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_The Great Victory.--Its Cost and its Value._

  AN
  ADDRESS
  DELIVERED AT
  CHESTNUT HILL, PENNSYLVANIA,
  JULY 4TH, 1865,

  BY
  HON. M. RUSSELL THAYER.

  PHILADELPHIA:
  KING & BAIRD, PRINTERS, 607 SANSOM STREET.
  1865.




In ancient Rome the first solemnity which took place after a victory
was a thanksgiving. The prætor suspended his judgment in the tribunal.
The wretched slave was unchained from his bench in the galley. Labor
forsook its accustomed task. All the ordinary occupations of daily
life ceased, and the people went in processions to the temples of
their gods to hang their statues with garlands of flowers, to salute
them with sacred odes, and to appease them with sacrificial victims.
Then followed the feast, with music, dancing and the games. To-day, in
a world undreamed of by those proud and conquering Romans, prepared
through silent ages for the abode of liberty, we celebrate not only
the commencement of the ninetieth year of our National Independence,
but our deliverance from a peril which threatened our very existence
with annihilation. We celebrate the termination of a war conducted
upon a scale of gigantic magnitude, and the return of blessed peace
throughout all the land. On mountain and river, on forest and prairie,
on the crowded marts of commerce, on the humming hives of industry, on
the cultivated fields, on the unredeemed wilderness, on the palaces of
the rich and the cottages of the poor, on the sea and on the land, the
calm sunshine of this gracious peace pours down; blessing, rejoicing,
purifying, elevating, comforting, strengthening the hearts and homes
and hopes of all men. At such a time we would, indeed, incur the guilt
of an immeasurable ingratitude and be rebuked by a voice from the ashes
of that heathen Rome itself if our first thoughts were not those of
grateful thanks to the GIVER of all Good for the blessings he
has bestowed, and our first words those words of humble acknowledgment
and thankful praise--“THY right hand and THY holy arm hath gotten us the
victory.”

The peace which, under the blessing of Divine Providence, hath been
achieved, is a peace, thank God, not wrung from our fears or built
upon our dishonor. It is not the result of an iniquitous and patched
up compromise between good and evil. It is not the wretched bargain of
time-serving politicians. It is not the miserable and temporary truce
where hostile principles shake hands with each other for the moment,
only to turn and tear each other with greater fury than before. It
is not founded on mere expediency. It is not made in the mean spirit
which would spare ourselves but ruin our posterity, which would save
ourselves but destroy our country. No; it is a peace snatched from the
arms of victory. It is born of the fearful struggles of successful
war. It is the triumph of liberty and law. It is the assertion of the
Nation’s right to live. It is the just sequel of that great revolution
whose successful accomplishment we celebrate to-day. It is the
vindication of the Declaration of Independence, of the Constitution, of
the flag of our fathers, of the unity of the Nation, of the integrity
of our country, of civilization, of freedom, of political equality, of
our honor, our duty, and our privileges.

The present despotic ruler of France declared, among his earliest
utterances for the purpose of allaying the apprehensions of his
subjects and foreign powers, “The Empire--it is Peace,” an aphorism
which, under a grandiloquent phrase, secreted a lie, and which, in the
light of subsequent events, we can see simply meant that his policy
would be peace until war should become more convenient or better
adapted to his ends. With greater sincerity, and in a higher and truer
sense, we may say, “The Republic--it is Peace.” Its preservation means
its power. Its power means its ability to enforce respect abroad and
obedience and order at home. Its power to preserve and protect the
liberties and rights which it guaranties to all depends upon the
preservation of itself, of its own authority and its own integrity.
It was for this we took up the gage of battle insolently thrown down
at Fort Sumter. It was because we knew that disunion, notwithstanding
the cunning arguments made by the instigators and apologists of the
rebellion, meant not only loss of public honor and private security,
but perpetual war, that we were content to bear with patience the
hardships and privations, the burthens and sorrows of the war, let
it last one year or fifty, rather than surrender ourselves and our
posterity to anarchy and endless, hopeless war. Therefore it was that
Abraham Lincoln declared in his first inaugural address, “Plainly the
central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy;” and announced
it as his deliberate purpose, that he “would, to the extent of his
ability, take care that the laws of the United States be faithfully
executed in all the States,” and that he would “hold, occupy, and
possess the property and places belonging to the Government, and
collect the duties and imposts;” ending with this solemn appeal, “You
have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I
shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend it.”
Oh, great, good man! Oh, brave and faithful servant of the people! how
well he kept that oath, sealing it in the hour of the great victory
with his blood!

