Excerpt from Journal of the Thirty-Thirds National Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic: Philadelphia, Pa., September 6th and 7th, 1899 You who have the good fortune to be qualified for membership in the Grand Army, and you who are associated with the several societies having community of interests with it, are familiar with the cause of, and the reason for, its existence; but for the infor mation of those not so happily situated, and for the refutation of those who even at this late day wilfully misrepresent us, a brief statement of these points by me as Chairman of this meeting, and as Senior Past commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, will not be out of place. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.