Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1885-10-08
SENATOR PAL LMER.
His Response at the Banquet
of the Army OF the
Cumberland.
The Soldier rs a Schoolmaster Mich.
igan's just Tribute to GEN.
eral Grant.
Below we give in full the remarks of
Senator Palmer OF the Army of the Cum
berland hanouaf in Grand Ranida.

Senator Palmer OF the Army of the Cum
berland banquet in Grand Rapids:
Mr.. CHAIRMAN: My toast is peculiar one.
The committee having the banquet In charge IL
seems had selected sentiments to be responded
ground probably that they knew whereof they
should speak. and they had run out of material
when they got down to me. All OF you gentle
OF toast proposed. had much to do with the
great struggle, the outcome Of which has re-
suited so happily for both sides.
Why the committee did not give mo Cincin-
natus. do not know. unless 1t was because
was more given to turning other peoples swords
into pruning hooks rather than my plow- share
into sword. However, they told me to take
what was left, or In other words to go as
pleased" Grmco-Roman, catch as-catch-can,
or collar and elbow So took The soldier as a
scho0l-master." Some OF you may not recog-
nize its appropriateness, although you must
confess that you have performed one part Of
the role OF the jolly old pedagoRue-you had a
habit OF whipping the boys.
We have been taught by the books that war
was destructive, that schoolmasters We're the
creatures and promoters of peace. We have
been told that the pen was mightier than the
sword, saying which implies that they are two
rival and not congenial forces The cloister and
the camp have been regarded as typifying the
antipodes of human life, and yet the pupil Of
veioped the philosophy Of his master. the man
who gave his whole life to metaphysical study
and dreamy meditation-sad that the men who
fought at Marathon and Salamis were the
Dchoolmasters OF all Greece What he meant Is
matter OF inference, but we may educe from
his surroundings that he wished to impress
upon his peogIe@ @ thst m the more
and more lasting than all the speculations of
the academy; than all the eioquence Of the Agora.
He meant more; be undoubtedly meant that
their example showed that the refinement and
culture of Athens had not enervated her sons
that while other Grecian states had consented
to become tributary to the Persian King, the
men who won these victories knew what inde-
pendenoe and nationality meant and proposed
to maintain them-that the true soldier, the
man who tights for q principle, knowing what
he fights for and why he fights for 1t, is the man
who not only has been trained in the gymna-
| sium but has listened in the schools. He must
also have referred to that spectacle of other
leaders generously giving away their right Of
command that Miltiades might lead them on
| that tateful day.
What Athens achieved after that fight Is q
matter Of history. How Phidias designed-how
! Praxiteles chiseled-how Parrhasius painted
how one man ruled by the force Of his genius,
has given to this period distinctive appellatton
rs the Age OF Pericles."
The men whom Plato called the schoolmasters
of all Greece have become more-they have be-
| come the 5choolmasters of Chrfstendom. The
| bloodshed there has flowed down in a broad
stream for nearly twenty-four hundred years;
has irrigated all lands where education has dug
fought for hisInatIve land. from Brutus down to
/ the volunteer who left the little schoolhouse at
his country's call to fight in the war Of the
It is possible, in the short time which pro-
R1sy wn %s t e St ess ss
way FOR liberty- by graspins nine spear
points to his heart at Anspach; sgd
ney., who passed the cup, of cold water
| to the wounded soldier saying Thy need is
greater than mine;" Hofer shot to death at
Mantua; Hampden who gave.his life for liberty
At 0halsrove; Ney holding Ing single.h2nded % the
the terror Of his name and afterward picking
| MP the babe whom its mother had thrown away
place zee of safety: Nathan bale " who % lanented am G
| that he had but one life to give to his country;
Washington at Valley Forge; Mad Anthony
| Wayne at Stony Point-an these are lessons
| given by the heroes Of the past which educate
not only for war but for the duties of peace.
They illustrate self-sacrifce, self-denial pa
| triotism, piety, daring, loyalty, fidelity, long
suffering, the qualities which more than others
| dignity humanity.
It was these or like instances of noble quail
| limest exhibition of all these traits in the war
/ OF the great rebellion. The majority Of men
are not EDUCATED by books, they arc educated
| by deeds. Not by mental processes alone, but
| by the ideals which the heroes OF all time have
| created. The saying that the blood of martyrs
is the seed OF the church is not more true than
that the blood of patriots is the cement OF the
state. To whom ts this country not dearer now
than 1t was before 100000 men had given their
lives & for Its % %Eedemption2 This appeals to old
have been taught in the last twenty-four years,
and which will be taught as long as men shall
though armies are powerful. Ideas are stii more
80, and that armies are glorious In proportion
to the benefoence Of the ideas which they at
Il viii be told in the future as II has been I'm
the past that not until the firing on the flag was
single PREPARATION made for the gigantic
struggle which followed. and that then men
sprang from every field and every factory to
avenge the insult: that wives sent their hus-
bands, mothers their sons. sisters their BROTH
But why, the child will ask. for the flag? Why
should so many men die because they fired on
the fag2 Then he will be told that the flag
| means something more than the combination
Of beautiful hues which delights his youthful
eyes. 1t means the dignity Of labor, equal
rights, good government, progress for him and
1t means that wherever he may go the flag
will cover him as with a shield. He will
be told that the flag to be powerful for
all these objects must be jealously guarded:
that no insult must even be tolerated without
reparation being demanded and enforced. He
will be told that % this was the reason that two
ness, and death; that for this men. and boys
charged up the glacis at Vicksburg "'mid iron
their lives by thousands at Antietam and Get
tysburg: for this men went TO their death in
tho crater at Petersburg; for this black men
Wagner and Port Hudson; for this Andrews
apd his companions died an igpominious death
at Atlanta; for this thirty thousand men ao-
these?
As men in the far East have worshippod the
sun, not for itself but as representative Of the
power, the law, the bene6cence Of which it was
an emblem, 20 will the child OF the future be
taught as we OF to-day haze been taught what
the nag represents and why It should be venera-
ted. Every battle. every ambush, every SOL
dier's grave. whether In the Government ceine-
teries or hung with garlands at home on
Decoration Day, is an object lesson never to be
forgotten. Every crippled soldier Is a moni-
tor. every poetic phrase, like The March from
Cn tGe Mountain d 70 @ 1ne Sea, kndes ~ the tmsgina
dramatic and fateful procession. The battle
lyric, -Sheridan's Ride" which immortalizes the
horse and adds lanrels 30 the rider, II there
were room for them, when It says;
With foam and with dust the black charger
was gray,
Seemed to the whole. great army to say,
have brought you Sheridan all the way
makes the child wonder il the Centsurss Of old
did not have their origin In scenes like this en-
acted in the Shenandoah Valley on that morn
ing. Every phrase like Logan's at Shiloh, as he
rode fair mark mp and down the lines, Death
boys, but dtshonor never, thrills the boy like
the blast of a trumpet. The band played that
quickens HIS pulse The widow In mourning
for husband or sons tells him that men have
died and women must weep. and all for thai
But But this is not ali, Mr.. Chairman, that th,
soldier of the great rebellion has taught tho
youth Of our land Il was feared by the timic
OF our people that they who had avenged the
insult TO the flag had become demoralized By
the vices Of the camp: that their disbandinl
the ws thoso % a s
10 us, and we never should have known OF theii
coming but for the JOYS at seeing them and tn.
SrousRs us They came ike she sumner n rain' ns
ON our great lakes. which add 10 their volume
but do not detract from their purity: They
knew Vhst the flag represented, respect for Law
and Bro5ordination 70 authority.