[Footnote 36: I copied this from a printed account some years ago. Conversing lately with a friend of General Bragg, I was assured that this was the first bill prepared.] To suggest a bill that should rightfully mark the preeminently military nature of the services rendered without giving offense to the class accustomed to monopolize the sounding titles and to wear the glittering plumes was a wonderfully difficult thing to do. Here at least was a brave and honest effort to accomplish what no previous committee had even attempted. The other committees had left the award a blank, to be filled in by a puzzled and unwilling Congress, who preferred to do nothing at all. In England probably there would not have been the same insuperable difficulty, a sovereign lady holding high military office as a matter of course; but we have thrown aside some noble traditions, and America never has a sovereign lady. There was something noble and fitting in this recommendation of award by General Bragg. Considering how great public services have been formerly rewarded, it was certainly not extreme. To go back to English history: "The Duke of Marlborough, who commanded the allied armies of England, Austria, and Germany, received the most flattering testimonials in all forms. A principality was voted to him in Germany, while the English Government settled upon him the manor of Woodstock, long a royal residence, and erected thereon a magnificent palace as an expression of a nation's gratitude. On the Duke of Wellington honors, offices, and rewards were showered from every quarter. The crown exhausted its stores of titles, and in addition to former grants the sum of L200,000 was voted in 1815 for the purchase of a mansion and estate, etc. The rank of field marshal in four of the greatest armies in the world was bestowed by the leading governments of Europe. "In England it has for a long time been the custom to reward and honor those illustrious in the realms of science and literature as well as of military success. Though with less demonstration and expenditure of wealth, our own country has not overlooked signal services in its behalf. The government of Pennsylvania in the days of the Revolution voted L2,500 for the political writings of Thomas Paine, and New York a farm of 300 acres in a high state of cultivation, with elegant and spacious buildings. Washington himself gave a woman a sergeant's commission in the army, who stood at the gun by which her husband had fallen, and on his recommendation she was placed on the pay-roll for life.