are upon almost every public question. While I was governor of the state, my messages were delivered to the general assembly, giving my views in regard to all the great questions that then interested the public mind; my opinions are unchanged. If you should elect me, whatever I can do to advance those opinions will be done; they are in harmony with yours; they are to encourage the industry of the country and to remove the burdens from those industries.

"The president and the governor are but magistrates to execute the constitution and the laws, and each citizen owes obedience to the laws and to no other authority on earth.

"I thank you again, but I shall ask now nothing of you but to consider the question after you have looked the whole field over. Is it better that you shall elect me to the United States senate, or that you shall elect some one of the distinguished gentlemen who have been named by other parties? If, after you shall have given the subject your careful attention, you shall conclude that the public welfare, the welfare of the country that we love so well, and the government under which we have enjoyed so much liberty and happiness, will be best promoted by the election of one of them, you owe me no duty-your duty is to your country. You owe me nothing. I can promise but one thing, and that is, that the people of this state, and of this whole country, white and black, rich and poor, shall have my earnest, industrious and faithful services to the extent of that ability with which the Almighty has endowed me."

After twenty-one ballots, in which I received all the votes the Democratic party could command, I withdrew in favor of General W. B. Anderson, who had served as colonel of the 60th Illinois Infantry. There was still an obstinate interest which refused to vote for me, or for

General Anderson, which succeeded in finally electing Judge David Davis, as senator in the congress of the United States.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Speech of welcome to General Grant-His reply-Obsequies of Hon. David Davis and General John A. Logan.

On May 5, 1880, General U. S. Grant was received by the citizens of Springfield on his return from a trip around the world. "Suitable ceremonies were observed at the governor's residence, and General Grant was escorted from there to the state house grounds at 1 P. M., accompanied by Governor Cullom, Senator Oglesby, Hon. Milton Hay, Governor Palmer, Hon. J. L. D. Morrison, state and city officers, many public men and a suitable escort."

The following address of welcome was delivered by me according to the agreement of the reception com

mittee:

They

"GENERAL-I have been appointed by my fellowcitizens of Springfield to welcome you to the city. do not suppose that you require this evidence of their respect or affection for you, nor have they charged me with the whole duty of making you welcome. In directing me to address you in this formal manner on their behalf, they propose no more than to conform to a social custom, while they are eager to take you by the hand and for themselves express the happiness they feel in meeting you.

"General, the most of those present to-day only know you as a successful military leader whose name is a household word, and to whom the country is indebted for distinguished and patriotic services, and, as the chief magistrate of the republic, charged with the administration of its laws and the guidance of its policy during a most important and interesting period of its national history. They honor you because, during the civil war, you never doubted but that the patriotism, the courage

and the endurance of the American people would preserve the Union and re-establish the authority of the constitution and the laws, nor in peace that their integrity, industry and economy would maintain the public credit and restore national and individual prosperity. The opinions of your countrymen credit you with being governed during your public life by two maxims as simple as profound: 'In war, march and fight—in peace, earn and pay.' These maxims are too stern and simple to find ready acceptance with holiday soldiers or fanciful economists, but the present situation of the country proves that they embody the vital elements of military and financial science.

"But there are many present who know and remember you as their comrade and leader during the weary years of the war, when the eyes of the civilized world were upon them and upon you, and when the unity of the republic and the existence of constitutional government and popular liberty on this continent seemed to depend upon their patriotism and courage, guided by your wisdom and skill and supported by your never-faltering firmness. In the darkest hour of the struggle, General, your officers and soldiers never distrusted you. They knew that you would 'fight it out on that line' and on all the lines until the arms of the republic were triumphant and its flag again respected and honored everywhere. Much of what is called history is fable and illusion, but those who served under your command during the war will always believe that you are indebted for your military successes to your thorough understanding of the character and temper of the men who composed and who, under your orders, commanded your armies, to the confidence with which you inspired your subordinates in your sense of justice, your devotion to duty, your singleness of purpose, the clearness with which you foresaw the end from the beginning, and the invincible persistence of your resolution, and you are singularly fortunate

that your military fame has excited no envy, and you have written no book to prove yourself to be the hero of your own campaigns.

"There are others here to-day whom I have no doubt you will meet with peculiar interest and pleasure. They are the survivors of those who received you in the early months of the memorable year 1861, when you came from your home in Galena to tender your aid in giving military organization to the patriotic freemen who were gathering in Springfield and elsewhere in the state to take arms in defense of the Union against menaced secession and disruption. Those were dark days for the republic.

"The freemen of the country, long accustomed to the extravagance if not the violence of political controversy, were even then hardly convinced that the movements in the South were seriously hostile to the union of the states. Many of them supposed that the actual organization of the Confederate government at Montgomery was but an extreme threat intended to overawe Mr. Lincoln and his political supporters and separate him and them from those in the North who had opposed his election.

"The men who received you and accepted your valuable assistance were not so hopeful or credulous. They believed, with Douglas, that the country had reached a point where its future must be determined on the battlefield: they believed then, what all know now, that the free people of the United States will never allow the disruption of the Union, will never submit to the dictation of a section, will never permit the subversion of their republican institutions, and that the strongest government on earth is that which rests for its support upon the affection and free consent of an intelligent, patriotic people, and that their whole duty was to organize and give direction to the swelling spirit of the men of our great state.

"You assisted in organizing our early regiments and

led one of them to the field, and in that way aided in preparing the country for the great struggle then before it. You won their confidence then, and they have watched your career in all the grades in the army through which you passed, and in public civil life, and ever since you surrendered the cares of public office, with a peculiar and most profound interest. They almost claim a share in the successes and honors you have won, for they persuade themselves that they were the first to discover your military capacity and secure your services for the country.

"But their numbers have been lessened by the inexorable work of time. Yates, the eloquent orator and patriotic governor, sleeps quietly at Jacksonville: Dubois, the rugged, generous Dubois, and Butler, the sagacious and firm, rest near the city; and others, whom you will remember, followed you to the field and perished there, or have died at their homes, while Governor Wood, so earnest and sincere in his patriotism, near the end of an honorable, useful life is struggling with age and disease at Quincy; and Hatch and Williams and Mather and Bradford are present to greet you again. They survive, and with others who have passed through the periods of anxiety and doubt that preceded and attended the war, and of depression and bankruptcy which followed its close, are here.

"They have not escaped unscathed; their locks are whitened and their forms marked by age, but they welcome you to-day and rejoice with you that liberty is the law of the republic, that peace and order and prosperity prevail everywhere within its boundaries.

"I will not detain you longer, general, but will leave you to the attention of my fellow-citizens, who are anxious to tender you in person proofs of their sincere respect.

General Grant, who had remained standing during this address, made the following response :