Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1909-07-10
TAFT LAUDS G. A. R.
PRINCIPAL SPEAKER AT THEIR
Washington DEDICATION.
Grand Army of the Republic Is Form
ing a Strong Bond of Union in the
a Great Speech at dwelling of the
Memorial to Founder of the G.. A. r.

Washington, July 3.-Declaring that,
unlike the Pretorian guard of Rome,
the men who made up the union forces
during the civil war were in favor of
free institutions, that they fought for
them to anything else, President Taft
today, as the principal speaker at the
unwilling of a memorial to DR.. Benja-
min Franklin Stepheson, founder of the
G.. A. r., paid a glowing tribute to that
organization.
Congress having contributed to the
cost of the memorial President Taft
said he was present in his official capa-
city. The president spoke as follows:
Pride of Patriotism.
''We are met to dedicate a memorial
to a union soldier, who served four
years as a surgeon in the civil war and
who also builded an institution by which
fellowship all the sweet association, all
the pride of patriotism that such a civil
war as that could arouse in millions of
hearts.
"When men at the formative period
of life-from IS to % years-are asso-
ciated in any work, whether it be in
college, in society or otherwise, they
carry with them afterward the fond
est memories and associations for each
other because they have passed through
a common mold.
81 can conceive no bond of union
- 41,ot I,
who fought from 1861 to 1865 in the
Grand Army, and it was to the credit of
the founder of the Grand Army of the
Republic that he saw the solid basis up
on which such structure as that great
society could be erected.
Evil Prophecies Failed.
"You will recollect that there were
prophets of evil with respect to the
fate of the United States after the war
should cease, after the ends should be
fighting and an aggregation of mil
lion men in arms threatened our free
institutions. But all those prophecies
faded into nothingness. The men who
composed that million were men in ia
vor of free institutions, who had fought
for them and did not intend to sac.
rifice them to anything else. There
prove that army as an instrument OF
despotism even if it had been willing
to furnish itself as such, and so it was
the marvel of other countries that this
great body of organized force, than
xvbioh fhnra
better disciplined army, faded out and
disappeared into the paths of peace, pre-
serving nothing but the sweet memory
and association they had formed during
the war and the consciousness they had
in their hearts of having rendered the
greatest service, to wit: The preserva-
ton of their country.
Stephenson organized this Grand
Army of the Republic to preserve the
essence of that army in it's finest char
acteristics, in its democracy and in its
patriotism. The Grand Army of the Re
public knows no limitation but service
to the government in the civil war; and
therefore it is that congress recognizing
the usefulness of such an organization
in preserving patriotism, properly con
tributed $4,000 to this memorial and
recognized the Grand Army of the Re
public as an institution that may wei
have recognition.
Forgetfulness of Strife.
"More than that, the Grand Army OF
the Republic is the most useful in this
it represents the concentrated opinion
of the men who fought in the war t,
preserve the Union and it, therefore
may give authoritative expression
which no other body and no other par
of the people can give, to forgetfulnes
of the strife that existed during thu
four years of war.
"The union of the two sections ha
been nodded strongly by these meeting
between the blue and the gray, whicl
ought to be encouraged to occur a