Daily Kennebec journal., 1908-11-26

general. but he showed his greatness with
| that touch of originality which we call
| genius. Indeed this quality of brillauce
| has been in one sense a disadvantage to
| his reputation, for it has tended TO over
| shadow his solid ability. We tend to
| think of him only as the dashing cavalry
| leader, whereas he was in reality not
| only that, but also a great comm ander
| OF course. the fact in his career most
| readily recognized was his mastery IN the
| necessarily modern art of handling mass
| es of modern cavalry SO as to give them
! the fullest possible effect, not only in the
| ordinary operations of cavalry which
precede and follow q battle, but in the
| battle itself. But in addition he showed
| in the Civil war that he was first-class
army commander, both as subordinate
| of Grant and when in independent COM
mand. His record in the Valley cam
| paign, and again from Five Forks to
| Appomattox, is one difficult to parallel
| in military history. After the close of
the great war, in q field where there was
scant glory to be won by the general in
| chief. he rendered a signal service which
| has gone almost unnoticed; for in the
| tedious weary Indian wars on the Great
rough going fashion the system of cam
paigning in winter which, at the cost of
bitter hardship and peril finally broke
down the banded strength of those FORM
liable warriors, the horse Indians.
His career was typcally American, for
from plain beginnings he rose to the
highest military position in our land. We
honor his memory itself; and moreover,
as in the case of the other great COM
manders of his day. his career symboizes
the careers of all those men who In the
years Of the nations direst need sprang
to the front to risk everything, including
| life itself, and to spend the days OF their
strongest Young manhood in vaiorous
conflict for an ideal. Often we Ameri-
cans are taunted with having only a ma
| terial ideal The empty folly Of the
| taunt is sufficiently shown by the pres
ence here today of you men of the Grand
| Army, you the comrades of the dead
general the men who served with and un-
| der him. In all history We have no great
| er instance Of subordination of self, of
the exalting of a lofty ideal over merely
material well-being among the people of a
great nation. than was shown by our
people in the Civil war
| And you. the men who Wore the blue,
would be the first to say that this same
| lofty indifference to the things of the bo-
| dy, when compared to the things of the
soul. was shown by your brothers who
wore the gray. Dreadful was the suffering
dreadful the loss, of the Civil war. Yet it
| stands alone among wars in this, that
| now that the wounds are healed, the
| - ,;rl,t -
| formed on one side no less than on the
| other has become the common heritage
of all our people in every quarter OF this
| country. The completeness with which
this is true is shown by what is occurr-
ing here today. We meet together to
| raise q monument to a great Union gen.
| eral, in the presence of many of the sur
vivors of the Union ARMY: and the Sec
retaiy of War, the man at the head of the
| Army. who, by virtue of his office, oc-
| cupies n special relation to the celebra-
| ton. is himself man who fought IN the
| Confederate service. Few indeed have
| been the countries where such con-
| junction would have been possible, and
| blessed indeed are we that in our own be-
| loved land it is not only possible, but
| seems 50 entirely natural as to excite no
| comment whatever
There is another point in General Sheri-
! dams career which it is good for all OF
MS to remember. Whereas Grant, Sher-
man. and Thomas We're of the old native
| american stock, the parents of Sheridan,
| like the parents of Farragut. were horn
| on the other side of the water. Any one
| Of the five was just as much type OF
| the rea! American, of what is best in
| America, as the other four. We should
| keep steadily before our minds the TACT
| that Americanism is a question OF prin-
| ciplc. of purpose, Of idealism. of charac'
| ter: that it is not a matter of birthplace
| or creed, or line of descent. Here In this
| country the representatives of many old
| world races are being fused together in
| to new type, n type the main features
| of which are already determined, and
were determined at the time of the
] Revolutionary war; for the crucible in
| which all the new types are melted into
| one was shaped from 1776 to 17S9 and our
| nationality was definitely fixed in all its
| essentials by the men of WaShinStOn'S
| day. The strains will not continue to
exist separately in this country as IN
| the old world They will be combined in
| one, and of this new type those men
| will hest represent what is loftiest In the
nations past, what is finest in her hope
| for the future, who stand each solely
| on his worth as n man: who scorn TO do
| evil to others, and who refuse to sub-
NIT to wrongdoing themselves; who nave
| in them no tainr of weakness: who never
fear to fight when fighting is demanded
| hy sound and high morality, but who
hope by their lives to bring ever nearer
| the day when justice and peace shall pre-
vail within our own borders and in our
| relations with all foreign powers.
Much of the usefulness of any career
must lie in the impress that it makes
upon. and the lessons that it teaches to.
| the generations that come after. We of
| this generation have our own problems to
| vi of 81