughter
 Sixteen years ago the armed struggle for the Union ended triumphantly, ended with the defeat of that claim of secession which drove us to the sword as last appeal; how the conflict has been kept up with tongue and pen let the political history of these re- cent years show. Our ranks are daily thin ming and no new blood be infused into our organization; soon the Army and Navy club will be 8 thing of the past. But our duty, comrades remains to see to 1t while we live, and to the remotest generation where our influence can extend, that our trumpet may give uO uuC0IGdlu SOuuu Ou this great matter, that our first principle frst-last-fundament and all embracing, may never be forgotten, never modified, stated once for all by our greatest New Eng land orator, EsLiberty and Union, now and forever one and inseparable." Great Ap- plause.)
 THE ARMY-In the absence of Major Bur- bank, U. S. A, Colonel H. B. Sprague ref sponded. His address was specially fit ting, scholarly and opened with n hap py shot at Captain John c. Kinney, of the Hartford CourGnt, in self defence. The errors, heresies and prejudices and false principles sown consistently in schools, col leges pulpits, in newspapers, in the forum, at the hustings, in the halls of Congress, ,- all these, which paved the way for the rebel lion, were referred to,-a crop of dragons teeth sown which bred such mischief. The future when the sword and spear and armor would be cast aside, was yet in the distance. There was work to do moral influences must work. We were not clear from the dangers of influence and corruption. America's fu- ture was pictured in 8 fine strain of elo- quence. The day was coming when ''the white banner of peace should float over every Iand.''
 THE NAvY-Response by Sherman w. Adams, Esq, of Hartford.
 Mir. President and Gentlemen of the Army and Navy club:
 Were it not that the number of those present from the navy branch of this organ szation is go small, I should wonder that have been chosen to respond to the toast which has just been proposed. Be assured, sir, that consider the honor to be great one, under any circumstances, and would that I could do justice to the theme and the occasion.
 To me, sir, it is a melancholy fact that in 8 gathering of this kind it would be almost i'm possible to find any two persons from the volunteer navy who had ever met each other in the course of the war during which they had served. You, gentlemen of the volun- teer army, expect to find on similar occasions some old army aequaintances perhaps even some comrade in battle, or brother officers. But no such pleasure is in store for the for mer man of-war's man, officer or enlisted man who partici pates in these social scenes. Companies, battalions and even regiments are often formed in some single municipal district, so that former friends and acquaint- ances are kept near each other, both during and after their term of service but the crew of vessel of war is an aggregation of indi- viduals hailing from all parts of the globe.
 I suppose it to be true that, in the actual casualties of battle, larger, much larger pro- portion of lives was lost in the army during the late war than in the navy. Opportunities for sea fights, especially for hand-to-hand conflicts upon the decks of belligerent vessels, were quite rare; although our armed fleets and single cruisers were constantly on the alert, ready and eager to engage in close com- bat with the enemy. Indeed, the excitement of the chase and capture of some British steamer, carrying contraband-by such of our war vessels as were doing police and blockade duty-was relief from monoton- ous service; such relief in fact as could be excelled only by an order to begin the attack upon an armed foe
 But, unfortunately, shot and shell, the rife and revolver. boarding pike and cutlass, were not the only dangers our sailors had to en- counter. More than these, more than the battery masked behind the river's bank or bluff, were the dangers to be apprehended from submarine batteries, the lurking tor pedo, the explosion of which under the ves- sells keel would send it's crew to eternity in an instant. Hardly less sudden and disas- trous might be the result of the tremendous thrust and shock of the iron ram, when launched against the wooden and vulnerable side of the vessel of Hwar. Fire-rafts were used to endanger and annoy false lights were so placed as to mlslead the true lights, the beacons and buoys were removed ob- stacles to navigation were sunk in tortuous channels; every means and artifice known