252 MAJOR JOHN F. LACEY 



And let me say for the soldiers North and South, that 

 I can recall no instance since the war when one of these 

 men ever led a mob. 



Montesquieu has said . "Happy is that nation whose 

 annals are tiresome." 



More stirring history was crowded into the brief four 

 years of the Civil War than in any five times that length 

 of peaceful years. There are vacant spots in the sky. 

 And in no period of the world's history have there been 

 more fruitful years with their harvest of heroic deeds. 



That war was long anticipated by far-seeing men. Its 

 occurrence was delayed by many timely compromises, but 

 its final coming was inevitable. 



It could be delayed, not prevented. The cape at the 

 southern point of Africa was long marked upon the map 

 as the "Cape of Storms." When it was at last circum- 

 navigated it became the "Cape of Good Hope" instead, 

 and it will always remain so. 



Now that the struggle of 1861 to 1865 is over the coun- 

 try has come to look upon it as bringing new and better 

 conditions, and the making of a homogeneous union of 

 states. 



A divided nation of 30,000,000 people in 1861 is now a 

 united country of 90,000,000 souls. Buckner and Grant 

 were cadets at West Point and were boyhood friends. 

 They again met in the heat of war at Donelson, but when 

 Grant's life went out on Mount McGregor, Buckner, with 

 tender hands and moist eyes, acted as pall-bearer for the 

 Great Commander. 



And each side honors itself in paying tribute to its 

 former opponents. Defeat is less bitter at the hands of a 

 noble foe, and victory the sweeter when won over a brave 

 enemy. And when united such opponents have nothing 

 to fear from the rest of the world. 



In a calm sea every man is a pilot. In the stormy 



