It was not in the heyday of success, it was not under the impression that sixty days would end the war, that you were mustered. It was when the clouds hung low and disasters were thick. Buell was returning from the Tennessee, Kirby Smith coming through Cumberland Gap, and McClellan had been defeated on the Peninsula. It seemed as if the frown of God was on our cause. It was then, in that hour of stress, that you pledged your hearts and lives to the country [applause], in the sober realization that the war was a desperate one, in which thousands were to die. We are glad that God has spared us to see the magnificent development and increase in strength and honor which has come to us as a Nation, and in the glory that has been woven into the flag we love. [Great applause.] We are glad that with most of us the struggle in life has not left us defeat, if it has not crowned us with the highest successes. We are veterans and yet citizens, pledged, each according to his own conscience and thought, to do that which will best promote the glory of our country and best conserve and set in our public measures those patriotic thoughts and purposes that took us into the war. [Applause.] It is my wish to-day that every relation I occupy to the public or to a political party might be absolutely forgotten [cries of "Good! good!"], and that I might for this day, among these comrades, be thought of only as a comrade--your old Colonel. [Great applause.] Nothing has given me more pleasure on this occasion than to notice, as I passed through your streets, so beautifully and so tastefully decorated, that the poles that have been reared by the great parties were intertwined [applause]--and now I remind myself that I am not the orator of this occasion [cries of "Go on!"], but its presiding officer. The right discharge of that duty forbids much talking. Comrades of the Seventieth Indiana, comrades of all these associated regiments, I am glad to meet you. Nothing shall sever that bond, I hope. Nothing that I shall ever say, nothing that I shall ever do, will weaken it. And now, if you will permit me again to acknowledge the generous hospitality of this community, and in your behalf to return them our most sincere thanks, I will close these remarks and proceed with the programme which has been provided. General Harrison was unanimously re-elected President of the Association, Colonel Samuel Merrill Vice-President, M. G. McLean Secretary, Major James L. Mitchell Treasurer. When the motion was put by one of the veterans on the adoption of the report re-electing General Harrison to the presidency of the Association, the veterans answered with a "Yea" that brought cheer upon cheer from the crowd. General Harrison, visibly affected, simply said: "I feel myself crowned again to-day by this evidence of comradeship of the old soldiers of the Seventieth Indiana." [Cheers.]