The Portland daily press., 1888-02-11

that In that improved machinery there is
mind and thought There is something that
propels, and divests and controls 1T that
makes one believe that there is not only
mechanism but brain behind it. Now
these are the improvements of this age IN
which we live One of the most important
events in the history of our government
which our fathers had established was tne
emancipation proclamation OF Abraham
Lincoln. Our country Is larger, thlnk
twice as large as all of Europe, and has
population of sixty million OF teemlng men
and women, with an advancement ana an
elevation in everything that advances the
very best interests of man and society,
marching forward and upward IN the man
ner in which we have seen. rms Is our
country and may we not be proud OF 1t, and
Justly so? We are to-day the most powerful
nation upon the globe on which we live.
But | am running past my time, but
word Iabout our dear flag that we love so
well. a history of it, and of its origin would
consume hours of time, but trace 1t rapidly
from the first time it ever floated upon, the
ship Of John Paul Jones in this famous bat
tie with the English ship, through
! the war of the revolution, through
the war of 1872, through the wal, of
aggression when 1t was borne in triumph to
float from the halls of the Montezumas in the
City of Mexico. Aye, and when it passed
through that last crucial trial of the late re-
bellion and out of which we came SO well.
1t isa noble flag. love it and so do we all.
1t is, in its simplest construction, the most
beautiful flag that floats to the breeze npon
the earth.
a word more and l close. We must not
forget the gallant and the heroic dead. This
common country of ours today is ours by
their achievements. Cherish their memories,
initiate their patriotism and teach 1t to our
children and to our children's childrens, and
may that lesson never die. Why, can see
them now, as they look down upon us from
where they tread their solitary heats in their
eternal camping ground. can hear voice,
gentle, but potent to my ear, which COM
mands me to cherish their memory, to. re-
member their achievements as they would
have done by us had God. in. his providence,
changed our relative positions.
COMMANDER REA's RESPONSE.
The toast "The Grand Army of the Repub-
lic-the true soldier, modest, brave and gen.
erous, is the highest type of manhood" was
responded to by Commander Rea, who was
warmly received and spoke substantially as
follows:
Mr.. POSTMASTER, Comrades Of the Depart
ment Of Maine and Ladies and Gentlemen:
During the past few weeks l have had oc-
casion to congratulate the Grand Army of
the Republic in the State of Pennsylvania
Independence Hail. Yesterday it was my
privilege to congratulate the comrades Of
Massachusetts that they could meet in old
Faneuil Hall. Next week 1 expect to be
able to congratulate the comrades of Illinois
that they meet within sight of the grave
which contains the mortal remains of the
grandest man that God ever raised upon the
earth, and l want, tonight, TO congratulate
you that when you meet in your encampment
that you have for your c0mrade the grandest
American living upon this continent today !;
the counsellor OF that grand man, Lincoln,
upon the earth in the grandest
period of the earth's history.
But am to talk to you of the Grand Army
Of the Republic. We have an Illustration of
it here. The comrade of whom l speak, and
the private soldier that went out from the
humblest home i'll Maine, meet in this grand
fraternity OF ours upon perfect equality. The
Grand Army of the Republic, comrades,
numbers 100000, aud each one of the four
hundred thousand carries in his pocket
noble discharge from the Union army, the
only true patent of nobility that the century
has seen. That four hundred thousand men
represent all races the lrishman, sthe Ger
man, the Scandinavian, the American born
and the black man, all meet inside this or
ganization as brothers. But not only that;
it represents all religions; the Roman Cath
Ollie, the Congregationalist, the Presbyteri-
an, the Methodist and the Baptist, and not
Onl1 tudt, Dub ~ oioO ACplCoCnbo Oil
political parties, and is one great,
grand brotherhood Why are they united
together? You will remember that twenty
seven years ago, when the sky above the ma
tion grew. dark, when the mighty storm
broke forth with all the Dent up passion of
half century, when the mighty struggle
came on; when that old banner was torn
down from the capitol of loyal state of
this Union; when man rose in the Parlia-
ment in England, and gloried and congratu-
lafo bic nfrvr nd his ao,1nc hot
the bubble of free government was about to
burst forever in the land over the sea, you
went out from your homes in the pine for
ests of Maine, from the White Mountains
and down in the valleys. OF Pennsylvania
and New York. and from the prairies of the
West, and you took that old banner and re-
placed it over the smOuldering ruins of
Sumter, and bore it in triumph for four years
over the crimson pillows of thousand bat
tlefeIds, engraving it with the names of
the proudest victories ever won. You plant
ed it where it waves today over sixty mill
lions of men and women, and not over a
slave. They meet here around the altar
! raised by our fathers and consecrated by
you; they meet here in the great brother
hood of freedom.
This great extent of territory, stretching
from your rockbound coast to the Pacific is
one great plain of happy American homes.
The sixty-fye millions of people who live
there represent all races, all nationalities, and
all civilizations. Through the impetus that
you gave to the progress of the age since the
new idea that you stamped upon the age has
been made patent in this land under the
leverage of what you did, and your COM
rades, fighting under that flag on these thou
sands of battle6elds, that great level plain
has been raised up so that it is higher today
than the mountain peaks Of the favored few
a century ago.
rand Army Why does this organization
exist, and why exists this feeling Of frater-
nifty and fraternal love among us? You re
member the time ] spoke of moment ago,
when the old flag was torn down. Do you
not remember when the boys came out and
enlisted to fight upon the land and upon the
sea, and the men who followed Farragut
upon the sea as bravely and CALAMITY as men
ever followed Grant, and Sherman, and Nc
Clellan, and Hancock and Logan upon the
land? While upon the land was carried the
old banner and while you were staoding and
defending it upon the heights of Gettysburg.
and down the Wilderness, they down in the
Mississippi and in Tennessee upon the Grim
ing decks of the ship where guard
your flag upon the sea. Why are
we brothers? 1t is not because we come into
the post room and go before the altar and
take the little oath of our order. The men,
bers of the Grand Army of the Republic do
not take the feeling of Brotherhood that
binds them together from that. We are
brothers because we touched elbows; some
of us are brothers because we stood with old
Pat Thomas at Chickamauga that Sunday
afternoon and beat back an army flushed
with victory, and fought there under that
grand old Virginian until more than half
our brothers lay dead and dying around us.
We are brothers, because on the heights of
Gettysburg we stood and fought till over
twenty thousand men wearing the blue lay
dead and dying We are brothers, because
we followed Grant, that grand old soldier;
man that grew up above the level of the ar
my, who commenced down as a colonel of a
regiment and went forward, drawing the
nourshment and inspiration that made him
the first soldier of the century from the
hearts of the men whom he commanded.
We are brothers, because we followed him
through the Wilderness. We became broth
ers, because in those years we became the
incarnation of the grandest political idea
that ever rose upon the earth. You
know, comrades, that it has been the fate
Of the world OF humanity, in all ages that
no great progressive movement could be
made, that no idea could become crystalized
into law or stamped on human institutions,
until it had first become incarnate in the
bosoms of men; until it had inspired them
to deeds of heroism until, under the intiu-
ence Of that inspiration, they had borne 1t to
triumph ON the swelling, seething waves of
victory. 1t must first become the battle-cry
of victorious armies, as the idea that was
proclaimed by Lincoln, declaring that within
the limits of this land and under that flag no