In order to appreciate properly the peace which has come at last, let
us remember that the magnitude of the struggle in which we have been
engaged is only equalled by the magnitude of the results which have
been attained. The war, although it extended over a period of only
about four years, was waged with an unexampled expenditure of resources
and with numbers seldom witnessed in the history of human warfare. The
State of Pennsylvania alone, as appears by the official report of the
Adjutant-general of the State, placed in the field--

  In 1861,         130,594 men.
  In 1862,          71,100  “
  In 1863,          43,046  “
  In 1864,          73,828  “
  Re-enlistments,   17,876  “
                   -------
        Total,     336,444  “

not including the 2,500 militia of 1862. I have not at hand
the statistics which show the number of men furnished by the other
States, but it is probably not an exaggerated statement, to say that
on both sides there have been engaged in this great contest not
less than two millions of men. The scene of active operations has
extended over an area of many thousands of square miles. The material
expenditure has been upon a scale of commensurate magnitude. During
the single fiscal year ending June 30, 1863, there were purchased by
the Government 174,382 horses, 86,254 mules, 12,730 army wagons, 3,511
ambulances, 340,906,893 pounds of oats, 283,940,284 pounds of corn,
578,113,890 pounds of hay and fodder, 95,437,787 pounds of mixed grain.
The transportation by the Quartermaster’s Department alone, during
the same year, was, of subsistence stores by land 784,833 barrels and
kegs, 17,654 cattle; of subsistence stores by water, 4,478,143 barrels
and kegs, 102,914 cattle; of ordnance stores by land, 354,659 barrels
and kegs, 883 guns, &c.; of ordnance stores by water, 386,756 barrels
and kegs, 1,093 guns, &c.; of quartermaster’s stores by land, 430,666
barrels and packages, 126,584 animals, 39,354 tons of forage, fuel,
&c.; of quartermaster’s stores by water, 753,569 barrels and packages,
109,009 animals, 88,438 tons of forage, fuel, &c. There were 1,264,602
troops transported during the year by land, and 567,397 by water. The
amounts paid for the above transportation were, by land, $8,030,003.03;
by lakes and rivers, $9,476,681.73; and by the ocean, $4,798,385.02.
There were paid during the same year for horse and mule shoes and
nails, $286,191.38; for medicine for horses and other animals,
$39,292.39; for forges, blacksmith’s and shoeing tools, $90,919.10;
for barracks and quarters, $2,359,765.66; for transportation and supply
of prisoners, $95,836.47; for clothing and camp and garrison equipage,
$55,887,505.58. There were purchased by the War Department during the
same year, 214,718 cords of wood, 130,820 tons of coal, (this of course
does not embrace the enormous quantity purchased by the Navy Department
during the same period,) 64 locomotives, 899 freight cars, 196 medicine
wagons, 39,412,889 feet of lumber, 56,000 bricks, 1,436,566 pounds of
nails, 2,078,530 horse shoes, 236,288 pounds horse shoe nails, 414,700
pounds of leather, 548,044 pounds of rope, 17,969 saddle blankets,
4,273 pack saddles, 235,497 wagon covers. There were employed in the
Quartermaster’s Department during the same year 32 ships, 42 brigs, 554
schooners, 4 sloops, 72 propellers, 88 steam tugs, 12 ferry boats, 13
tow boats, 649 barges, 1,222 steamers; for the earnings of which were
paid $17,788,043.53.

