or fashion. No political scheme inspired its proposal, and no ulterior
motive moved these companions to take your arm. The joy that seems to
beam in the comrade's eye and unconsciously express itself in word and
gesture, is real. It is the hearty love of a comrade who showed his
love for his country by battle in 1862, and who only finds new ways in
time of peace for expressing the same character now. The eloquence of
this night has been unusually, earnestly, practically patriotic and
fraternal. It has been the utterance of hearts beating full and strong
for humanity. Loyalty, fraternity, and charity are here in fact. It is
true, honest, heart. Such fraternal greetings may be as important for
liberty and justice as the winning of a Gettysburg. For the mighty
influence of the Grand Army of the Republic is even more potent now
than it was on that bloody day. Peace has come and the brave men
of the North recognize and respect the motives and bravery of that
Confederate army which dealt them such fearful blows believing _they_
were in the right. But the glorious peace we enjoy and the greatness
of our nation's name and power are due as much to the living Grand
Army as to the dead. I am getting weary of being counted 'old,' but I
am more tired of hearing the soldier overpraised for what he did in
1861. You have more influence now than then, and are better men in
every sense. At Springfield, Illinois, they illustrated the growth of
the city by telling me that in 1856 a lunatic preacher applied to Mr.
Lincoln for his aid to open the legislative chamber for a series of
meetings to announce that the Lord was coming at once. Mr. Lincoln
refused, saying, 'If the Lord knew Springfield as well as I do, he
wouldn't come within a thousand miles of it.' But now the legislative
halls are open, and every good finds welcome in that city. The world
grows better--cities are not worse. The nation has not gone backward,
and all the good deeds did not cease in 1865. The Grand Army of the
Republic, speaking plainly but with no sense of egotism, has been
praised too much for the war and too little for its heroism and power
in peace. Does it make a man an angel to eat hardtack? Or does it
educate in inductive philosophy to chase a pig through a Virginia
fence? Peace has its victories no less renowned than war.

"The Grand Army is not growing old. You all feel younger at this
moment than you did at the close of the day's march. Your work is not
fi