The Maine bugle ... campaign; 1-5 Jan. 1894-Oct. 1898 - Maine.gov

KNOX AND LINCOLN VETERANS. 355
in blue, who called them thieves, pension looters and other
opprobrious epithets. The boys in blue were not indebted to
the nation, the nation was indebted to them. It owed them a
debt it would never be able to pay. In 1861 the nation was
bankrupt. An order was issued to .pay those who volunteered
to save it, in greenbacks, always to be as good as gold. In 1862
gold went to $1.42, then to $1.84 and so on up, till in '64 it was
worth $2.02. At last it took $2.85 in greenbacks to buy one
gold dollar, and the soldiers were paid not in gold but green-
backs, and the difference before the war was over to the soldiers
was $2,400,000,000. The nation really owed this to the soldiers,
or would to redeem its promise, enough to pay all reasonable
pensions for a generation to come. It would take thirty-eight
years to pay it. Again during the war those at home could
earn from two dollars to six dollars a day. Those who fought
and suffered at the front got thirteen dollars a month. The
difference in wages, counting the number of our soldiers would
be something enormous. That difference was really the soldier's
due. We took the country in its throes, and in 1864 a party
plank declared the war a failure ; while another party plank
declared that it must be fought to a successful issue. We voted
for the latter plank thirteen to one, and we fought it to that
successful issue. Patriotism is above everything. Our boys
should be taught to admire heroism, not the heroism of antiquity
or foreign soldiers, but of Grant and Sherman, Sheridan and
Farragut.
Gen. Davis Tillson was next introduced. He followed the
fortunes of the Second Maine Battery and pronounced it the
best in his belief in the army. He first trained it to shoot with
precision and was always proud of it. It turned the tide of
battle at Cedar Mountain and saved our army. It was equally
effective at Fredericksburg, at least in sharp and exact shooting,
and agam at Gettysburg. He went into the army in command
of one hundred and fifty men and came out in command of
fifteen thousand, but nothing he did was ever of more value
than his organization and training of the Second Maine Battery.