The months rolled on and lengthened into years, and still these men marched, and fought, and suffered, and died. And at last came Victory, and Peace, and Home. Their toils and privations, their trials and dangers, were over at last. They had filled the world with the splendor of their achievements. They had exalted and glorified the American name. They had preserved, for all the generations of men, the priceless heritage of free government. They had lifted the old flag into the very heavens, its blue field glistening with every star that had ever sparkled there, its crimson stripes bathed in the red blood of five hundred thousand patriot heroes, and its pure white folds as stainless as the shining souls of those who had died to save it. They had broken the shackles of four million slaves. They had enriched history with such a record of great deeds as never before illuminated its pages. And then, quietly and modestly, they went back to their homes— ——“Satisfied to pass Calmly, serenely from the whole world’s gaze, And cheerfully accept, without regret, Their old life as it was. “They who were brave to act, And rich enough their action to forget— Who, having filled their day with chivalry, Withdraw, and keep their simpleness intact, And all unconscious add more lustre yet Unto their victory. “On the broad Kansas plain, Their patriarchal life they live anew— Hunters as mighty as the men of old; Or harvesting the plenteous yellow grains, Gathering ripe vintage of dusk branches blue, Or working mines of gold. “Or toiling in the town, Armed against hindrance, weariness, defeat, With dauntless purpose not to swerve or yield, And calm, defiant strength, they struggle on, As sturdy and as valiant in the street, As in the camp and field. “Thus in the common fields and streets they stand; The light that on the past and distant gleams, They cast upon the present and the near, With antique virtues from some mystic land Of knightly deeds and dreams.” KANSAS DURING THE WAR. Address, read at the annual meeting of the “Military Order of the Loyal Legion,” held at Fort Leavenworth, June 24th, 1887.