[Speech of Horace Porter at the eighth annual dinner of the New
England Society in the City of Brooklyn, December 21, 1887. The
President, John Winslow, proposed the toast, "The Citizen Soldier,"
saying: "The next regular toast is 'The Citizen Soldier.' I have
already referred to the embarrassment which a presiding officer
feels in introducing a well-known and distinguished man. If I refer
to the distinguished gentleman who is to respond to this toast as a
pathetic speaker, you will immediately recall some of his fine
humor; and if I should speak of him as a humorous speaker you will
recall some pathetic sentence; so it is better to let General
Horace Porter speak for himself."]
MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--After General Sherman the deluge.
I am the deluge. It is fortunate for me this evening that I come after
General Sherman only in the order of speech, and not in the order of
dinner, for a person once said in Georgia--and he was a man who knew
regarding the March to the Sea--that anyone who came after General
Sherman wouldn't find much to eat. Having been brought up in
Pennsylvania, I listened with great interest to General Sherman's
reference to the proposed names of the States in the country. He
mentioned one as "Sylvania." That was evidently a dead letter till we
put the Pen(n) to it. [Laughter.] I noticed that President Dwight
listened with equal interest to the statement of that expedition which
went West and carried such a large quantity of whiskey with it, in
consequence of which the first University was founded. [Laughter.]
But, gentlemen, when I am requested in such an august presence as this
to speak of the "Citizen Soldier," I cannot help feeling like the
citizen soldier of Hibernian extraction who came up, in the streets of
New York, to a general officer and held out his hand for alms, evidently
wanting to put himself temporarily on the General's pay-roll, as it
were. The General said: "Why don't you work?" He said he couldn't on
account of his wounds. The General asked where he was wounded. He said,
"In the retrate at Bull Run." "But whereabouts on your person?" He
replied, "You'll notice the scar here." [Pointing to his face.] "Now,
how could you get wounded in the face while on the retreat?" "I had the
indiscrition to look back." [Laughter.] "Well," said the General, "that
wouldn't prevent your working." "Ah," answered the man, "the worst wound
is here." [Left breast.] The General said, "Oh, that's all bosh; if the
bullet had gone in there it would have passed through your heart and
killed you." "I beg your pardon, sir, at that moment me heart was in me
mouth!" [Great laughter.] So if I had known that such an early attack
was to be made upon me here to-night, I should have thrown my pickets
farther out to the front, in hopes of getting sufficient information to
beat a hasty retreat; for if there is one lesson better than another
taught by the war, it is that a man may retreat successfully from almost
any position, if he only starts in time. [Laughter.]
In alluding to the Citizen Soldier I desire it to be distinctly
understood that I make no reference to that organization of Home Guards
once formed in Kansas, where the commanding officer tried to pose as one
of the last surviving heroes of the Algerine War, when he had never
drawn a sword but once and that was in a raffle, and where his men had
determined to emulate the immortal example of Lord Nelson. The last
thing that Nelson did was to die for his country, and this was the last
thing they ever intended to do. [Laughter.]
I allude to that Citizen Soldier who breathed the spirit of old Miles
Standish, but had the additional advantage of always being able to speak
for himself; who came down to the front with hair close cropped, clean
shaven, newly baptized, freshly vaccinated, pocket in his shirt, musket
on his shoulder, ready to do anything, from squirrel hunting up to
manslaughter in the first degree. He felt that with a single rush he
could carry away two spans of barbed-wire fence without scratching
himself. If too short-sighted to see the enemy, he would go nearer; if
lame, he would make this an excuse to disobey an order to retreat; if he
had but one stocking, he would take it off his foot in wet weather and
wrap it around the lock of his gun; and as to marching, he would keep on
the march as long as he had upper garments enough left to wad a gun or
nether garments enough to flag a train with. [Laughter.] He was the last
man in a retreat, the first man in an enemy's smoke-house. When he
wanted fuel he took only the top rail of the fence, and kept on taking
the top rail till there was none of that fence left standing. The New
England soldier knew everything that was between the covers of books,
from light infantry tactics to the new version of the Scriptures. One
day, on a forced march in Virginia, a New England man was lagging
behind, when his colonel began stirring him up and telling him he ought
to make better time. He at once started to argue the case with the
colonel, and said: "See here, colonel, I've studied the tactics and hev
learned from 'em how to form double column at half distance, but I hev
never yet learned how to perform double distance on half rations."
