tered.

And you, brave men who wore the gray, would be the first to hold me or
any other son of the North in just contempt if I should say that now it
was all over I thought the North was wrong and the result of the war a
mistake. To the men who fought the battles of the Confederacy we hold
out our hands freely, frankly and gladly. We have no bitter memories to
revive, no reproaches to utter. Differ in politics and in a thousand
other ways we must and shall in all good nature, but never let us differ
with each other on sectional or state lines, by race or creed.

We welcome you, soldiers of Virginia, as others more eloquent than I
have said, to New England. We welcome you to old Massachusetts. We
welcome you to Boston and to Faneuil Hall. In your presence here, and at
the sound of your voices beneath this historic roof, the years roll
back, and we see the figure and hear again the ringing tones of your
great orator, Patrick Henry, declaring to the first Continental
Congress, "The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New
Yorkers, and New Englanders are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an
American."

A distinguished Frenchman, as he stood among the graves at Arlington,
said: "Only a great people is capable of a great civil war." Let us add
with thankful hearts that only a great people is capable of a great
reconciliation. Side by side, Virginia and Massachusetts led the
colonies into the War for Independence. Side by side, they founded the
government of the United States. Morgan and Greene, Lee and Knox,
Moultrie and Prescott, men of the South and men of the North, fought
shoulder to shoulder, and wore the same uniform of buff and blue,--the
uniform of Washington.

Mere sentiment all this, some may say. But it is sentiment, true
sentiment, that has moved the world. Sentiment fought the war, and
sentiment has reunited us. When the war was closed it was proposed to
give Governor Andrew, who had sacrificed health and strength and
property in his public duties, some immediately lucrative office. A
friend asked him if he would take such a place. "No," said he; "I have
stood as high priest between the horns of the altar, and I have poured
out upon it the best blood of Massachusetts, and I cannot take money for
that." Mere sentiment truly, but the sentiment which ennobles and
uplifts mankind.

So I say that the sentiment manifested by your presence here, brethren
of Virginia, sitting side by side with those w