Address of welcome, delivered to the Kansas National Guard, at Topeka, September 29, 1885.

Soldiers of the Kansas National Guard: In a recent story by a well-known American author, the characters engage in an after-dinner discussion concerning the war of the Rebellion, and one of them remarks that the astonishing fact connected with it was the superabundance of heroism it revealed. Then he asks his son: “How many young men do you know who would think it sweet to die for their country?” Very modestly the young man replies: “I can’t think of a great many at the moment, sir.” Whereupon, his uncle, a gallant soldier during the war, says: “Nor could I in 1861; nevertheless they were there.”

The occasion is wanting now, but as “they were there” in 1861, so I have faith to believe that any great cause would find them now. I can remember hearing dolorous orators, in the years just preceding the outbreak of the Rebellion, bewailing the degeneracy of the times, and declaring that heroism and patriotism were things of the past. The flash of the gun at Sumter revealed not only the Nation’s peril, but its strength and glory. In a month, farms and workshops were deserted, and the peaceful North, transfigured by the splendor of its passion, became a Nation of warriors.

In the story to which I have already referred, one of the characters, after quietly telling an incident of a desperate battle, in which his regiment sustained a severe loss, says, with intense feeling: “I don’t want to see any more men killed in my time.” This sentiment will, I feel confident, be approved by every soldier of the late war. Certainly, I hope that no occasion for calling the “Kansas National Guard” into active service may ever arise. But I am sure that if such an occasion did come, you would be equal to its duties and its responsibilities. Some of you know what war is. You learned it on fields where the earth trembled with the shock of contending hosts. Most, if not all of you, have in your veins the blood of men who were soldiers and heroes. And I am confident that, if you were called upon in any emergency demanding an illustration of true soldierly qualities, you would prove yourselves worthy successors of the men of 1861–5.

I hope you will continue to maintain an efficient organization. I congratulate you on the proficiency you have already attained in drill and discipline. This year, for the first time, the State has made some provision for maintaining a well-organized military force, and this encouragement ought to increase your interest in the organizations to which you belong, and your activity in discharging your duties as members of the Kansas National Guard. The instruction you receive as soldiers, the drill and discipline to which you subject yourselves, are not without their uses, even in times of profound peace. Every man who has been drilled as a soldier is physically benefited by such exercise; and the lessons of obedience, of respect for law, of promptness in the discharge of duty, of faithfulness, patriotism and courage, that are the inspiration of soldierly conduct—these lessons will be of value to you in every relation of life.

It gives me pleasure to meet you. I trust your brief sojourn in camp will be not only instructive, but pleasant, to one and all of you. Your general officers are all trained and experienced soldiers, who served their country faithfully and honorably in time of war, and your Major General left a leg on one of the battle-fields of the late civil war. Many of your field and line officers are also experienced soldiers. They are thus thoroughly qualified, by habits and education, to instruct you in your duties, and I have no doubt they will take pride and pleasure in doing so.

And now, soldiers of the National Guard, remember that you are here on duty. Be prompt in responding to every order; preserve discipline in your camp; and so conduct yourselves, when absent from it, as to bring no reproach on the uniform you wear. You voluntarily put it on. Try to honor it by the manliness of sobriety; by the grace and pride of duty faithfully performed; and by the walk and conduct of a true soldier, who, honoring the badge of his service, never fails to honor himself.