These figures, taken at random from only a partial report of a single
bureau of a single department of the Government for a single year,
convey but an imperfect idea of the scale of material expenditure
upon which this great struggle was carried on. During the fiscal
year ending June 30, 1863, the expenditures by the War Department
were $599,298,600.83. By the Navy Department, $63,211,105.27.
During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1864, the expenditures of
the War Department were $690,791,842.97. By the Navy Department,
$85,733,292.77. But we need not dwell upon particulars. We know the
fact, that the debt incurred during the prosecution of the war amounts
to about $3000,000,000.

But this is the smallest part of the sacrifices which the Nation has
made to defend its life and perpetuate in the world the principle
of self-government. What shall we say of the thousands and tens of
thousands of brave men who have laid down their lives in our defence,
and who sleep in their beds of glory from the heights of Gettysburg to
the plains of Texas. Heroic, self-sacrificing men! They died for the
Declaration of Independence, for the Constitution, for their country,
for mankind. They have consecrated to everlasting freedom the soil in
which they repose. They stand in no need of our poor eulogies. Their
memory and their deeds will be revered while the world shall stand.
As he--the last, the greatest, noblest martyr of them all--said at
Gettysburg:--“The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here,
have consecrated this ground far above our power to add or detract.
The world will little note or long remember what we say here, but it
can never forget what they did here. It is rather for us to be here
dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these
honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which they
here gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly
resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that the Nation
shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that the Government
of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from
the earth.”

Nor, in counting up the cost of this dread struggle, must we overlook
that great army of stricken and wounded men who, although they have
survived the conflict of arms, have returned to us maimed and crippled
for life. If we shall neglect our duty to them and disregard the mute
appeal of their honorable scars; if we shall ever cease to treat them
with that respect and tender consideration to which their services
and their sufferings alike entitle them; or, if we shall forbear to
extend to them that generous succour which they need, we shall be alike
insensible to the claims of gratitude and the demands of honor.

If we turn our eyes to the region in which this great convulsion
originated, we behold stretched out before us the prostrate, desolated
South; its resources exhausted, its commerce blighted, its agriculture
deserted, its industrial interests paralyzed, its internal improvements
destroyed, its people bankrupt, its homes darkened, and the genius
of her once fair and beautiful domain sitting in silence and tears,
and awaiting the generous hand which shall soon raise her from her
humiliation and her grief, and set her again in the place of a
companion and an equal. If the crime was great, who shall say that
the retribution is not sufficient! God forbid that in the presence of
calamities so wide-spread and so profound we should indulge in any
spirit of pride or exultation.

    “Roll not a drum, sound not a clarion note
      Of haughty triumph to the silent sky;
    Hush’d be the shout of joy in every throat,
      And veiled the flash of pride in every eye.

    “Not with _Te Deums_ loud and high hosannas
      Greet we the awful victory we have won,
    But with our arms revers’d and lowered banners
      We stand--our work is done!

    “THY work is done, God, terrible and just,
      Who lay’dst upon our hearts and hands this task,
    And kneeling, with our foreheads in the dust,
      We venture PEACE to ask.”

But let us turn from the contemplation of the sufferings and sacrifices
of this great war, to weigh the fruits of the victory which the country
has by the blessing of God achieved.

First, It has been established once and for ever, that the people who
dwell between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, the Great Lakes and
the Gulf are a Nation--one and indivisible. That the Constitution of
the United States is the supreme law of this Nation; that this Nation
exists, not as a partnership between States, but as a Government “of
the people, by the people and for the people.” That State Sovereignty
is an idea fundamentally and absolutely false and inconsistent with the
Constitution. That it is indeed the “monster” which Washington called
it in his letter of March 10, 1787, to John Jay.[A] That political
sovereignty resides with the people alone in their collective capacity,
and the only organ for its expression in matters affecting the National
interests is the Constitution and Government of the United States. That
all State Governments are based upon the principle of unconditional and
perpetual loyalty to the Government of the United States, subordination
to its power, and submission to its Constitution and laws. That the
doctrine of secession is a folly and a crime. Nay, not only a crime,
but, as the history of the war has proved, the compendium of all
crimes. Since the formation of the Government, this wicked doctrine,
the legitimate offspring of the flagitious heresy of State sovereignty,
has laid in wait to undermine our strength and to assault our peace
and prosperity. General Washington declared in his letter to Congress
transmitting the Constitution framed by the Convention of which he was
the President, “that the greatest interest of every true American was
the consolidation of our Union, in which is involved our prosperity,
felicity and safety.” The conspiracy, which had for its object the
destruction of the principles of the Declaration of Independence and
the principles of Washington, has met an overthrow more complete and
a destruction more absolute than any which has ever attended any
revolution of similar pretensions. State sovereignty and secession are
absolutely and utterly destroyed by the war. No foundered ship that
lies rotting in the soundless depths of the ocean is more deeply buried
than they.

