The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-08-29
ADDRESS TO SOLDIERS,
Speech at the Encampment of the New
Hampshire G.. a. II.

IAE w ElftS, n. H., Aug. &.-Fully thirty
thousand people Joined in welcoming the
President of the United States on his visit
to the encampment of the New Hampshire
G. a. r. here to-day The special train
came in a few minutes after noon. Gov.
c. b. Jordan and Congressman F. =. Cur
rieri who had boarded the train at Concord,
were with the Presidents party. The Man
chester battery signaled the arrival of the
train by the first gun Of a presidential sa-
Lutte. An escort made up of two companies
of the National Guard, together with a
large number of civil war veterans, was
drawn up at the station. The column es-
corted the President to the Hotel Weirs,
from the steps of which the President re-
viewed the parade. After luncheon the
President was escorted to the camp grounds
where the speaking took place. President
Roosevelt was introduced to the veterans,
and when he could make himself heard he
began his address, speaking as follows:
ANY American who has proper sense
of relative proportion of things must real
lie that to the men who fought for the
Union in the dark days of the civil war,
there is owing greater debt of gratitude
than to any others Great were the deeds
you did and vital the need of doins; them.
Many We're the lessons taught the rest OF
u.s. both by what you accomplished in the
war and by the way in which, when the
was was over, your turned to the work OF
peace with the same spirit which had led
you to triumph on tented fields.
During the lifetime Of our Republic each
generation has had it's allotted task States
man and soldier, the man in public life
and the man in private life, each has had
work to do for the Nation. We have moved
forward swiftly or have stumbled or halted,
according as the work as a whole was we'll
or i'll done. We have encountered many
crises of Importance and from time to
time have been brought face to face with
great problems, upon the rightful solu-
ton OF which much of the Nations welfare
depended. To you alone 1t was given TO
face with victorious ValOr the one Crisis In
which not merely the Nations well-being,
but the Nations life at stake. To you
it was given 70 solve the one problem which,
If not solved Alright. meant death for our
people. All of the work of the men who
founded this Republic would have gone for
nothing had you not done your part we'll
SAVED THE UNION.
ut was the craftsmanship of Lincoln, the
soldiership of Grant and the loyal valor of
those who upheld the arms of the one and
followed the sword Of the other which
made permanent the work of Washington.
of Marshall and their cOmpeers. 1t would
have profited little to US or to mankind at
large if the experiment of free government
by the people and for the people had been
founded upon this continent only to go
down in bloody wreck on the question of
| slavery. You saved the Union and you
| freed the slave, and thereby freed the
slaves master from the worst of all thral-
dOms You did US the service of struggling
in a cause for a reward in that war based
upon naught that was merely material.
I'VE pride ourselves, and properly so, on
our great industrial capacity, our great in
dustrial skill and success. We need such
success and such capacity to make broad
and stable the foundations or our national
well-being. Yet there are things higher
| than any possible material triumph. We
won in the great trial of the civil war and
| came through the fiery furnace Unscathed
| We sprang level TO the height Of our OPP
| portunity instead of sinking into the gulf of
| ignoble failure, because in the early sixties
| you and those like youth the flower of
| youth and early manhood-knew how to
/ prize certain ideals more than material
well-being. more than life itself. There
/ was no money reward for what you did
/ There was hardly one Of you who did not
/ during those four years receive far less
| than he could have earned in safety at
/ home. But you were driven to your work
/ by the lash of your own hearts. You were
spurred onward by the lift which only
/ comes to a people of great and generous
| soul. You felt instinctvely that there
had TO do merely with wealth or bodily
| well-being. You were willing TO wager all
for the prize of death in righteous war.
LOFTY IDEALS NECESSARY.
1--WE are now in a time of abundance;
peace, and not a time of But woe to
US If in peace we do not have ideals as
! lofty as yours, and if do not live up TO
them as you lived up TO yours in the dark
days of defeat and in the golden glory of
the hour Of triumph. Courage and loyalty.
| the stern determination to do exact justice.
| the high purpose to struggle for the right
! and the common sense TO struggle for il
| in practical fashiOn-all these qualities we
! must show now in our civil and social and
| business life Us you showed them when, in
| the days of your youth and lusty strength,
I you marched forth army with banners
| and brought back the peace that comes, not
! to the weakling and 10 the craven, but TO
those whose proud eyes tell of triumph
| tasted.
Among the greatest benefits of what
| you did was the fact that you have also
left us the light of hearty and loyal com
| radeship with your gallant opponents, who
| in lighting for what they cOnscienuOusly
deemed 10 be right fought against the stars
/ in their coures. We all loyal Amer
| leans now-North South East and West
| all alike jealous OF the Nations honor and
| welfare proud Of the Nations past and
| resOlute that her future shall stand even
| higher than her past.
| Besides what you actually did. besides
/ the reunited country. the undivided nation
! which we have received at your hands. we
| have received also the lesson of the doing OF
| the deed. There il a great need now that
| We should show. IL not in degree, at least
| In kind, the spirit that you showed. We
/ need in order 10 successfully face the diff
| ficult and complex problems OF our in
dustrial civilization, all the courage and
| LOYALTY and all the faith and clear-sighteC
command.
Above all we need TO learn Alright and
10 supply the great lesson CT brotherhood