ADDRESSES OF MAJOR LACEY 347 



tile Bryan; the great statesman, Blaine; and General 

 Weaver, the brilliant orator and campaigner. 



Two presidents of the United States have visited this 

 park and spoken within the hearing of its crowds — 

 Roosevelt and Taft. General Logan spoke to a vast au- 

 dience here when he was a candidate for the vice-presi- 

 dency in 1884. 



Probably the meeting that excited the greatest enthus- 

 iasm and satisfaction that ever was held here was the 

 Soldiers' Reunion in August, 1865. The war was over 

 and "Johnnie came marching home." 



W. S. Kenworthy, then a young man, and a very young 

 man at that, was selected to make an address of welcome 

 to the "boys in blue." They were generally still wear- 

 ing their old uniforms and were gradually substituting 

 their citizens' clothes again. 



The sorrow for those who did not return was for the 

 time almost forgotten in the rejoicing over those who 

 were back again to go to war no more. It was a fitting 

 place to hold such a celebration and reunion, for it was 

 in this very park that so many of those men had volun- 

 teered to go to the front. With fife and drum and stir- 

 ring speeches the echoes rung through the trees that yet 

 were young. 



Here they drilled; here they bade good-bye to fathers 

 and mothers, to sisters and sweethearts, and marched 

 away, many of them to return no more. 



It was in this same park that the Wide Awakes and 

 Douglas Guards marched and counter-marched in the 

 stirring political campaign of 1860. Captain McMullin, 

 afterwards of the Seventh Iowa, and Captain Fred Pal- 

 mer, afterwards of the Eighth Iowa, commanded the 

 opposing campaign organizations. McMullin was des- 

 tined to receive a severe wound at Corinth and Palmer 