  [A] Jay’s Life, vol. 1, p. 258.

Another effect of the war is the total destruction of the institution
of slavery. The evil spirit which vexed us with continual alarms,
which poisoned the very fountain of our National life, which denied
and reviled the Declaration of Independence, which degraded us at
home and disgraced us abroad, has been put to death by the war. It
made the war. It perished by the war. Who now would seek to reanimate
its revolting corse as it lies blackened and scathed by those very
flames of war which it kindled for our destruction? It is true, we
aimed not originally at its destruction. Neither did our ancestors
in the beginning aim at independence. Even when in its arrogance
and insolence it laid hold of the pillars of the Government and
attempted to crush us beneath its falling fragments, we were for a long
time too blind to see that its extermination was necessary for our
safety. In the opening stages of the war we treated with tenderness
and consideration the demon which was even then drenching the land
with fraternal blood. But a Higher Power than that of man shapes the
destinies of Nations as well as those of individuals.

In the proclamation of a fast by the Continental Congress in June,
1775, one of the motives for recommending it was stated to be, “to
beseech the Almighty to bless our rightful sovereign King George III.,
and inspire him with wisdom.” This was after the battle of Lexington,
and after the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point. But one short
year elapsed before the Congress declared of this “rightful sovereign
King George III.,” in the immortal instrument, the promulgation of
which we celebrate to-day, “A prince whose character is thus marked
by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a
free people.” In 1775 Congress, in its address to the people of Great
Britain, said: “You have been told that we are seditious, impatient
of government and desirous of independency. Be assured that these are
not facts but calumnies.” In their petition to the king they declared:
“We ask but for peace, liberty, and safety. Your royal authority over
us and our connexion with Great Britain we shall always carefully and
zealously endeavor to support and maintain.” In less than a year they
affixed their signatures to the paper which pledged their lives,
their fortunes, and their sacred honor to that independence which they
had thus so solemnly disclaimed. The commencement of the war and the
rapid progress of events drove them to conclusions not embraced or
contemplated in their original calculations. Does any one doubt the
sincerity of the Continental Congress in their address to the people of
Great Britain and their petition to the king? In his Inaugural Address,
on the 4th of March, 1861, Abraham Lincoln said: “I declare that I have
no purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of
slavery in the States where it exists;” and his acts and the policy
of the Government were, as we know, consistent with that declaration.
Does any one doubt now the sincerity of Abraham Lincoln when he made
that declaration? Yet, on the 1st of January, 1863, he wrote “Abraham
Lincoln” at the foot of that imperishable Proclamation which declares,
“And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order
and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated
States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be free; and
that the executive Government of the United States, including the
military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain
the freedom of said persons:” adding solemnly, “And upon this act,
believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon
military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and
the gracious favor of Almighty God.” An English earl, the leader of
a great party and representative of the aristocracy of England, has
lately given to the world a new translation of the Iliad, which has
been much and no doubt justly praised. An emperor, also, straying
into the fields of authorship, has written a life of that Cæsar who,
like himself, overthrew the liberties of the people and erected upon
the ruins of the Republic the standard of imperial absolutism. Weigh
these labored efforts against the few grand words of our beloved and
martyred President, and say which are the heaviest. Compare them, and
say which will live the longest. Write them down in history, and say
which will occupy the largest space. Consider which is the grandest,
the praise bestowed upon the accomplished and titled peer and the
imperial monarch, or the grateful ejaculations of the poor slave women
of Richmond, who, as he proceeded on foot through the crowded streets
attended by twelve sailors in their round blue caps, recognized the
tall form and the gaunt and craggy features of the President, and cried
out in passionate ecstacy: “God bless you, Massa Lincoln! Bless the
Lord Jesus we have seen this day!”

