Presidential addresses and state papers, Volume 4 (of 7)

Chapter 36: TO A DELEGATION OF THE GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC, AT NEW ORLEANS, LA., OCTOBER 26, 1905

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About This Book

A collection of addresses and official papers presented across a series of public appearances, offering speeches to civic clubs, universities, professional associations, veterans' groups, and ceremonial audiences. Themes range from advocacy for naval preparedness and deliberate foreign policy to reflections on civic duty, public service, and educational advancement, alongside local dedications and commemorative remarks. The pieces blend practical policy argument and administrative detail with rhetorical appeals to national character, urging measured conduct by officials and private citizens while connecting specific institutional concerns to broader questions of governance and responsibility.

TO A DELEGATION OF THE GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC, AT NEW ORLEANS, LA., OCTOBER 26, 1905

Comrades:

I want to thank you for coming here to greet me. I can not say how much it means to me to be greeted as I have been greeted by the men who wore the blue and the men who wore the gray in this trip through the Southland. At Little Rock my escort was composed of Union and Confederate soldiers, riding side by side, in pairs.

As I said at Richmond, second only to the man who wore the blue, I hold the man who wore the gray, and we should indeed consider ourselves fortunate as a Nation that, forty years after the Civil War, we find all of our people can challenge as the possession of all every memory of valor left by both sides in the great contest. Now we know but one rivalry—the rivalry to see which of us can do most for the flag of a united country.