of victory. We have proved ourselves equal to
great deeds, and have learnt what qualities were in us, which in
more peaceful times we ourselves did not suspect.

And, indeed, I would here in closing fain address a few words to
such of you, if any such are here, who like myself may nave been
soldiers during the War of the Rebellion. We should never more be
partisans. We have been a part of great events in the service of the
common country, we have worn her uniform, we have received her pay
and devoted ourselves to the death, if need be, in her service. When
we were blackened by the smoke of Antietam, we did not ask or care
whether those who stood shoulder to shoulder beside us, whether he
who led us, whether those who sustained us, were Democrats or
Republicans, conservatives or radicals; we asked only that they
might prove as true as was the steel we grasped, and as brave as we
ourselves would fain have been. When we stood like a wall of stone
vomiting fire from the heights of Gettysburg,--nailed to our
position through three long days of mortal Hell,--did we ask each
other whether that brave officer who fell while gallantly leading
the counter-charge--whether that cool gunner steadily serving his
piece before us amid the storm of shot and shell--whether the poor
wounded, mangled, gasping comrades, crushed and torn, and dying in
agony around us--had voted for Lincoln or Douglas, for Breckenridge
or Bell? We then were full of other thoughts. We prized men for what
they were worth to the common country of us all, and recked not of
empty words. Was the man true, was he brave, was he earnest, was all
we thought of then;--not, did he vote or think with us, or label
himself with our party name? This lesson let us try to remember. We
cannot give to party all that we once offered to country, but our duty
is not yet done. We are no longer, what we have been, the young guard
of the Republic; we have earned an exemption from the dangers of the
field and camp, and the old musket or the crossed sabres hang harmless
over our winter fires, never more to be grasped in these hands
henceforth devoted to more peaceful labors; but the duties of the
citizen, and of the citizen who has received his baptism in fire, are
still incumbent upon us. Though young in years, we should remember
that henceforth, and as long as we live in the land, we are the
ancients,--the veterans of the Republic. As such, it is for us to
protect in pea