"No tombstone or monument there, to point out to the traveler who may pass through that country—the land of bloom and sun—the resting-place of these heroes' ashes.
"No memory day there; no living hand offers them flowers over their graves; truer and braver men never died. No kind relation or sympathizing friend brought their remains back to the resting-place of their fathers; and the only testimonial in memory of our fallen comrades in Mexico, is the monument erected by the State of Pennsylvania on Capitol Hill at Harrisburg, and one by the Scott Legion of Philadelphia in Glenwood cemetery; the former to the memory of those who gave up their lives for our country's flag in Mexico, and the latter to those who have died since the war with the republic of Mexico. "Year by year our thin ranks grow thinner and thinner. To-day there is not more than one hundred men left of our regiment, which was nearly one thousand strong.
"Few of our gallant men have lived in an era of wonderful advancement and progress. Towns have grown to be large cities, and towns and cities have sprung up in the wilderness and the desert. Men of my age have witnessed the extraordinary changes in the interests of the world. We saw the first steam vessels, the first railroad, the first telegraph wires, and we all know that the ocean deep is laid with telegraph cables; and, as I said before, our whole country is spanned by a continuous railroad, from the rock-ribbed shores of New England to the Pacific coast. We have seen the first free schools, and, here lately, our own country a real, free, and independent government. [Cheers.]
"Yes; to-day every man, woman, and child, black or white, is as free before the eyes of our laws as you or I, thanks to our late lamented President, Abraham Lincoln, our grand army of the Union, and the loyal people who sustained him in carrying out the first fundamental principle and clause of our Constitution—equal rights and justice to all mankind. [Great applause.] Cries of "Go in, Jake." [Laughter.]
