Excerpt from Journal of the Thirtieth National Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, St. Paul, Minn: September 2d, 3d and 4th, 1896 Your deeds of valor upon the field of carnage, and your mar velons fortitude in enduring suffering and privation, were only an index of your achievements as citizens of the grand Republic you saved from treasonable force and monarchical intrigue. Despite all efforts of opposition, you have for more than thirty years been, in a large degree, the governing force that impelled our great country in its unexampled march to the highest goal of material achieve ment known to the race of man. While heresies, not of you, may have at times impeded the progress of your onward march, it has ever been the mission of the Grand Army of the Republic to array itself upon the side of the right and of the truest Americanism. And who can measure this influence? How often it has been as potent for good as the reinforcement of a great army by a few thousand men in the crisis of battle, none can tell. For you, it is sufficient to know that at all times your duty has been faithfully performed. Lapse of years has now brought you to that shadowy lane whose decline, each year is more marked your activities have moderated, and must continue to grow less, while your duty re mains in unabated ratio. To me that duty seems to be that we train our youth, our sons and daughters of veterans, and those who are not, to be true sons and daughters of the Republic. Sons and daughters who will cherish the principles of the fathers of the Re public; who will cherish the public school cherish sobriety; cher ish truth and virtue; abhorring evil and besetting vices, but re specting all that goes for the betterment of morals and of the race. Let them be taught that America is better and American customs are better because they are Americans. Let them never forget that foreign customs too freely adopted may foreignize a country that owes its greatness to the fact that American customs and American ideas have made us what we are to-day - the model Re public, the greatest and best nation on earth and the hope of the world. 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.