ADDRESSES OF MAJOR LACEY 235 



rather than chance has shaped the course of history. 

 Grant exercised choice; he did not yield to an adverse 

 chance. 



Looking back now after so many years, it is evident 

 that the decision of the war was the best for both parties. 

 It brought peace with safety. For many years the 

 Tweed flowed as the boundary between the hostile Scotch 

 and English ; its waters were often dyed with the blood 

 of armies. Now it flows through a united and peaceful 

 people. But it is where union is combined with safety, 

 and a due regard to the rights of the people involved, 

 that such union brings peace and prosperity. The union 

 of Alsace and Lorraine with Germany resulted in a cor- 

 don of fieldworks and fortresses ; it is a union of force. 



Passing through that frontier today, the vast armies 

 of France and Germany glare at each other over and 

 across the line, waiting only for an opportunity to re- 

 sume the contest. Had the secession movement proved 

 successful our country would have had an arbitrary fron- 

 tier line drawn from the Atlantic far into the interior. 

 Rival custom houses would have stood on opposite sides 

 of all rivers and railways at the boundary. All disputes 

 between the two sections would have been settled by 

 treaties, or by war. Now all matters of controversy are 

 settled by a national Congress, in which every portion of 

 the Union is represented. Statutes and judicial decisions 

 take the place of diplomacy and guns. This Union has 

 cost much in blood, treasure, and tears, but it is well 

 worth the cost. The people of each section are of kindred 

 blood; they come from a common stock; their ancestors 

 sought these shores for a common purpose; their inter- 

 ests were united. 



In reading the reports of a general in the opposing 

 army the other day, in regard to one of the bloody battles 

 of the war, I found that the Confederate government had 



