And State Papers 19 



popular mind. It was here that the tremendous, 

 terrible drama of the Civil War opened. 



With delicate and thoughtful courtesy you origin 

 ally asked me to come to this Exposition on the 

 birthday of Abraham Lincoln. The invitation not 

 only showed a fine generosity and manliness in you, 

 my hosts, but it also emphasized as hardly anything 

 else could have emphasized how completely we are 

 now a united people. The wounds left by the great 

 Civil War, incomparably the greatest war of mod 

 ern times, have healed ; and its memories are now 

 priceless heritages of honor alike to the North and 

 to the South. The devotion, the self-sacrifice, the 

 steadfast resolution and lofty daring, the high devo 

 tion to the right as each man saw it, whether North 

 erner or Southerner all these qualities of the men 

 and women of the early sixties now shine luminous 

 and brilliant before our eyes, while the mists of 

 anger and hatred that once dimmed them have 

 passed away forever. 



All of us, North and South, can glory alike in 

 the valor of the men who wore the blue and of 

 the men who wore the gray. Those were iron 

 times, and only iron men could fight to its terrible 

 finish the giant struggle between the hosts of Grant 

 and Lee, the struggle that came to an end thirty- 

 seven years ago this very day. To us of the pres 

 ent day, and to our children and children's children, 

 the valiant deeds, the high endeavor, and abnegation 

 of self shown in that struggle by those who took 

 part therein will remain for evermore to mark the 



