ll tear down their flag from its staff, and I will come home with
stars on my shoulders, and hold every office in the gift of the
government, and I will be great." "No, you won't! No, you won't; that is
no evidence of true greatness, young man." But don't blame that young
man for thinking that way; that is the way he is taught in the high
school. That is the way history is taught in college. He is taught that
the men who held the office did all the fighting.

I remember we had a Peace Jubilee here in Philadelphia soon after the
Spanish war. Perhaps some of these visitors think we should not have had
it until now in Philadelphia, and as the great procession was going up
Broad street I was told that the tally-ho coach stopped right in front
of my house, and on the coach was Hobson, and all the people threw up
their hats and swung their handkerchiefs, and shouted "Hurrah for
Hobson!" I would have yelled too, because he deserves much more of his
country than he has ever received. But suppose I go into the High School
to-morrow and ask, "Boys, who sunk the Merrimac?" If they answer me
"Hobson," they tell me seven-eighths of a lie--seven-eighths of a lie,
because there were eight men who sunk the Merrimac. The other seven men,
by virtue of their position, were continually exposed to the Spanish
fire, while Hobson, as an officer, might reasonably be behind the
smoke-stack. Why, my friends, in this intelligent audience gathered here
to-night I do not believe I could find a single person that can name the
other seven men who were with Hobson. Why do we teach history in that
way? We ought to teach that however humble the station a man may occupy,
if he does his full duty in his place, he is just as much entitled to
the American people's honor as is a king upon a throne. We do teach it
as a mother did her little boy in New York when he said, "Mamma, what
great building is that?" "That is General Grant's tomb." "Who was
General Grant?" "He was the man who put down the rebellion." Is that the
way to teach history?

Do you think we would have gained a victory if it had depended on
General Grant alone? Oh, no. Then why is there a tomb on the Hudson at
all? Why, not simply because General Grant was personally a great man
himself, but that tomb is there because he was a representative man and
represented two hundred thousand men who went down to death for their
nation and many of them as great as General Grant. That is why that
beautif