“On the evening of June 30 several thousand citizens, irrespective of party, paid their respects to General Harrison; at the head of the column marched four hundred veterans commanded by Moses G. McLain. Major James L. Mitchell, a prominent Democrat, was spokesman for the veterans.
General Harrison, responding, said:”
Comrade Mitchell and Fellow-Soldiers—I sincerely thank you for this evidence of your respect and comradeship. I am very certain that there is no class whose confidence and respect I more highly prize or more earnestly covet than that of the soldiers who, in the great war from 1861 to 1865, upheld the loved banner of our country and brought it home in honor. The comradeship of the war will never end until our lives end. The fires in which our friendship was riveted and welded were too hot for the bond ever to be broken. We sympathize with each other in the glory of the common cause for which we fought. We went, not as partisans, but as patriots, into the strife which involved the national life. I am sure that no army was ever assembled in the world’s history that was gathered from higher impulses than the army of the Union. [Cries of “Right!” “Right!”]
It was no sordid impulse, no hope of spoils that induced these men to sunder the tender associations of home and forsake their business pursuits to look into the grim face of death with unblanched cheeks and firm and resolute eyes. They are the kind of men who draw their impulses from the high springs of truth and duty. The army was great in its assembling. It came with an impulse that was majestic and terrible. It was as great in its muster-out as in the brilliant work which had been done in the field. When the war was over the soldier was not left at the tavern. Every man had in some humble place a chair by some fireside where he was loved and towards which his heart went forward with a quick step. [Applause.]
And so this great army that had rallied for the defence and preservation of the country was disbanded without tumult or riot or any public disturbance. It had covered the country with the mantle of its protection when it needed it, as the snows of spring cover the early vegetation, and when the warm sun of peace shone upon it, it disappeared as the snow sinks into the earth to refresh and vivify the summer growth. They found their homes; they carried their brawn and intellect into all the pursuits of peace to stimulate them and lift them up; they added their great impulse to that great wave of prosperity which has swept over our country ever since. [Applause.] But in nothing was this war greater than in that it led a race into freedom and brought those whom we had conquered in the struggle into the full enjoyment of a restored citizenship, and shared again with them the responsibilities and duties of a restored government. [Applause.]
I thank you to-night most sincerely for this evidence of your comradeship. I thank, specially, those friends who differ with me in their political views, that they have put these things aside to-night, and have come here to give me a comrade’s greeting. [Applause.] May I have the privilege now, without detaining you longer, of taking by the hand every soldier here? [Applause.]
Iowa Senator William B. Allison said, in a letter to Harrison, that the speech, “a gem,” “ought to be sent everywhere.” Louis B. Michener sent the speech across the country’s newspapers.
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