ished clouds of the dreadful storm! And at sight of them, how men will be reminded of the thousand battles fought; of Shiloh, that tournament to the death in which the vaunting chivalry of the Southwest met for the first time the despised chivalry of the Northwest, and were overthrown in the very midst of a supposed victory; of Vicksburg, that operation the most daring in conception, most perfect in execution, and the most complete in results of modern warfare; of the advance to Atlanta, in which the genius of the general was so well supported by the splendid endurance of the soldier; and of the march to the sea, memorable chiefly as a cold, rigid, retributive triumph in which the horrors of a ruthless progress were so strangely blent with the prayers and blessings of a race raised so sublimely and after such ages of suffering from the plantation to the school, from slavery to freedom, from death to life!

You know, sir, how prone men are in prosperity to forget the pangs of adversity. Ordinarily, what cares the young spendthrift, happy in the waste of his father's fortune, for that father's life of toil and selfdenial? It is to be hoped these flags will prevent such indifference on the part of our posterity. Think of them grouped all in one chamber! What descendant of a loyal man could enter it, and look upon them, and not feel the ancestral sacrifices they both attest and perpetuate? And when the foreigner, dreaming, it may be, of invasion or conquest, or ambition, political or military, more dangerous now than all the kings, shall come into their presence, as come they will; though they be not oppressed with reverence, or dumb-stricken with awe, as you and I and others like us may be, doubt not that they will go away wiser than they came; they will be reminded of what the Frenchman had not heard when he landed his legions on the palmy shore of Mexico; of what a ruler of England overlooked when he was willing to make haste to recognize the Rebellion; of what the trained leaders of the Rebellion themselves took not into account when they led their misguided followers into the fields of war; they will be reminded that this people, so given to peace, so devoted to trade, mechanics, agriculture, so occupied with schools and churches and a Government which does their will through the noiseless agency of the ballot-box, have yet when roused a power of resistance sufficient for any need however great; that this nationality, yet in youth's first freshness, is like a hive of human bees-stand by it quietly and you will be charmed by its proofs of industry, its faculty of appliance, its well-ordered labor; but touch it, shake it rudely, menace its population, or put them in fear, and they will pour from their cells an armed myriad whom there is no confronting-or rather that it is like. the ocean, beautiful in calm, but irresistible in storm.

Fellow soldiers! Comrades: When we come visiting the old flags,

and take out those more especially endeared to us because under them we each rendered our individual service, such as it was, we will not fail to be reminded of those other comrades-alas! too many to be namedwho dropped one by one out of the ranks or the column to answer at roll-call nevermore; whose honorable discharges were given them by fever in the hospital or by a bullet in battle; whose bones lie in shallow graves in the cypress swamp, in the river's deepening bed, in the valley's Sabbath stillness, or on the mountain's breast, blackened now by tempests-human as well as elemental. For their sakes let us resolve to come here with every recurrence of this day, and bring the old colors to the sunlight, and carry them in procession, and salute them martially with roll of drums and thunder of guns. So will those other comrades of whom I speak know that they are remembered at least by us; and so will we be remembered by them.

In the armies of Persia there was a chosen band called the Immortals. They numbered ten thousand; their ranks were always full, and their place was near the person of the king. The old poets sing of this resplendent host as clad in richest armor, and bearing spears pointed with pomegranates of silver and gold. We, too, have our Immortals! Only ours wear uniforms of light, and they number more than ten times ten thousand, and instead of a king to serve, they have for leader and lover that man of God and the people, Lincoln, the martyr. rolls shine the heroic names without regard to such paltry distinctions as rank or state. Among them are no officers, no privates! In the bivouacs of Heaven they are all alike Immortals. Of such are Ellsworth, Baker, Wadsworth, Sedgwick and MacPherson. Of such, also, are our own Hackleman, Gerber, Tanner, Blinn, and Carroll, and that multitude of our soldiers who, victims of war, are now "at the front," while we are waiting "in reserve."

$ 78

THE RETURN OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BATTLE FLAGS

By Darius Nash Couch

(Delivered in Boston, Massachusetts, December 22, 1865.)

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY: We have come here to-day as the representatives of the army of volunteers furnished by Massachusetts

DARIUS NASH COUCH. Born in South East, Putnam County, N. Y., July 23, 1822; graduated United States Military Academy 1846; served through the Mexican and Civil Wars; made Major-General July 4, 1862; defeated for Governor of Massachusetts 1865; died at Norwalk, Conn., February 12, 1897.

for the suppression of the rebellion, bringing these colors in order to return them to the State which intrusted them to our keeping. You must, however, pardon us if we give them up with profound regretfor these tattered shreds forcibly remind us of long and fatiguing marches, cold bivouacs, and many hard-fought battles. The rents in their folds, the battle-stains on their escutcheons, the blood of our comrades that has sanctified the soil of a hundred fields, attest the sacrifices that have been made, the courage and constancy shown, that the nation. might live. It is, sir, a peculiar satisfaction and pleasure to us that you, who have been an honor to the State and nation, from your marked patriotism and fidelity throughout the war, and have been identified. with every organization before you, are now here to receive back, as the State custodian of her precious relics, these emblems of the devotion of her sons. May it pleasure your Excellency, the colors of the Massachusetts volunteers are returned to the State.

