{
  "schema": "tga.work.v1",
  "identifier": "dresden:vol-12:grant-banquet",
  "slug": "grant-banquet",
  "title": "The Grant Banquet",
  "subtitle": "Twelfth toast, Chicago, November 13, 1879.",
  "excerpt": "Ingersoll's after-dinner address at the banquet of the Army of the Tennessee in Chicago, November 13, 1879 — one of the most celebrated pieces of American impromptu oratory.",
  "year": 1879,
  "volume": 12,
  "category": "After-Dinner",
  "author": {
    "name": "Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "wikidata": "Q360326",
    "viaf": "44331023"
  },
  "isPartOf": {
    "title": "The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "edition": "Dresden Edition",
    "publisher": "C. P. Farrell",
    "year": 1900
  },
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/",
  "url": "https://thegreatagnostic.com/works/grant-banquet/",
  "wordCount": 1606,
  "body": "Chicago, November 13, 1879.\n\nTwelfth Toast\n  • The meteoric display predicted to take place last Thursday\n    night did not occur, but there did occur on that evening a\n    display of oratorical brilliancy at Chicago seldom if ever\n    surpassed. The speeches at the banquet of the Army of the\n    Tennessee, taken together, constitute one of the most\n    remarkable collections of extemporaneous eloquence on\n    record. The principal speakers of the evening were Gen. U.\n    S. Grant, Gen. John A. Logan Col. Win, F. Vilas, Gen.\n    Stewart L. Woodford, General Pope, Col. R. G. Ingersoll,\n    Gen. J. H. Wilson, and \"Mark Twain.\" In an oratorical\n    tournament General Grant is, of course, better as a listener\n    than as a talker; he is a man of deeds rather than of words.\n    The same might be said of General Sherman, though, as\n    presiding officer and toast-master of the occasion, his\n    impromptu remarks were always pertinent and keen. His advice\n    to speakers not to talk longer than they could hold their\n    audience, and to the auditors not to drag out their applause\n    or to drawl out their laughter, would serve as a good\n    standing rule for all similar occasions Colonel Ingersoll\n    responded to the twelfth toast, \"The Volunteer Soldiers of\n    the Union Army, whose Valor and Patriotism saved to the\n    world a Government of the People, by the People, and for the\n    people.\"\n    Colonel Ingersoll's position was a difficult one. His\n    reputation as the first orator in America caused the\n    distinguished audience to expect a wonderful display of\n    oratory from him. He proved fully equal to the occasion and\n    delivered a speech of wonderful eloquence, brilliancy and\n    power. To say it was one of the best he ever delivered is\n    equivalent to saying it was one of the best ever delivered\n    by any man, for few greater orators have ever lived than\n    Colonel Ingersoll. The speech is both an oration and a poem.\n    It bristles with ideas and sparkles with epigrammatic\n    expressions. It is full of thoughts that breathe and words\n    that burn. The closing sentences read like blank verse. It\n    is wonderful oratory, marvelous eloquence. Colonel\n    Ingersoll fully sustained his reputation as the finest\n    orator In America.\n    Editorial from The Journal Indianapolis, Ind., November\n    17,1879.\n    The Inter-Ocean remarked yesterday that the gathering and\n    exercises at the Palmer House banquet on Thursday evening\n    constituted one of the most remarkable occasions known in\n    the history of this country. This was not alone because of\n    the distinguished men who lent their presence to the scone;\n    they were indeed illustrious; but they only formed a part of\n    the grand picture that must endure while the memory of our\n    great conflict survives. To the eminent men assembled may be\n    traced the signal success of the affair, for they gave\n    inspiration to the minds and the tongues of others; but it\n    was the fruit of that inspiration that rolled like a glad\n    surprise across the banqueting sky, and made the 13th of\n    November renowned in the calendar of days... When Robert G.\n    Ingersoll rose after the speech of General Pope, to respond\n    to the toast, \"The Volunteer Soldiers,\" a large part of the\n    audience rose with him, and the cheering was long and loud.\n    Colonel Ingersoll may fairly be regarded as the foremost\n    orator of America, and there was the keenest interest to\n    hear him after all the brilliant speeches that had preceded;\n    and this interest was not unnmixed with a fear that he would\n    not be able to successfully strive against both his own\n    great reputation and the fresh competitors who had leaped\n    suddenly into the oratorical arena like mighty gladiators\n    and astonished the audience by their unexpected eloquence.\n    But Ingersoll had not proceeded far when the old fire broke\n    out, and flashing metaphor, bold denunciation, and all the\n    rich imagery and poetical beauty which mark his great\n    efforts stood revealed before the delighted listeners: Long\n    before the last word was uttered, all doubt as to the\n    ability of the great orator to sustain himself had departed,\n    and rising to their feet, the audience cheered till the hall\n    rang with shouts. Like Henry, \"The forest-born Demosthenes,\n    whose thunder shook the Philip of the seas,\" Ingersoll still\n    held the crown within his grasp.