servative and humane president. And when the history of the war itself is written and becomes a matter of record it will be shown that he was not only a great statesman but a great soldier. I wish to pledge to him and to his administration that this Society will stand by it as long as there is an armed foe facing us, just as loyally and earnestly as it stood through the Civil War. Now, comrades, no introduction is needed for our old comrade, the President of the United States.

President McKinley:-General Dodge, and my Comrades:-I do not intend to interrupt your business meeting, and have only called that I might pay my respects and bring my personal good wishes to the Army of the Tennessee, and to respond with expressions of gratitude and satisfaction to the warm words of your President in pledging the support of the veterans of the Army of the Tennessee, to the flag and to the patriotic purposes of the Government of the United States.

I need no pledge from your President. I could have known without his stating it where this Society of the Army of the Tennessee would be when the flag was assailed, and wherever it was assailed, carried by the soldiers and sailors of the Republic. I would know where this veteran army would stand when I would recall for an instant its history, with its Grant and its Sherman, its McPherson and its Logan.

As I said, I have only come to bring to you the homage which I feel for the veterans of '61, who for more than thirty-three years have taught patriotism to the people of the United States; and when the hour of our peril came last year, as the result of your instruction more than a million men volunteered to defend the flag of our country.

I thank you for your cordial welcome and bid you good morning.

Three cheers were proposed for the President of the United States, and were given with a will.

After President McKinley and his party retired, the business of the meeting was proceeded with, as follows:

The President:-As I stated, in relation to the Grant Monument, I think it is necessary for us to obtain the first appropriation of $10,000, that we should continue this committee and request them at this next session of Congress to push the matter

if in their judgment the time is opportune, and I believe it is. I would like to hear from Captain Hull upon that question.

Captain Hull:-Mr. President, I would suggest that you revise the committee a little, as there has been some reorganization of both House and Senate. I think one or two members of the committee are now out of Congress, and there are probably one or two more in Congress who are members of this Society. I would suggest that the committee be so made up that every member of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee in either the House or the Senate be placed on that committee, so as to secure their active co-operation. It seems to me that we can this year get the $10,000 for the preliminary plan. I can see no reason why we can not. In this era of patriotism and good feeling, I think if there is no other way, that I will put it on the appropriation bill and take the chances of getting the members of the House to make no objections.

The President:-Then if it meets your approval, the President will take that course. All in favor of that will say aye.

The vote was unanimously in the affirmative.

The President:-Has any member any suggestion or report to make?

Captain Castle:-Allusion was made in the report of the Corresponding Secretary to the ceremonies which occurred last winter in Washington in connection with the reinterment of the remains of General Rawlins. I was present on that occasion as a special representative of this Society, and at the request of the President I have prepared a condensed statement from which I will read a few extracts, for I think all the members will feel a special interest in what took place upon that memorable occasion. Note by the Recording Secretary. The paper is here printed in full.

GENERAL GRENVILLE M. DODGE,

WASHINGTON, D. C., October 5, 1890.

President Society of the Army of the Tennessee:

GENERAL:-Under date of February 21, 1899, you requested me to prepare a report describing the ceremonies on the occasion of the re-interment of the remains of the late General John A. Rawlins at Arlington, Virginia, February 8, 1899, which report was to be presented at the next meeting of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, of which Society General Raw

lins was the first President. In compliance with that request the following is respectfully submitted:

As one of the Vice-Presidents of this Society I was honored by the committee of the Grand Army Post in charge of the ceremonies with an invitation to be present on that occasion as a representative of the Society and deliver the address.

Pursuant to a long-continued agitation of the subject on the part of John A. Rawlins Post No. 1, Department of the Potomac, Grand Army of the Republic, the Congress of the United States passed a joint resolution which was approved January 16, 1899, as follows:

Resolved by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of War be, and he is hereby, directed to cause the remains of the late Major-General John A. Rawlins to be removed from the Congressional Cemetery, in this city, to the National Cemetery at Arlington, Virginia, together with the base and granite shaft now marking the spot, and which were erected by the children, relatives and friends, and the Grand Army of the Republic.

Resolved, That the sum of five hundred dollars, or so much thereof as may be needed, be, and the same is hereby, appropriated out of any moneys not otherwise appropriated, for the expenses of such removal.

Arrangements having been duly made under the auspices of the War Department for carrying out the provisions of this joint resolution, it was deemed by the Grand Army Post most interested in the matter that the occasion of the re-interment might properly be made memorable by such public exercises as could be conveniently arranged. After correspondence with the surviving descendants of General Rawlins, Wednesday, February 8, 1899, was fixed upon as the day for this observance. Severe cold weather and deep snow interfered to some extent with the details of the arrangements, but they were nevertheless carried out in a manner befitting the memory of our departed companion. All the flags on public buildings in the city were at half-mast by the President's order.

The original metallic case was enclosed in a magnificent new polished oak casket with bronze trimmings. The whole was draped with the American flag surmounted with a large floral and laurel wreath with broad streamers of purple ribbon, the gift of Rawlins Post. The casket thus draped and adorned was borne on a caisson.

The procession was formed at the Peace Monument, at the foot of Capitol Hill, headed by an escort of the 4th United States artillery from Washington Barracks, and its band, commanded by Major James M. Lancaster, U. S. A. A long line of carriages conveyed the members of General Rawlins' family, the invited guests and the representatives of the Post.