§ 79

PRESENTING THE PILGRIM STATUE

By Stewart L. Woodford

(Speech as president of the New England Society, presenting the Pilgrim Statue to the City of New York, June 6, 1885.)

To you, Mr. Appleton, and to your fellow-members of the Monument Committee, the New England Society is indebted for the admirable manner in which your task has been performed. To the sculptor our thanks are also due, but while yonder statue stands, it will tell better than words of mine can tell how he has done his work. He has wisely chosen an ideal of the Pilgrim Fathers as his subject-for the Pilgrim was the Puritan of the Puritans.

It is fitting that in this great city, whose population numbers so many of New England's sons, we should raise a memorial to those whose character and principles have so largely made our city what it is. New England men fully recognize and gratefully admit that all nations, all peoples, and tongues make up this city of our homes and love. New York is the product of many forces and of many lands. While we

STEWART L. WOODFORD. Born New York City, September 3, 1835; graduated from Columbia, 1854; admitted to bar in 1857; made Lieutenant-Colonel in 1862, later Brigadier-General; Lieutenant-Governor of New York, 1867-1869; defeated for Governor in 1870; Congressman from New York, 1873-1874; United States Minister to Spain, 1897-1898; practised law in New York City. Died February 14,

New Englanders thus praise the work of others, we should be false to our ancestry and to the memories of Plymouth Rock if we did not modestly, good-naturedly, but positively, assert our belief that the work and influence of the Pilgrim and Puritan have done more than all else for this imperial city.

As we look back upon that solitary figure, standing with far-away gaze, as if those searching eyes could pierce through long generations and catch a glimpse of the golden future beyond, our thoughts turn back to another scene in striking contrast to the one around. What a step across the centuries from the desolation of Plymouth Rock to this Central Park on this glorious June day! We seem for one moment to stand on New England's rugged coast and greet a band of homeless exiles. All honor to our Pilgrim forefathers who, listening to the higher voices, obeyed the commands of conscience, and, leaving home and country for duty's sake, "sailed with God the seas." The past fades, and we are back in this busy, breathing present. New York is around us. Only yonder statue is before us. The art of the sculptor has made those bronze lips speak. They tell us of heroic endurance, of obedience to the voice of duty, of loyalty to justice, truth, and right. The shadow of Plymouth Rock steals across the centuries. May it not fall over us in vain! Yonder figure stands, as the Pilgrim of old stood, with his back to his friends and flatterers, and with his face to his foes and duty.

We give this statue to the city. Long may the blue skies bend over it, and long may our city prosper and keep its faith in the principles for which the Pilgrim Fathers wrought and lived, suffered and died!

§ 80

PRESENTING THE CHENEY-IVES GATEWAY TO YALE UNIVERSITY

By Henry Johnson Fisher

(Speech on behalf of the class of 1896 at the Yale bicentennial celebration, 1901.)

PRESIDENT HADLEY AND YALE MEN: I am here as a representative of the class of ninety-six, to present to you this gate. In its stone and iron it typifies the rugged manliness of those to whose lasting memory

HENRY JOHNSON FISHER. Born October 30, 1873, in Marion, Ohio; prepared for college at Andover; graduated from Yale in 1896; served in the Spanish-American War; for some time a director and vice-president of Frank A. Munsey Company, publishers; for some time manager of the Crowell Publishing Company; president of the Popular Science Publishing Company; governor of Yale Publishing Association. Residence, Greenwich, Conn.

it has been erected.

That is our wish. To you who are now gathered beneath these elms, and to those Yale men who shall follow after us, we wish this memorial to stand first of all for the manhood and courage of Yale. In the evening shadows the softer lights may steal forth and infold it, but through the daylight hours of toil and accomplishment let the sun shine down upon it, and bring out each line of strength, that every Yale man may be imbued with that dauntless spirit which inspired these two sons of Yale in their lives and in their deaths.

We do not wish you merely to stand before this memorial and gaze upon it as a monument. We want every one of you, whether graduate at Commencement time or undergraduate in term time, to come to it and to sit upon its benches, just as we of ninety-six shall come to it during the advancing years, and, in the coming, keep always alive in our hearts the spirit of these two who did their work and held their peace, and had no fear to die. That is the lesson these two careers are singularly fitted to teach us. To the one came the keenest disappointment which can come to a soldier, the disappointment of staying behind, and after that the toil, the drudgery, and the sickness,-all bravely borne. To the other it was given to meet death with that steadfast courage which alone avails to men who die in the long quiet after the battle. It is no new service these two have given to Yale. Looking back to-day through the heritage of two centuries, these names are but added to the roll of those who have served Yale because they have served their country.

The stone and iron of this gate will keep alive the names of these two men. It is our hope that the men of Yale will, in their own lives, perpetuate their manhood and courage.