\n    Editorial from The Inter-Ocean, Chicago, November 15, 1879.\n\nThe Volunteer Soldiers of the Union Army, whose Valor and Patriotism\nsaved to the world \"a Government of the People, by the People, and for\nthe People.\"\n\nWHEN the savagery of the lash, the barbarism of the chain, and the\ninsanity of secession confronted the civilization of our country, the\nquestion \"Will the great Republic defend itself?\" trembled on the lips\nof every lover of mankind.\n\nThe North, filled with intelligence and wealth—children of\nliberty—marshaled her hosts and asked only for a leader. From civil\nlife a man, silent, thoughtful, poised and calm, stepped forth, and\nwith the lips of victory voiced the Nation's first and last demand:\n\"Unconditional and immediate surrender.\" From that 'moment' the end was\nknown. That utterance was the first real declaration of real war, and,\nin accordance with the dramatic unities of mighty events, the great\nsoldier who made it, received the final sword of the Rebellion.\n\nThe soldiers of the Republic were not seekers after vulgar glory. They\nwere not animated by the hope of plunder or the love of conquest. They\nfought to preserve the homestead of liberty and that their children\nmight have peace. They were the defenders of humanity, the destroyers\nof prejudice, the breakers of chains, and in the name of the future\nthey slew the monster of their time. They finished what the soldiers of\nthe Revolution commenced. They re-lighted the torch that fell from their\naugust hands and filled the world again with light. They blotted\nfrom the statute-book laws that had been passed by hypocrites at\nthe instigation of robbers, and tore with indignant hands from the\nConstitution that infamous clause that made men the catchers of their\nfellow-men. They made it possible for judges to be just, for statesmen\nto be humane, and for politicians to be honest. They broke the shackles\nfrom the limbs of slaves, from the souls of masters, and from the\nNorthern brain. They kept our country on the map of the world, and our\nflag in heaven. They rolled the stone from the sepulchre of progress,\nand found therein two angels clad in shining garments—Nationality and\nLiberty.\n\nThe soldiers were the saviors of the Nation; they were the liberators of\nmen. In writing the Proclamation of Emancipation, Lincoln, greatest\nof our mighty dead, whose memory is as gentle as the summer air when\nreapers, sing amid the gathered sheaves, copied with the pen what Grant\nand his brave comrades wrote with swords.\n\nGrander than the Greek, nobler than the Roman, the soldiers of the\nRepublic, with patriotism as shoreless as the air, battled for the\nrights of others, for the nobility of labor; fought that mothers might\nown their babes, that arrogant idleness should not scar the back of\npatient toil, and that our country should not be a many-headed monster\nmade of warring States, but a Nation, sovereign, great, and free.\n\nBlood was water, money was leaves, and life, was only common air until\none flag floated over a Republic without a master and without a slave.\n\nAnd then was asked the question: \"Will a free, people tax themselves to\npay a Nation's debt?\"\n\nThe soldiers went home to their waiting wives, to their glad children,\nand to the girls they loved—they went back-to the fields, the shops,\nand mines. They had not been demoralized. They had been ennobled.\nThey were as honest in peace as they had been brave in war. Mocking at\npoverty, laughing at reverses, they made a friend of toil. They said:\n\"We saved the Nation's life, and what is life without honor?\" They\nworked and wrought with all of labor's royal sons that every pledge\nthe Nation gave might be redeemed. And their great leader, having put a\nshining band of friendship—a girdle of clasped and happy hands—around\nthe globe, comes home and finds that every promise made in war has now\nthe ring and gleam of gold.\n\nThere is another question still:—Will all the wounds of war be healed?\nI answer, Yes. The Southern people must submit,—not to the dictation of\nthe North, but to the Nation's will and to the verdict of mankind. They\nwere wrong, and the time will come when they will say that they are\nvictors who have been vanquished by the right. Freedom conquered them,\nand freedom will cultivate their fields, educate their children, weave\nfor them the robes of wealth, execute their laws, and fill their land\nwith happy homes.\n\nThe soldiers of the Union saved the South as well as the North. They\nmade us a Nation. Their victory made us free and rendered tyranny in\nevery other land as insecure as snow upon volcanoes' lips.\n\nAnd now let us drink to the volunteers—to those who sleep in unknown,\nsunken graves, whose names are only in the hearts of those they loved\nand left—of those who only hear in happy dreams the footsteps of\nreturn. Let us drink to those who died where lipless famine mocked at\nwant; to all the maimed whose scars give modesty a tongue; to all who\ndared and gave to chance the care and keeping of their lives; to all the\nliving and to all the dead,—to Sherman, to Sheridan, and to Grant, the\nlaureled soldier of the world, and last, to Lincoln, whose loving life,\nlike a bow of peace, spans and arches all the clouds of war.\n"
}