The Grant Banquet
Twelfth toast, Chicago, November 13, 1879.

by Robert G. Ingersoll
(1879)

From The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll (Dresden Edition, 1900–1902), Volume 12.
Source: https://thegreatagnostic.com/works/grant-banquet/
Public domain. CC0 / Public Domain Mark 1.0.

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Chicago, November 13, 1879.

Twelfth Toast
  • The meteoric display predicted to take place last Thursday
    night did not occur, but there did occur on that evening a
    display of oratorical brilliancy at Chicago seldom if ever
    surpassed. The speeches at the banquet of the Army of the
    Tennessee, taken together, constitute one of the most
    remarkable collections of extemporaneous eloquence on
    record. The principal speakers of the evening were Gen. U.
    S. Grant, Gen. John A. Logan Col. Win, F. Vilas, Gen.
    Stewart L. Woodford, General Pope, Col. R. G. Ingersoll,
    Gen. J. H. Wilson, and "Mark Twain." In an oratorical
    tournament General Grant is, of course, better as a listener
    than as a talker; he is a man of deeds rather than of words.
    The same might be said of General Sherman, though, as
    presiding officer and toast-master of the occasion, his
    impromptu remarks were always pertinent and keen. His advice
    to speakers not to talk longer than they could hold their
    audience, and to the auditors not to drag out their applause
    or to drawl out their laughter, would serve as a good
    standing rule for all similar occasions Colonel Ingersoll
    responded to the twelfth toast, "The Volunteer Soldiers of
    the Union Army, whose Valor and Patriotism saved to the
    world a Government of the People, by the People, and for the
    people."
    Colonel Ingersoll's position was a difficult one. His
    reputation as the first orator in America caused the
    distinguished audience to expect a wonderful display of
    oratory from him. He proved fully equal to the occasion and
    delivered a speech of wonderful eloquence, brilliancy and
    power. To say it was one of the best he ever delivered is
    equivalent to saying it was one of the best ever delivered
    by any man, for few greater orators have ever lived than
    Colonel Ingersoll. The speech is both an oration and a poem.
    It bristles with ideas and sparkles with epigrammatic
    expressions. It is full of thoughts that breathe and words
    that burn. The closing sentences read like blank verse. It
    is wonderful oratory, marvelous eloquence. Colonel
    Ingersoll fully sustained his reputation as the finest
    orator In America.
    Editorial from The Journal Indianapolis, Ind., November
    17,1879.
    The Inter-Ocean remarked yesterday that the gathering and
    exercises at the Palmer House banquet on Thursday evening
    constituted one of the most remarkable occasions known in
    the history of this country. This was not alone because of
    the distinguished men who lent their presence to the scone;
    they were indeed illustrious; but they only formed a part of
    the grand picture that must endure while the memory of our
    great conflict survives. To the eminent men assembled may be
    traced the signal success of the affair, for they gave
    inspiration to the minds and the tongues of others; but it
    was the fruit of that inspiration that rolled like a glad
    surprise across the banqueting sky, and made the 13th of
    November renowned in the calendar of days... When Robert G.
    Ingersoll rose after the speech of General Pope, to respond
    to the toast, "The Volunteer Soldiers," a large part of the
    audience rose with him, and the cheering was long and loud.
    Colonel Ingersoll may fairly be regarded as the foremost
    orator of America, and there was the keenest interest to
    hear him after all the brilliant speeches that had preceded;
    and this interest was not unnmixed with a fear that he would
    not be able to successfully strive against both his own
    great reputation and the fresh competitors who had leaped
    suddenly into the oratorical arena like mighty gladiators
    and astonished the audience by their unexpected eloquence.
    But Ingersoll had not proceeded far when the old fire broke
    out, and flashing metaphor, bold denunciation, and all the
    rich imagery and poetical beauty which mark his great
    efforts stood revealed before the delighted listeners: Long
    before the last word was uttered, all doubt as to the
    ability of the great orator to sustain himself had departed,
    and rising to their feet, the audience cheered till the hall
    rang with shouts. Like Henry, "The forest-born Demosthenes,
    whose thunder shook the Philip of the seas," Ingersoll still
    held the crown within his grasp.
    Editorial from The Inter-Ocean, Chicago, November 15, 1879.

