ORATION.

DELIVERED BEFORE MARSHAL SANDERS POST, G. A. R., OF LITTLETON, N. H., MAY 31, 1880.

My Friends:

I address you as an organization whose members once served in the armies of the country, at a critical period in its history. You have been thus organized on account of that service. The exercises and ceremonials of this day have been instituted to perpetuate the memory of the eventful times in which that service was rendered; to recall the images and the deeds of your comrades who sank to their last rest on "the bed of honor"; to rekindle within yourselves the old patriotic fire; to contemplate the great and prosperous country, the wise and beneficent government which your labors have contributed to save; and to inquire what can we do to make our future national greatness, freedom and happiness more certain,-what can we do towards holding our people in the right paths, so that the present promises of a glorious national destiny may be realized. In entering upon this work, I find myself embarrassed by the broad field before me, and by the multitude of thoughts that crowd upon the mind and demand expression. Out of the many things that press for consideration, I am in doubt as to what selections ought to be made.

My words must necessarily be few; nor will many words be needed to bring to your minds events indelibly stamped on your memories. A simple recurrence of those memories brings to you lifelike sounds, images and scenes. The first call to arms seems to ring in your ears. The camp, the weary march, the battlefield and all its horrors, the heroes, now dead, who then stood by your sides, pass before the mind's eye, vivid and fresh as the reality itself. At the same time the old emotions come back again; your pulses are quickened and your hearts thrilled; you are ready once more to do and to dare any and all things that duty requires.

The contrast between the quiet of the present hour and the restless times in which the events that we commemorate occurred is very great. Amid the peace and security in which we now repose we need the harsh pictures, that are burned on our memories, to enable us to realize the excitement, the anxiety and the terror, which then filled all hearts.

A civil war of enormous proportions, waged for the avowed purpose of disrupting the Union and destroying the government of our fathers, was plucking up confidence by the roots and scattering dismay and disorder everywhere.

The ordinary safeguards of the law for the protection of life, liberty and property was disregarded. The bonds of society were loosened. Credit was gone and uncertainty and distrust were universal. Every man looked only to himself for help as he despairingly beheld law, order and the public safety, tumbling into one common ruin. It was in that fearful hour, amid the crash of falling institutions and the bursting of the pent up fury of a revolutionary storm, which had been gathering for years, that the agonizing cry for help went abroad over the land. Nor was that cry unheard and without response. You heard it and responded. Brave men and strong men responded. From all quarters the fiery energy and fervor of youth and the mature strength of manhood were put forth to save the governmental fabric at the very moment when it was shaking and toppling from its foundation, and when the old order of things, all the accumulations of the civilization of the past were apparently about to be lost. In the fearful struggle that followed, gigantic armies, fully armed, equipped and trained for the work of death, for the first time on American soil, met in deadly conflict. The sufferings and hardships you then endured and the perils you then encountered you will never forget, while life and memory remain. Lost limbs and scarred bodies furnish for many of you indisputable evidence that you have met face to face the terrible realities of war.

It will not be worth while to trace the varying and fluctuating fortunes of the long contest. Its incidents are familiar to all. Time and space would altogether fail us should we attempt to make even passing mention of the many heroes who distinguished

themselves on the numerous battlefields of the rebellion. It is enough to say that the reputation of the men of New Hampshire, acquired in previous wars, for steady, determined, unflinching bravery, remains undimmed; that the sons of New Hampshire repeated on the bloody fields of Gettysburg, Antietam and Chancellorsville, what their fathers had done at Bunker Hill, at Bennington, at Monmouth, at Yorktown and at Lundy's Lane - the foremost in the assault, the last to retire. Were I to particularize, I could do so only for a few, and where all did so well, that would be unjust.

The cruel war dragged its weary length along through sorrowful years to its close; but it was a triumphant close. The final result was glorious. The armies of the rebellion were everywhere subdued. Submission was perfect and universal. The cause of the government was fully vindicated. The Union was saved and the victorious soldier permitted to return to his home, there to wear in peace the laurels which his valor had won.

