Speeches of Benjamin Harrison, Twenty-third President of the United StatesHarrison, Benjamin
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Speeches of Benjamin Harrison, Twenty-third President of the United States
Harrison, Benjamin
Harrison, Benjamin, 1833-1901; Speeches, addresses, etc., American; United States -- Politics and government
_Mr. Adams and my Morgan and Brown County Friends_--In previous
campaigns I have not put you to the trouble to come and see me. My
habit has been to go to you, and it has been my pleasure often to
discuss before you the issues that were involved in our campaigns. The
limitations which are upon me now prevent me from following this old
habit, and put you, who desire to see me, to the trouble of coming
here. My associations with the county of Morgan have been very close.
Among its citizens are some of my most devoted personal and political
friends. There are also in your county a large number of my comrades,
to whom I am bound by the very close ties that must always unite those
who marched under the same regimental banner. Your county furnished
two companies for the Seventieth Indiana--brave, true men, commanded
by intelligent and capable officers, and having in the ranks of both
companies men as capable of command as any who wore shoulder-straps
in the regiment. These men, together with their comrades of the
Thirty-third and other regiments that were recruited in your county,
went into the service from very high motives. They heard the call of
their country, saying: "He that loveth father or mother or wife or
child or houses or lands more than me is not worthy of me," and they
were found worthy by this supreme test. Many of you were so careless
of a money recompense for the service you offered and gave that when
you lifted your hands and swore to protect and defend the Constitution
and the flag you didn't even know what your pay was to be. [Cries
of "That's so!"] If there was any carefulness or thought in that
direction it was only that the necessary provision might be made for
those you left at home. No sordid impulse, no low emotion, called you
to the field. [Applause.] In remembering all the painful ways in which
you walked, ways of toil, and suffering, and sickness, and dying, to
emerge into the glorious sunlight of that great day at Washington, we
must not forget that in the homes you left there were also sacrifices
and sufferings. Anxiety dwelt perpetually with those you left behind.
We remember gratefully the sacrifices and sufferings of the fathers
and mothers who sent you to the field, and, much more, of the wives
who bravely gave up to the country the most cherished objects of their
love. And now peace has come; no hand is lifted against the flag; the
Constitution is again supreme and the Nation one. My countrymen, it is
no time now to use an apothecary's scale to weigh the rewards of the
men who saved the country. [Applause.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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