The National tribune., 1901-10-17
vICE.PRESlDENT ROOSEVELT
Paid Fine Tribute to the Grand Army of
the Republic.

Sept. 10, 1901, Vice-President Roose-
welt was at Burlington, VT, and was
present at the meeting of the Vermont
Officers Reunion Society, and made
speech which was applauded 70 the echo.
He said in part:
Il speak to you tonight less as men of
Vermont than as members of the Grand
Army which saved the Union.
1T is difficult to express the full meas
ure of obligation under which this coun-
try is to the men who from '61 to '65
took up the most terrible and vitality
necessary task which has ever fallen to
the lot of any generation of men in the
Western Hemisphere. Other men have
rendered great service to the country, but
the service you rendered was not merely
great-it was incalculable. Other men by
their lives or their deaths have kept I'M
stained our honor, have wrought marvels
for our interest, have led rs forward to
triumph, or warded off disaster from us /;
other men have marshaled our ranks up
ward across the stony slopes of greatness.
But you did more; for you saved us from
humiliation. We can feel proud of what
others did only because of what you did.
It was given to you when the mighty
days come to do the mighty deeds the
days called for, and if your deeds had been
left undone all that had gone before would
UuNt luIUeu INTO dppleS III E1DuDUl
our teeth. The glory of Washington and
the majesty of Marshall would have
crumbled into meaningless dust, if you and
your comrades had not buttressed their
work with your strength of steel, your
courage of fire. The Declaration of In
dependence would now sound like a windy
plattude, the Constitution of the United
States would ring as false as if drawn by
the Able Sieyes in the days of the French
Terror, if your stern valor had not proved
the truth of the one and made good the
promise of the other. In our history there
have been other victorious struggles for
right on the field of battle and in civil
strife. To have lost in these other strug-
giles would have meant bitter shame and
grievOus loss. But you fought in the one
struggle where failure meant death and
destruction to our people; meant that our
whole past history would be crossed out
of the records of successful endeavor with
the red and black lines of failure; meant
that not one man in all this wide country
would now be holding his head upright as
a free citizen of mighty and glorious
Republic.
"Ail this you did, and therefore you
are entitled to the homage of all men
who have not forgotten in their blind
ness either the awful nature of the crisis
or the worth of priceless service rendered
in the hour of direct need.
You met great need, that vanished
because of your success. You have left
us many memories to be priced forever
more. You have taught us many lessons,
and none more important than the lesson
of brotherhood. The realization of the
underlying brotherhood of our people, the
feeling that there should be among them
an essential unity of purpose and SYM
pathy, must be kept close at heart if we
are to do our work well here in our Amer
IR1n Won how tar hnth In
what you did on the tented fields and by
what you have done since in civil life how
this spirit of brotherhood can be made
living, vital force.
''In the civil war, merchant and clerk,
manufacturer and mechanic, farmer and
hired man, capitalist and wageworker, city
man and country man, fastener and
Westerner, went into the army together,
faced toll and risk and hardship side by
side, died with the same fOrtitude, and felt
the same disinterested thrill of triumph
when the victory came. In our modern life
there are only a few occupations where
risk has to be feared, and there are many
occupations where no exhausting labor has
to be faced, and so there are plenty of
us who can be benefited by a little actual
experience with the rough side of things.
1t was a good thing, very good thing,
to have great mass of our people learn
what it was to face death and endure
toll, together, and all on an exact level.
You whom l am now addressing remem-
Der well, do you not, the weary, footsore
marches under the burning sun when the
blankets seemed too heavy to carry, and
then the shivering sleep in the trenches
when the mud froZe after dark and the
blankets seemed altogether too light in
stead of too heavy? You remember the
seanty fare, and you remember above all
how you got to estimate each of your
fellows by what there was in him and
not by anything adventurous in his sur
roundings. 1t was of vital Importance
to you that the men on your left and
your right should do their duty; that
they should come forward when the or
der was to advance; that they should keep
the lines with ceaseless vigilance and fort
itude if Oh the defensive. You neither
knew nor cared what had been their oc-
equations, or whether they were in world
ly ways well off or the reverse. What you
desired to know about them was to be
sure that they would stay put when the
crisis came. Was not this so? You know
it was.
Moreover, all these qualities of fine
heroism and stubborn endurance were dis |
played in spirit of devotion to a lofty
ideal and not for material gain. The ay-
erage man who fought in our armies dur
ing the civil war could have gained much |
more money if he had stayed in civil life. |
When the end came his sole reward was
to feel that the Union had been saved and |
the flag which had been rent in sunder
was once more made whole Nothing was
more noteworthy than the marvellous way
in which, once the war was ended, the |
great armies which had fought it to a |
conclusion disbanded and were |
instantly lost in the current of our civil |
life. The soldier turned at once to the |
task of earning his own livelihood. But |
he carried with him memories of ines |
Unable benefit to himself, and he be-
lueathed to us that come after him the |
priceless heritage of his example. From
the MaJor-General to the private in the
ranks each came back to civil life with the
proud consciousness of duty we'll done,
and all with a feeling of community of |
interest which they could have gained in
40 other way. Each knew what work
was, what danger was. Each came back
with his own power for labor and endu-
'ance strengthened, and yet with his SYM
Dathy for others quickened. From that
lay to this the men who fought in the
great war have inevitably had in them a
spirit to which appeal for any lofty cause
could be made with the confident knowl-
edge that there would be immediate and
Eager response. In the breasts of the men
who saw Appomattox there was no room
'or the growth of the Jealous greedy,
;ullen envy which makes Anarchy, which
has bred the red commune. They had
zone down to the root of things, and knew
low to judge and value each man his