Presidential Addresses 15 



the Republic. The war in which I was engaged 

 was a small affair; but it gave us an understanding 

 of what you had done and of what you had been 

 through. I know pretty well what kind. of mem 

 ories you have. I know what you did, what you 

 risked, what you sacrificed. I know what it meant 

 to you, and I know why you did it. There are two 

 or three lessons that you taught that I hope this 

 country will not only never forget, but will never 

 cease applying. In the first place the motive the 

 tissue of motives that spurred you on the love for 

 liberty, love for union, and the love for the stable 

 and ordered freedom of a great people. You braved 

 nights in the freezing mud of the trenches in winter, 

 and the marches under scorching midsummer suns ; 

 fever cots, wounds, insufficient food, exhausting 

 fatigue of a type that those that have not tried it 

 can not even understand. You did it without one 

 thought of the trivial monetary reward at the mo 

 ment ; you did it because your souls spurred you on. 

 And that is the reason why to this day, when any 

 man speaks to a body of veterans he speaks to a 

 body of men who are instant to respond to any call 

 for adherence to a lofty ideal. In other words, you 

 practiced, and by practicing preached, in the strong 

 est manner, the ideal of doing your duty, of doing 

 duty when duty calls, without thought of what the 

 reward might be. In the days when the sad, kindly, 

 patient Lincoln mighty Lincoln stood in the 

 White House like a high priest of the people, 

 between the horns of the altar, and poured out the 



