among us, he will everywhere be received with honor and share
all the respect which the boys of my generation were so eager to
grant and extend to the heroes of the Revolutionary War. The
service of one was as valuable as the other, rendered on a broader
field, in greater numbers, with greater sacrifices, and with the
same glorious results of securing the continuance of an experiment
of free government, the most successful in the history of mankind
and which is now, I profoundly trust, so well secured by the heroism
and valor of our soldiers, that for generations and centuries yet
to come no enemy will dare to aim a blow at the life of the republic.
For the wounded and disabled soldiers and the widows and orphans of
those who fell, a larger provision of pensions was freely granted
than ever before by any nation in ancient or modern times.
Provision was made by the general government, and by most of the
loyal states, for hospitals and homes for the wounded. The bodies
of those who died in the service have been carefully collected into
cemeteries in all parts of the United States. If there has been
any neglect or delay in granting pensions, it has been caused by
the vast number of applications--more than a million--and the
difficulty as time passes in securing the necessary proof. The
pension list now, thirty years after the war, requires annually
the sum of more than $150,000,000, or three times the amount of
all the expenses of the national government before the war. No
complaint is made of this, but Congress readily grants any increase
demanded by the feebleness of age or the decay of strength. I
trust, and believe, that this policy will be continued until the
last surviving soldier of the war meets the common fate of all.

I participated in the canvass of 1865, when General Jacob D. Cox,
the Republican candidate for governor of Ohio, and a Republican
legislature were elected with but little opposition. The first
duty of this legislature was to elect a Senator. There was a
friendly contest between General Robert C. Schenck, Hon. John A.
Bingham and myself, but I was nominated on the first ballot and
duly elected.

I received many letters from Horace Greeley, in the following one
of which he showed great interest in my re-election to the Senate:

"New York, February 7, 1865.
"Hon. John Sherman:

"My Dear Sir:--Yours of the 5th inst. at hand. I can assure you
that the combination to supplant you in the