I will not comment, except in a general way, on the work of reconstruction which the rebellion and its results had rendered inevitable. Wise statesmanship, coöperating with the ameliorating influences of time and mutual forgiveness of both real and imaginary wrongs, was needed for the accomplishment of that work.

In view of the situation of affairs at the close of the rebellion, I regard it as a matter of sincere congratulation among all patriots, and among all the friends and well wishers of this country, that things are not worse.

On the part of the victorious North, exasperated by the stubborn resistance of its fallen foe, and smarting with its great losses, there was in the very flush of triumph, a larger moderation, a greater forbearance and more genuine commiseration over the distress of its humbled antagonist than is ordinarily accorded by the victor to the vanquished.

On the part of the conquered, humiliated, disheartened, but still alienated South, there was a more thorough submission and a stronger disposition to accept the situation and to return to their old position and duties in the Union manifested, than we should naturally expect to be shown by subjugated rebels. To

this there have been exceptions in the North and in the South. But, on the whole, it is plain that in both sections, since the war closed, the general tendency of the public mind has been towards favoring the old Union, under the Constitution, modified only by the changed circumstances of the country and the amendments formally and legally made.

I will not now further remark upon the work of reconstruction and will only utter a word of gratitude to the Almighty Ruler of the universe, in which I am sure all can join, that it is as well with us as it is,- that the angel of Peace, with healing on her wings, has come to abide with us permanently; that Plenty and Prosperity sit smiling everywhere all over our broad land; that assurance is confidently felt that the Union of our fathers, in substance as well as in form, has been saved and will endure; that the federal government is once more to be administered by the exercise of powers within the limitations of the Constitution; that liberty protected by law is to be in reality secured for all the inhabitants of the land, not only for the black man but for the white man also, without distinction of race or color; that the Ship of State has weathered the storm, has safely passed through the boiling whirlpool of revolution, has righted herself, and with her timbers battered and bruised, but still sound and strong, with sails repaired and spread to the breeze, is once more with favoring gales on the broad open sea.

It is to commemorate your services on the battlefield in behalf of the Union, to keep alive the memory of the noble but "unreturning brave," who gave their lives in behalf of the same cause, that the services and ceremonials of this day have been instituted.

In this connection it may be pertinently inquired - Why is it worth while to preserve the memory of a successful contest, waged for the salvation of the Federal Union and the preservation of the institutions of our fathers? What is the value of the Federal Union? What detriment would its loss entail upon us which could justify such sacrifices for its maintenance?

The answer to these questions necessarily involves the consideration of the history of the country, the origin, special purposes and the peculiar construction of the government, and the practical operation of that government as shown by actual trial,

in securing the prosperity, happiness and freedom of the people. Volumes might be filled in the consideration of these matters and the subject still remain unexhausted. I shall only glance at them in the hope that it may awaken in your minds a spirit of inquiry, and lead to a deeper, more thorough and enlightened comprehension of the priceless value of our free government, and of the reasons why no possible sacrifices can be regarded as too great for a people to make for the maintenance of such a government.

This country had its beginning in the planting of thirteen distinct colonies upon the Atlantic shore of the North American continent. These colonies grew up distinct and separate and in process of time, having dissolved their allegiance to the parent country, and having assumed the attitude of free and independent states, they formed, for mutual protection in certain specified particulars, a Union, while in all other respects they all retained their original independence.

Ultimately this Union took the form and substance in accordance with and under the terms of the Federal Constitution. By that Constitution, certain powers therein enumerated, affecting the general welfare and essential to the common defense, were delegated to the Federal government, and all powers not thus delegated were reserved to the states, respectively, or to the people. By the Federal Constitution the exclusive control of all local and domestic affairs is left to the states.

From the adoption of this Constitution in 1789 to the breaking out of the recent rebellion in 1861, a period of more than seventy years, the country enjoyed a degree of prosperity unexampled in the history of the world as it respects the astonishing increase of its population, the rapid accumulation of its wealth, the vast peaceful accessions to its territory and, in short, as it respects all matters of material aggrandizement and the building-up and development of everything that makes a people great, grand and glorious.

At the same time we were free, perfectly free, to go or to come whensoever and wheresoever we listed, provided only that we trespassed not on our neighbor. The rebellion imperiled,