We shall see that tall form no more. The great, good, wise, heroic
President has gone to his great reward. He who so loved the Declaration
of Independence, whose strong, clear mind so often and so powerfully
defended its great principles, whose hand so bravely enforced its
eternal truths, cannot unite with us in the celebration of the day
which he so greatly revered and loved. Oh, how the heart of the people
yearns for him to-day: for that care-worn, sad countenance, that
rugged, manly form; those words of hope, of honest purpose, of high
resolve, of humble trust in God.

    “Oh, slow to smite and swift to spare,
      Gentle, and merciful and just!
    Who, in the fear of God, didst bear
      The sword of power, a Nation’s trust

    “In sorrow by thy bier we stand,
      Amid the awe that hushes all;
    And speak the anguish of a land
      That shook with horror at thy fall.

    “Thy task is done: the bond are free,
      We bear thee to an honored grave,
    Whose proudest monument shall be
      The broken fetters of the slave.

    “Pure was thy life: its bloody close
      Hath placed thee with the sons of light,
    Among the noble host of those
      Who perished in the cause of right.”

In the long history of human affairs individuals occupy but small
spaces. Generation succeeds generation like the waves of the sea. Man
goeth to his long home, and there be few who, in the retrospect of
time, are distinguishable from the general mass. But while history
shall be written, while liberty shall find a refuge on earth, the name
of Lincoln shall stand beside that of Washington. There they are,
written together; for ever safe against the assaults of envy, malice
or detraction. The Founder and the Restorer. The man who first gave
life and form to our National existence, and the man who saved it from
destruction in the crisis of its fate, and in doing it restored liberty
and hope to four millions of the human race.

There are other great results of the war which time fails me to
enumerate. We have demonstrated that liberty is not necessarily
weakness. We have consolidated our strength at home. We have rendered
ourselves for the first time absolutely independent abroad. We are
henceforth in a position in which we are not to be much affected either
by foreign favors or foreign frowns. We ask of them nothing but what
is right, and will submit to nothing that is wrong. Wherever our flag
floats there are we, in the majesty of our triumphant republicanism, in
the conscious power of our renovated nationality.

Let us rejoice then at this auspicious day. Let us rejoice that the
black cloud of war hath spent its fury and that white robed peace walks
again through all the land. This is the day to which our great departed
chief looked so longingly when he said in his hopeful, trusting way,
although all was then still dark and inscrutable: “Peace does not
appear so far distant as it did. I hope it will come soon, and come
to stay, and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future time.
It will then have been proved that among freemen there can be no
successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and that they who take
such appeal are sure to lose their case and pay the cost.”

Let us, who enjoy the fruits of his labors and of the labors of the
brave men who toiled and hoped with him, who struggled and died with
him, be mindful of the great sacrifices which have been made for the
preservation of our country and the triumphant peace which now returns
to bless it. Let us value our free institutions, not only for the
blessings they bestow, but for the great price which has been paid for
them. So shall our love of country be elevated, ennobled, strengthened
and enlarged.

When Charlemagne was crowned at Rome, the people, believing that the
Roman Empire had been restored, exclaimed with shouts of joy, “Carolo
augusto, magno, et pacifico imperatori, vita et victoria!” Let us thank
Heaven to-day that after the trials and sufferings, the darkness and
dismay of war, we are permitted, upon this day, which blends the memory
of our first great struggle with that of our last great deliverance, to
exclaim, in a higher sense and with a profounder meaning, “Long life
and victory to the Republic, great, and strong, and peaceful!”




Transcriber’s note:

Spelling and punctuation have been retained as they appear in the
original publication.