For the existence of the Grand Army, and for the reunions in which it delights to take part, no apology is, therefore, necessary. They should be kept up because they _do_ preserve the memories of the war; because they _do_ perpetuate the sentiments, the emotions, and even the prejudices of that glorious struggle. They were noble sentiments, pure emotions, honest and patriotic prejudices, those born of the country’s great peril and happy deliverance, and no true soldier, no true American, should be ashamed of them. Let us, then, keep up the Grand Army, and our camp-fires, our reunions, our social gatherings. They typify a comradeship that should touch and warm every soldier’s heart. In all the years since the final muster-out, there have been no such friendships formed as were those cemented in the early mornings long ago, when the boys fell in and answered “Here” to the orderly’s call; or during the dusty and exhausting marches when the white pikes stretched so wearily long, and the evening camp-fires were so near and yet so far; or amid the sulphurous smoke of battle, when they “closed up on the colors” as the line dwindled away before the hot and furious fire of the enemy. The comradeship that springs from such associations and scenes as these, is worth preserving. This is the great “Soldier State” of the Union—the State which began the civil war six years before any other State had enlisted a regiment. Kansas sent more men to swell the ranks of the Union army, in proportion to population, than any other State; it had a larger percentage of its soldiers killed or wounded in battle than any other State. One-twelfth of its present total population served in the ranks of the Union army. For Kansas was not only the first cause of the war, but the new home to which the veterans turned their footsteps when their marches and battles were over. Every regiment that served in the army of the Republic has contributed its quota to swell this magnificent population, and there are men sitting around quiet hearthstones in every county of the State who can give personal recollections of every march, every campaign, every battle of the war, from Bull Run to Bentonville. In this audience, I have no doubt, are men who have been participants in every great battle of the Rebellion.