Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. IV.djvu/37

BENJAMIN HARRISON 17 ber of veterans of the Union army: "We went not as partisans but patriots into the strife which in volved the national life. . . . The army was great in its assembling. It came with an impulse that was majestic and terrible. It was as great in its muster out as in the brilliant work which it had done in the field. . . . When the war was over . . . every man had in some humble place a chair by some fireside where he was loved and toward which his heart went forward with a quick step." To the Tippecanoe club, composed of men who had voted for his grandfather in 1840 : "I came among you with the heritage, I trust, of a good name, such as all of you enjoy. It is the only inheritance that has been transmitted in our family." Gen. Harrison was not in the habit of boasting of his lineage, of which he had reason to be proud. If it was ever the subject of conversation in his presence he never introduced it. To a delegation of farmers : "The law throws the aegis of its pro tection over us all. It stands sentinel about your country homes ; ... it comes into our more thickly populated community and speaks its mandate for individual security and public order. There is an open avenue through the ballot for the modification or repeal of laws which are unjust or oppressive. To the law we bow with reverence. It is the one king that commands our allegiance." To a delega tion of railway employees: "Heroism has been