I assure you that I am profoundly aware of the solemn significance of
the thing that has now taken place. The Daughters of the Confederacy
have presented a memorial of their dead to the Government of the United
States. I hope that you have noted the history of the conception of this
idea. It was suggested by a President of the United States who had
himself been a distinguished officer in the Union Army. It was
authorized by an act of Congress of the United States. The corner-stone
of the monument was laid by a President of the United States elevated to
his position by the votes of the party which had chiefly prided itself
upon sustaining the war for the Union, and who, while Secretary of War,
had himself given authority to erect it. And, now, it has fallen to my
lot to accept in the name of the great Government, which I am privileged
for the time to represent, this emblem of a reunited people. I am not so
much happy as proud to participate in this capacity on such an
occasion,--proud that I should represent such a people. Am I mistaken,
ladies and gentlemen, in supposing that nothing of this sort could have
occurred in anything but a democracy? The people of a democracy are not
related to their rulers as subjects are related to a government. They
are themselves the sovereign authority, and as they are neighbors of
each other, quickened by the same influences and moved by the same
motives, they can understand each other. They are shot through with some
of the deepest and profoundest instincts of human sympathy. They choose
their governments; they select their rulers; they live their own life,
and they will not have that life disturbed and discolored by fraternal
misunderstandings. I know that a reuniting of spirits like this can take
place more quickly in our time than in any other because men are now
united by an easier transmission of those influences which make up the
foundations of peace and of mutual understanding, but no process can
work these effects unless there is a conducting medium. The conducting
medium in this instance is the united heart of a great people. I am not
going to detain you by trying to repeat any of the eloquent thoughts
which have moved us this afternoon, for I rejoice in the simplicity of
the task which is assigned to me. My privilege is this, ladies and
gentlemen: To declare this chapter in the history of the United States
closed and ended, and I bid you turn with me with your faces to the
future, quickened by the memories of the past, but with nothing to do
with the contests of the past, knowing, as we have shed our blood upon
opposite sides, we now face and admire one another. I do not know how
many years ago it was that the _Century Dictionary_ was published, but I
remember one day in the _Century Cyclopedia of Names_ I had occasion to
turn to the name of Robert E. Lee, and I found him there in that book
published in New York City simply described as a great American general.
The generosity of our judgments did not begin to-day. The generosity of
our judgment was made up soon after this great struggle was over. Men
came and sat together again in the Congress and united in all the
efforts of peace and of government, and our solemn duty is to see that
each one of us is in his own consciousness and in his own conduct a
replica of this great reunited people. It is our duty and our privilege
to be like the country we represent and, speaking no word of malice, no
word of criticism even, stand shoulder to shoulder to lift the burdens
of mankind in the future and show the paths of freedom to all the
world.