ADDRESS. 



By Dr. GEORGE B. LORING, 

 OF Salem. 



0-ENTLEMEN : — 



I could not resist the temptation to accept, even at tlie 

 eleventh hour, the invitation to address your Society. The 

 associations which gather around the spot which you have 

 chosen for your exhibition, give a peculiar, half sad, half joy- 

 ous interest to this occasion. It seems like a dream, I know, 

 but it was on this plain that war planted his standard scarcely 

 an infant's day ago ; the foot-print of the soldier is still im- 

 printed on this sod ; the bugle-call of the mustering armies 

 has hardly died away among these hills ; the voice of the great 

 war governor of Massachusetts still sounds in our ears, inspir- 

 ing and encouraging the hosts who mustered here to the 

 glorious service ; the tedious toil of the camp is just over ; the 

 parting word spoken here is not yet forgotten, nor the last 

 look, nor are the tears of wives and children whose sorrow 

 and darkness and desolation began here ; the brave and gallant 

 sons who went forth from hence to die, stand before us here in 

 all their pride of strength and life, full of hope and courage 

 and confidence ; once more we have come up to the camp at 

 Readville. But it is a camp no longer. We find here upon 

 this historic ground, where one chapter of the great struggle 

 was written, all the repose and prosperity and happiness and 

 peace which the contest secured. We see here the fruits of the 

 victory. The sword has been beaten into the plowshare. 

 And we have met here to rejoice in our success ; to learn of each 

 other ; to encourage the smiles already breaking through the 



