field." [Applause.] After the war General Lee and his officers were
indicted in the civil courts of Virginia by directions of a President
who was endeavoring to make treason odious and succeeding in making
nothing so odious as himself. [Applause.] General Lee appealed to his
old antagonist for protection. He did not appeal to that heart in vain.
General Grant at once took up the cudgels in his defence, threatened to
resign his office if such officers were indicted while they continued
to obey their paroles, and such was the logic of his argument and the
force of his character that those indictments were soon after quashed.
So that he penned no idle platitude; he fashioned no stilted epigrams;
he spoke the earnest convictions of an honest heart when he said, "Let
us have peace." [Applause.] He never tired of giving unstinted praise to
worthy subordinates for the work they did. Like the chief artists who
weave the Gobelin tapestries, he was content to stand behind the cloth
and let those in front appear to be the chief contributors to the beauty
of the fabric. [Applause.]

One of the most beautiful chapters in all history is that which records
the generous relations existing between him and Sherman, that great
soldier who for so many years was the honored head of this society, that
great chieftain whom men will always love to picture as a legendary
knight moving at the head of conquering columns, whose marches were
measured not by single miles, but by thousands; whose field of military
operations covered nearly half a continent; whose orders always spoke
with the true bluntness of the soldier; who fought from valley's depths
to mountain heights, and marched from inland rivers to the sea.
[Applause.] Their rivalry manifested itself only in one respect--the
endeavor of each to outdo the other in generosity. With hearts untouched
by jealousy, with souls too great for rivalry, each stood ready to
abandon the path of ambition when it became so narrow that two could not
tread it abreast. [Applause.]

If there be one single word in all the wealth of the English language
which best describes the predominating trait of General Grant's
character, that word is "loyalty." [Applause.] Loyal to every great
cause and work he was engaged in; loyal to his friends; loyal to his
family; loyal to his country; loyal to his God. [Applause.] This
produced a reciprocal effect in all who came in contact with him. It was
one of the chief reason