ADDRESSES AND STATE PAPERS 



SPEECH OF PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT AT THE 

 REUNION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THE 

 POTOMAC, G. A. R., AT THE NEW WILLARD 

 HOTEL, WASHINGTON, D. C., FEB. 19, 1902 



Mr. Chairman, Commander -in-Chief, and you, my 



Comrades: 



I can say that there is nothing else of which I am 

 quite so proud as having won, in a sense, the right 

 to claim comradeship with you. And, gentlemen, 

 I recollect speaking with a friend at the time of 

 the Spanish War as to why we went, and it was 

 agreed that it was simply because we could not 

 stay away. We had taken to heart the great object- 

 lesson that you gave. I am very glad to have the 

 chance of seeing you this evening and of being with 

 you. I would be but a poor American if I did 

 not appreciate to the full the debt under which 

 America rests to you, not alone for the lesson in 

 war that you have given, but for what that lesson 

 teaches as to peace. I meet you here and I see the 

 general and the man from the ranks honor one an 

 other by the highest title either knows comrade, 

 I see you applying the great lesson of brotherhood 

 the lesson that must be applied in civil life no 

 less than in military life if we are to work out, 

 as we shall work -out, aright the problems that face 

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