The Volunteer Soldiers of the Union Army, whose Valor and Patriotism
saved to the world "a Government of the People, by the People, and for
the People."

WHEN the savagery of the lash, the barbarism of the chain, and the
insanity of secession confronted the civilization of our country, the
question "Will the great Republic defend itself?" trembled on the lips
of every lover of mankind.

The North, filled with intelligence and wealth—children of
liberty—marshaled her hosts and asked only for a leader. From civil
life a man, silent, thoughtful, poised and calm, stepped forth, and
with the lips of victory voiced the Nation's first and last demand:
"Unconditional and immediate surrender." From that 'moment' the end was
known. That utterance was the first real declaration of real war, and,
in accordance with the dramatic unities of mighty events, the great
soldier who made it, received the final sword of the Rebellion.

The soldiers of the Republic were not seekers after vulgar glory. They
were not animated by the hope of plunder or the love of conquest. They
fought to preserve the homestead of liberty and that their children
might have peace. They were the defenders of humanity, the destroyers
of prejudice, the breakers of chains, and in the name of the future
they slew the monster of their time. They finished what the soldiers of
the Revolution commenced. They re-lighted the torch that fell from their
august hands and filled the world again with light. They blotted
from the statute-book laws that had been passed by hypocrites at
the instigation of robbers, and tore with indignant hands from the
Constitution that infamous clause that made men the catchers of their
fellow-men. They made it possible for judges to be just, for statesmen
to be humane, and for politicians to be honest. They broke the shackles
from the limbs of slaves, from the souls of masters, and from the
Northern brain. They kept our country on the map of the world, and our
flag in heaven. They rolled the stone from the sepulchre of progress,
and found therein two angels clad in shining garments—Nationality and
Liberty.

The soldiers were the saviors of the Nation; they were the liberators of
men. In writing the Proclamation of Emancipation, Lincoln, greatest
of our mighty dead, whose memory is as gentle as the summer air when
reapers, sing amid the gathered sheaves, copied with the pen what Grant
and his brave comrades wrote with swords.

Grander than the Greek, nobler than the Roman, the soldiers of the
Republic, with patriotism as shoreless as the air, battled for the
rights of others, for the nobility of labor; fought that mothers might
own their babes, that arrogant idleness should not scar the back of
patient toil, and that our country should not be a many-headed monster
made of warring States, but a Nation, sovereign, great, and free.

Blood was water, money was leaves, and life, was only common air until
one flag floated over a Republic without a master and without a slave.

And then was asked the question: "Will a free, people tax themselves to
pay a Nation's debt?"

The soldiers went home to their waiting wives, to their glad children,
and to the girls they loved—they went back-to the fields, the shops,
and mines. They had not been demoralized. They had been ennobled.
They were as honest in peace as they had been brave in war. Mocking at
poverty, laughing at reverses, they made a friend of toil. They said:
"We saved the Nation's life, and what is life without honor?" They
worked and wrought with all of labor's royal sons that every pledge
the Nation gave might be redeemed. And their great leader, having put a
shining band of friendship—a girdle of clasped and happy hands—around
the globe, comes home and finds that every promise made in war has now
the ring and gleam of gold.

There is another question still:—Will all the wounds of war be healed?
I answer, Yes. The Southern people must submit,—not to the dictation of
the North, but to the Nation's will and to the verdict of mankind. They
were wrong, and the time will come when they will say that they are
victors who have been vanquished by the right. Freedom conquered them,
and freedom will cultivate their fields, educate their children, weave
for them the robes of wealth, execute their laws, and fill their land
with happy homes.

The soldiers of the Union saved the South as well as the North. They
made us a Nation. Their victory made us free and rendered tyranny in
every other land as insecure as snow upon volcanoes' lips.

And now let us drink to the volunteers—to those who sleep in unknown,
sunken graves, whose names are only in the hearts of those they loved
and left—of those who only hear in happy dreams the footsteps of
return. Let us drink to those who died where lipless famine mocked at
want; to all the maimed whose scars give modesty a tongue; to all who
dared and gave to chance the care and keeping of their lives; to all the
living and to all the dead,—to Sherman, to Sheridan, and to Grant, the
laureled soldier of the world, and last, to Lincoln, whose loving life,
like a bow of peace, spans and arches all the clouds of war.
