ise of Virginia, Governor Ames of Massachusetts.
Mr. Lodge [now United States Senator from Massachusetts] responded to
the toast, "The Blue and the Gray."]

MR. CHAIRMAN:--To such a toast, sir, it would seem perhaps most
fitting that one of those should respond who was a part of the great
event which it recalls. Yet, after all, on an occasion like this, it may
not be amiss to call upon one who belongs to a generation to whom the
Rebellion is little more than history, and who, however insufficiently,
represents the feelings of that and the succeeding generations as to our
great Civil War. I was a boy ten years old when the troops marched away
to defend Washington, and my personal knowledge of that time is confined
to a few broken but vivid memories. I saw the troops, month after month,
pour through the streets of Boston. I saw Shaw go forth at the head of
his black regiment, and Bartlett, shattered in body but dauntless in
soul, ride by to carry what was left of him once more to the
battle-fields of the Republic. I saw Andrew, standing bareheaded on the
steps of the State House, bid the men God-speed. I cannot remember the
words he said, but I can never forget the fervid eloquence which brought
tears to the eyes and fire to the hearts of all who listened. I
understood but dimly the awful meaning of these events. To my boyish
mind one thing alone was clear, that the soldiers as they marched past
were all, in that supreme hour, heroes and patriots. Amid many changes
that simple belief of boyhood has never altered. The gratitude which I
felt then I confess to to-day more strongly than ever. But other
feelings have in the progress of time altered much. I have learned, and
others of my generation as they came to man's estate have learned, what
the war really meant, and they have also learned to know and to do
justice to the men who fought the war upon the other side.

I do not stand up in this presence to indulge in any mock
sentimentality. You brave men who wore the gray would be the first to
hold me or any other son of the North in just contempt if I should say
that, now it was all over, I thought the North was wrong and the result
of the war a mistake, and that I was prepared to suppress my political
opinions. I believe most profoundly that the war on our side was
eternally right, that our victory was the salvation of the country, and
that the results of the war were of infinite benefit to both North and
South. But