The procession was formed and moved promptly at 2 o'clock P. M., from the Peace Monument to Arlington Cemetery via Pennsylvania Avenue and Aqueduct Bridge. At Washington Circle the escort and band were dismissed and the firing party, together with eight non-commissioned officers, active pall-bearers, were placed in ambulances and conducted to the cemetery.

On the arrival of the cortege at Arlington the company assembled around the grave where three volleys were fired over the remains and "taps" sounded by the trumpeter. The assemblage then adjourned to the Mansion House at Arlington where accommodations had previously been prepared, and the following exercises were held:

Comrade Hiram Buckingham, commander of John A. Rawlins Post No. 1, Department of the Potomac, G. A. R., called the meeting to order and read several letters from former comrades and friends of General Rawlins, and also a telegram from the commander of John A. Rawlins Post No. 126, Department of Minnesota, G. A. R., conveying its reverent tribute to the memory of the gallant soldier and patriot.

The commander then introduced Captain Henry A. Castle, Auditor for the Post Office Department, a past commander, Department of Minnesota, G. A. R., and now Vice-President of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, who delivered the following eulogy:

COMRADE CASTLE'S ADDRESS.

When Kossuth stood on Bunker Hill, the monument towering above him, silent as the grave, but tuneful as the song of immortality upon the lips of cherubim," his voice shrunk from the task to mingle with the pathos of that majestic orator, and he interpreted its message into the thrilling admonition: bow, adore, and hope! The inspiration of our surroundings here, the significance of the occasion, and the transcendent excellence of the theme would tempt to loftiest flights of appreciative eulogy. But oratory speaks thousand-tongued from this environment and human eloqueuce is voiceless here forever more. Here halting words of praise are stilled by melodies that tremble through the air; the pale flicker of our incense is dimmed by a celestial splendor. Historic Arlington, beautiful for situation, blessed among shrines of patriotism in all the ages to come, speaks out today with its myriad voices, in welcome to the sacred, precious dust which now finds here its fit and final sepulture. And those viewless voices speak to us a solemn exhortation to reverence and hope.

Our task is one of grateful, loyal fraternity--more an expression of our gratitude and comradeship than an attempt to extol him, whose high, unchallenged title to place and recognition on these hallowed grounds is of itself abundant commendation. Yet even here and now we may do well to freshen in our minds some features of the life and character and deeds of one who wrought most worthily and usefully, even when unseen, on an exalted plane, in a momentous era; one who with continuous, tireless devotion, toiling in the shadow, but toiling terribly, through years of mortal peril, filled to overflowing measure a patriot's obligation to the land of his nativity.

The career of John Aaron Rawlins was one unique in war, unparalleled in history. At the beginning of the great civil conflict he had never read a military book or seen a company of uniformed men. At its close he had risen by successive promotions in military rank from Captain to MajorGeneral; his escutcheon bore a battle roll of victories reaching from Bel

mont to Appomattox; he had helped to organize, to marshal, and to lead the mightiest armies the world has ever known. He exercised no independent command, yet his was a sphere of pre-eminent usefulness. He was supremely executive, the right arm of power, a steadfast citadel of strength to his trusting chief. He was thus a type of the American volunteer, and the unerring law by which such men step out, unheralded and unsuspected from the body of our intelligent citizenship, as emergencies demand them, is one of the surest guarantees of the stability of the Republic.

General Rawlins was born in Northwestern Illinois, then the extreme frontier of settlement, in 1831. This was the period of the Black Hawk war, and his birth-place was in the immediate field of hostilities. His parentage was humble; his educational advantages were limited; he was nurtured in poverty-not abject and squalid, but clean, honorable, and selfrespecting. He died Secretary of War of the United States, September 6, 1869, at the early age of thirty-eight years.

The grandeur of the mighty West entered into his spirit and possessed him. He was a sturdy, manly boy; an industrious, studious youth; a successful young lawyer in Galena; a popular campaign orator; a Douglass electoral candidate in 1860; an eloquent advocate of the Union after Sumter fell; leading speaker at the war meeting in April, 1861, modestly presided over by Captain Ulysses S. Grant, where fervent communion of sympathy kindled a friendship which potently affected their destinies and the welfare of mankind.

Rawlins' father was a farmer of Scotch-Irish extraction; the son grew to manhood amid rural labors and influences. He sold charcoal on the streets of Galena,-winter product of the homestead's wooded acres. He studied at intervals in the common schools, and for a short term at an academy. He chose the legal profession; prepared for it laboriously and thoroughly; practiced at the bar with increasing promise of ultimate eminence, for seven years; then gave up all, threw himself with splendid courage and absolute self-forgetfulness, with all the glowing heat and inward fervor of his soul, into the struggle for the Union, and freely yielded up his life a martyr to the flag.

The dead are the true cost of the war. The money cost can be replaced, -the indebtedness can be, has largely been, repaid. The waste places have been built up; the devastation and ruin of towns and farms and homes has been made good by succeeding years of peaceful, productive industry, New life pulsed through all the nation's stagnant arteries; new lustre shone on the folds of the triumphant banner-only the dead were lost to us forever. And yet how gloriously they live! They live as a precious, golden memory! They live as a shining example, a priceless lesson, an inspiration of immortal hope. They live in the solid archway of our nationality, buttressed in their valor and sprayed with their blood, that spans a continent with its splendor and gathers from the seas their tribute to its glory. Although they sleep in silence all around us here, and are dead to us, yet in the chronicles of heroism, in the scheme of Omnipotence, they live in fadeless immortality.