ivor of the Battle of Balaklava

DEER PARK CABIN, LAKE TAHOE

Dedicated July 4, 1893]

"When our republic was formed, the wisdom of its founders manifested
itself in many ways. One in particular strikes us very forcibly in
contrast with our sister republics in Europe and even on this
continent. We have no legacy of royalty, no legacy of hereditary or
titled aristocracy that forever menace, and threaten the peace and
stability of other republics; the highest office in the gift of the
people becomes the servant of the people, hence we have the stability
of a government founded by the people, of the people, and for the
people, and although some thirty odd years ago the aristocracy of
Europe tried hard to destroy our republic, we are today stronger than
ever, a united country of sixty-five millions of people, whose
stalwart yeomen from Maine to Oregon and from the Lakes to the Gulf,
are ready and willing to take the field at a moment's warning, against
any foreign enemy whose temerity might prompt them to attack Old
Glory.

"I speak advisedly when I say this for the war of the rebellion was
not confined, strictly speaking, to the people of the north and the
people of the south alone; the people of the north were fighting, not
only to maintain the unity and integrity of the United States, but,
much like the war of the revolution, they had to contend against
foreign foes in the moral and substantial aid given by France and
England to the south in its strenuous efforts to disrupt the unity of
the country founded by our forefathers, they (of the north) were
contending against the intrigue of the emperor of the French, whose
hostile armies had invaded the soil of our sister republic south of
the Rio Grande, for the purpose of establishing a monarchy in that
country, and blighting it with the titled and depraved aristocracy of
the French empire, as it then existed.

"We have ample proof to warrant the statement, that had the south been
successful in establishing a separate form of government, it was the
purpose of the French emperor to seize Louisiana, Texas and New
Mexico, and together with the aristocracy of England, to destroy the
so-called Southern Confederacy and thus, at one swoop, wipe out a
nation they were ostensibly trying to establish; for under the
contingent conditions mentioned, England's policy was to seize
Virginia, the Carolinas and other southern states bordering on the
Atlantic. To the everlasting credit