Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 October 1875 — A Speech by President Grant. [ARTICLE]

A Speech by President Grant.

At the recent meeting at Des Moines, lowa, of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, loud calls were made for President Grant. After a few humorous remarks in reference to the calls for himself and Gen. Sherman, in which he said it had been customary at the reunions of this army to call upon him just because he always made the shortest speech, the President said he had concluded to disappoint them this time, and he had, therefore, Jotted down what he wished tq say, when lie read as follows: “ Comrades —lt always affords me much gratification to meet my comrades in arms of ten and fourteen years ago, to tell over again the trials and” hardships of those days—hardships imposed, for the preservation and perpetuation of our free institutions. We believed then, and we believe now, that we have a Government worth fighting for and, if need be, dying for. How many of our comrades paid the latter price for our preserved Union! Let their heroism and sacrifice be ever green in our memory; let not the results of their sacrL. lice be destroyed. The Union and the free institutions for which they fell should be held more dear for their sacrifices. We will hot deny to any of those who fought against us any privilege under the Government which we claim for ourselves. On the contrary, we welcome all such who come forward in good faith to help build up the waste places and to perpetuate our institutions against all enemies as brothers in full interest with us in a common heritage; but we are not prepared to apologize for the part we took in tlie war. It is to be hoped that .the like trials will never again befall our country. In their settlement no class of people can more heartily join than the soldiers who submitted to the dangers, trials and hardships of the camp and the battle-field,onwhich-ever side lie may have fought: No class of people are more interested in guarding against a recurrence of those days. Let us, then, begin by guarding againstevery enemy to the prosperity of tree republican* institutions.

“I do not bring into this assemblage politics, certainly not partisan polities, but it is a fair subject for the soldiers in their deliberations to consider what may be necessary to secure the prize for which they battled. Iu a Republic like ours, where the citizen is the sovereign and the official the servant, where no power is exercised except by the will of the people, it is important that the sovereign people should foster education and promote that intelligence which is to preserve us as a free nation. If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon’s, but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other. “ Now, the centennial year of our national existence, I believe is a good time to begin the work of strengthening the foundations of the structure commenced by our patriotic forefathers 100 years ago at Lexington. Let us all labor to add all needful guarantees for the greater security of free thought, free speech, a free press, pure morals, unfettered religious sentiments, and of equal rights ana privileges to all men, irrespective of nationality, color, or religion; encourage free schools and resolve that not one dollar ot money appropriated to their support shall be appropriated to the support of auy sectarian school; resolve that neither the State nor the nation, nor both combined, shall support institutions of learning other than those sufficient to afford to every child growing up in the land the opportunity of a good common-school education, unmixed with sectarian, pagan, or atheistical. Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private school supported entirely by private contributions, and keep the church and the State forever separate. With these safeguards I believe the battles which created the Army of the Tennessee will not have been fought in vain.”