and with the exception of such as had adopted the profession of arms as a lifetime avocation, the hundreds of thousands of soldiers laid aside their warlike guise, and turned themselves naturally and zealously to the arts of peace. The necessity that had made them soldiers of the Republic having passed away, they turned with eagerness and earnestness to the homes that had sent them forth, and, with true American enterprise and energy, entered into the thick avenues of trade and business. They presented to the world the lofty spectacle of soldiers becoming again civilians, and their history since that time conclusively evinces that the stern probation of war has not unfitted them for the gentle and beneficent walks of peace. All over the land to-day they occupy positions of honor, profit, usefulness, and eminence. In whatever enterprises they have embarked, you will find them in the front rank, even as they were ever in the vanguard of battle. Whether in the humble places of the land, or the higher strata of the professions, we have no cause to blush for the old soldiers of the Cumberland, the Tennessee, the Potomac, and the Missouri. It is a strange and ennobling sight, and it is a matter of sincere congratulation to the members of the Regular Army of the United States, that they feel so well assured of the sympathy, concord, and co-operation of that "Grand Guard" of citizen soldiers whose deeds of prowess have exalted and illustrated the annals of war.

For, gentlemen, although these mighty legions have melted away at the command of the Government, and we speak of them now as matters of past history, still it is a fact of pleasant reflection that the men who filled and made those legions are still within hearing of the bugle calls of their country. Days of war and deeds of valor seem like dreams gone by; but if ever stern justice or inexorable need shall call for them, there are those tented thousands within easy reach of that call, who can develop and invest those dreams with all the vivid force

and vital power of a grand and genuine reality. The elements of knighthood and the sinews of war stud the whole broad face of the country, and the precious jewels of the Nation's safety and preservation are to be found in the exhaustless mines of the loyalty, patriotism, intelligence, and resolution of the American people. It is the sincere wish and prayer of every true man's heart, that war and all its train of dread concomitants may never again disturb the quietude and prosperity of this land of ours.

The arts of peace are better than the arts of war. But the arts of peace can only attain their noblest fruition in a land where the arts of war are widely understood and comprehended. The one is the co-ordinate of the other. The one requires the moral and physical countenance of the other. A government with no high military traditions-no glorious legends-no lofty exemplars--no great national sentiment-no warm pulse of national honor-is like a huge body without the vitalizing presence of a brave and contented soul. A nation, whose loyal sons are her soldiers-a nation, where the people themselves are the bulwarks of military strength, may bid defiance to the march of time and the revolutions of change. External assault and internal revolts are alike powerless to shake its throne in the affection of its citizens. Enemies without and

enemies within can never shatter it. Foreign war may exhaust its powers, and domestic treason may expend all the rebellious efforts of its hate upon that nation, and it will live and strengthen and succeed in spite of them all. The loyalty of her children shall work out her redemption, and their faith and fealty shall make her immortal. That outburst of popular affection -that exhibition of patriotic resolution—that simple, patient, unfaltering adherence to principle and to purpose, which vindicated the authority and assured the existence of the American Republic through the crimson years of the late rebellion, is the

surest pledge of American perpetuity. The past is the prototype of the future, and the future will in due season give bounteous fulfillment to the great destiny of the American nation. Our dead have not all died in vain. Our living have not battled and suffered all for naught.

Gentlemen of the Society of the Cumberland, here to-day have you met for the first time in the garb of citizens.

You have come together to discuss the past, to enjoy the present, and to take bearings of our social and collective existence for the future.

We have not come as politicans or as members of any particular section or schism.

We are here as members of those old corps which, in the "days of sorest need," stood between the Nation and national assassination. Upon one subject at least we are all united, and that is, pride in the memory of the old Army of the Cumberland—pride in the fact that we stood in its ranks when the Nation required our services-pride in the fact that the rebellion was utterly suppressed-and pride, exultant, unchecked and immeasurable pride that the American flag to-day floats unhindered and undisturbed over the whole dominion of the American Union. This is common ground, for every patriot, and no truly loyal man can dissent from this position. No matter what be the views of this one, or of that one, upon some particular question of policy, or upon some side issue not pregnant with the fate of the Government, we can all unite in a kindred devotion on this common ground, and breathe deep benisons upon the existence of the American Union for the century and for all mortal time. We raise no other questions. We make no other issue. When we follow "royal game," it is an ignoble and disgraceful thing to turn from the hurrying trail to trap for martens and the "little foxes."

In the crush of the red and reeling fray, it matters little

whether there be pearls on the hilt, or velvet about the sheath, so only that the blade be brave steel. These other and minor issues may be all proper enough in other places, and at other times, but here, and on this occasion, mere questions of taste, and habit, and opinion sink into obscurity and littleness before the overmastering faith, and loyalty, and devotion of this assemblage to the interest, existence, and preservation of the American Government in all its integrity and power. This Nation must live. This Union can not die. When it is broken up and destroyed, then is the "Society of the Army of the Cumberland" a nullity and a myth, and all its labors futile, and all its honors empty air and bitter ashes. We can never deny our past. We can never shirk the responsibilities entailed by our past action. We can only stand fast by our old faith, and follow our old colors to the end. We can never go back on our record. We can never wipe out Nashville, Chickamauga, Lookout and Atlanta. Our die has been cast, and our "good part" chosen. There is no second selection to be made. We can live without the love of the enemies of our country if they see fit to withhold it. We do not fear their wrath. We have only contempt for their revilings. Slander and detraction and falsehood can tear no laurel from the stainless brows of our great leaders.

The declamations of traitors, bombastic "resolutions,” the vile malevolence of press, pulpit, forum, or convention, can not undo SHERMAN'S "Great March," or sully in the eyes, or shake in the hearts of loyal America, the noble soldiers who planned and accomplished the downfall of the monstrous treason of the rebellion.

We can never dishonor our dead. We can never retrace our steps. If we do so, we must step over the countless graves of our brothers, and trample the bones of our friends, for they lie thick on that backward path. We must make a change of base, and reform our lines on another field. We must leave

our dead within the lines of the enemy. We must bid adieu to THOMAS, GRANT, SHERMAN, and SHERIDAN.

Gentlemen of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, when the rebellion was crushed and its legions dispersed, our dead slept within the lines of our own army, and beneath the shadowy sheen of our own banners.

Even Andersonville, Salisbury, and Belle Isle had been redeemed. Our dead were at least vindicated from the slurs and slanders of detraction, and purified in the eyes of the world. Can the day ever come when those dead heroes shall be dishonored, and the faith of their lives be desecrated? Shall it ever come to be said that they died ignobly and in vain? Never while the American Government exists in the hands and hearts of its friends, and loyalty, and truth, and honor leaven and sanctify the minds of the American people.

It is very customary, gentlemen, in these latter days to hear much said about the "heroic struggle" of the adherents of the "lost cause," and much sentiment, and many metaphors are expended upon this subject, and there seems to be a very general disposition upon the part of certain parties, to ignore, if not altogether to forget the fact, that anybody else did any fighting worthy of the name during this "late little unpleasantness."

Now, while I am not disposed to detract in the least from the fighting qualities and the belligerent feats of "our Confederate brethren;" while I am rather inclined, on the other hand, to agree with a friend who asserted that they generally fought "unnecessarily hard;" still I can not understand the nature of the material of those "loyal and patriotic" gentlemen who are always so anxious to exalt the performances of "late rebels in arms at the expense of the soldiers of the Union. I can never refrain from thinking that if the rebels deserved such loud-mouthed praise for their gallantry and valor, fighting as they nearly always did on interior lines-on the defensive, and