Grander than the Greek, nobler than the Roman, the soldiers of the
republic, with patriotism as taintless as the air, battled for the
rights of others; for the nobility of labor; fought that mothers might
own their babes; that arrogant idleness should not scar the back of
patient toil, and that our country should not be a many-headed monster
made of warring States, but a Nation, sovereign, great and free. Blood
was water; money, leaves, and life was common air until one flag floated
over a republic without a master and without a slave.