174 Grant 



order and liberty. If the Revolution had been fol 

 lowed by bloody anarchy, if the Declaration of In 

 dependence had not been supplemented by the adop 

 tion of the Constitution, if the freedom won by the 

 sword of Washington had not been supplemented 

 by the stable and orderly government which Wash 

 ington was instrumental in founding, then we 

 should have but added to the chaos of the world, 

 and our victories would have told against and not 

 for the betterment of mankind. So it was with the 

 Civil War. If the four iron years had not been 

 followed by peace, they would not have been jus 

 tified. If the great silent soldier, the Hammer of 

 the North, had struck the shackles off the slave only, 

 as so many conquerors in civil strife before him 

 had done, to rivet them around the wrists of free 

 men, then the war would have been fought in vain, 

 and worse than in vain. If the Union, which so 

 many men shed their blood to restore, were not now 

 a union in fact, then the precious blood would have 

 been wasted. But it was not wasted; for the work 

 of peace has made good the work of war, and North 

 and South, East and West, we are now one people 

 in fact as well as in name ; one in purpose, in fellow- 

 feeling, and in high resolve, as we stand to greet 

 the new century, and, high of heart, to face the 

 mighty tasks which the coming years will surely 

 bring. 