[Laughter.]
But, Mr. President, this is a subject which should receive a few serious
words from me before I sit down. It was not until the black war cloud of
rebellion broke upon us that we really appreciated the Citizen Soldier
at his full worth. But when the country was struck we saw, pouring down
from the hill tops, and surging up from the valleys, that magnificent
army of citizen soldiery, at the sight of which all Christendom stood
amazed. They gathered until the streets of every hamlet in the land were
lighted by the glitter of their steel and resounded to the tread of
their marching columns. It seemed that the middle wall of partition was
broken down between all classes, that we were living once more in the
heroic ages, that there had returned to us the brave days of old, when
"none were for a party but all were for the state." [Applause.] And then
that unbroken line swept down to the front. But in that front what
scenes were met! There was the blistering Southern sun; swamps which
bred miasma and death; rivers with impassable approaches; heights to be
scaled, batteries to be captured, the open plain with guns in front and
guns in flank, which swept those devoted columns until human blood
flowed as freely as festal wine; there was the dense forest, the
under-growth barring the passage of man, the upper-growth shutting out
the light of heaven; ammunition-trains exploding, the woods afire, the
dead roasted in the flames, the wounded dragging their mangled limbs
after them to escape its ravages, until it seemed that Christian men had
turned to fiends, and hell itself had usurped the place of earth.
[Applause.]
And when success perched upon our banners, when the bugle sounded the
glad notes of final and triumphal victory, the disbanding of that army
was even more marvellous than its organization. It disappeared, not as
the flood of waters of the spring, which rend the earth, and leave havoc
and destruction in their course; but rather, as was once eloquently
said, like the snows of winter under a genial sun, leaving the face of
Nature untouched, and the handiwork of man undisturbed; not injuring,
but moistening and fructifying the earth. [Applause.] But the mission of
the Citizen Soldier did not end there, it has not ended yet. We have no
European enemy to dread, it is true; we have on our own continent no
foeman worthy of our steel; for, unlike the lands of Europe, this land
is not cursed by propinquity. But we must look straight in the face the
fact that we have in our midst a discontented class, repudiated alike by
employers and by honest laborers. They come here from the effete
monarchies of the old world, rave about the horrors of tyrannous
governments, and make no distinction between them and the blessings of a
free and independent government. They have, but a little while ago,
created scenes in which mob-law ruled the hour, riot held its sanguinary
sway, and the earth of our streets tasted the blood of our citizens.
When such scenes as these occur, we cannot wait for aid from the crews
of vessels in the offing, we cannot look for succor to the army
garrisons of distant forts; but in our great cities--those plague spots
in the body politic--we want trained militia who can rally as rapidly as
the long roll can be beaten. And I know that all property-owners feel
safer, that all law-abiding citizens breathe freer, when they see a
militia, particularly like that in our own State, go forth in the summer
to be inured to the hardships of the march, to the discipline of
tent-life in the field, exhibiting an _esprit de corps_, a discipline, a
true touch of the elbow, which is beyond all praise. I love to take off
my hat to their marching column; I love to salute its passing banners.
They will always be the true bulwark of our defence. I know of no man,
and no set of men, who more gladly or more eagerly make this statement
than those who have been reared in the regular army; and I take
particular pride in making this acknowledgment and paying this tribute
in the presence of the senior and the most illustrious living commander
of our Citizen Soldiery. [Allusion to General Sherman followed by great
applause.]
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