e he
was faithful to it as we all may hope to be faithful in our measure
when the times demand, that we wish his beautiful image to stand here
for all time, an inciter to similarly unselfish public deeds.

Shaw thought but little of himself, yet he had a personal charm which,
as we look back on him, makes us repeat: "None knew thee but to love
thee, none named thee but to praise." This grace of nature was united
in him in the happiest way with a filial heart, a cheerful will, and a
judgment that was true and fair. And when the war came, and great
things were doing of the kind that he could help in, he went as a
matter of course to the front. What country under heaven has not
thousands of such youths to rejoice in, youths on whom the safety of
the human race depends? Whether or not they leave memorials behind
them, whether their names are writ in water or in marble, depends
mostly on the opportunities which the accidents of history throw into
their path. Shaw recognized the vital opportunity: he saw that the
time had come when the colored people must put the country in their
debt.

Colonel Lee has just told us something about the obstacles with which
this idea had to contend. For a large party of us this was still
exclusively a white man's war; and should colored troops be tried and
not succeed, confusion would grow worse confounded. Shaw was a captain
in the Massachusetts Second, when Governor Andrew invited him to take
the lead in the experiment. He was very modest, and doubted, for a
moment, his own capacity for so responsible a post. We may also
imagine human motives whispering other doubts. Shaw loved the Second
Regiment, illustrious already, and was sure of promotion where he
stood. In this new negro-soldier venture, loneliness was certain,
ridicule inevitable, failure possible; and Shaw was only twenty-five;
and, although he had stood among the bullets at Cedar Mountain and
Antietam, he had till then been walking socially on the sunny side of
life. But whatever doubts may have beset him, they were over in a day,
for he inclined naturally toward difficult resolves. He accepted the
proffered command, and from that moment lived but for one object, to
establish the honor of the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth.

I have had the privilege of reading his letters to his family from the
day of April when, as a private in the New York Seventh, he obeyed the
President's first call. Some day they must be published,