“How many men has she sent to this cruel war?”

“Well, I don’t exactly know; somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 men, probably.  Don’t make any difference—­all we want.” [Laughter.]

“Well,” says he, “now we must have been a set of fools to throw down the gage of battle to a country we didn’t know the geography of!” [Laughter and applause.] “When I went to school that was the Northwest Territory, and the Northwest Territory—­well,” says he, “we looked upon that as away off, and didn’t know anything about it.  Fact is, we didn’t know anything at all about it.”

Said I:  “My friend, think of it a moment.  Down here in Georgia, one of the original thirteen States which formed the great Union of this country, you have stood fast.  You have stood fast while the great Northwest has been growing with a giant’s growth.  Iowa to-day, my friend, contains more railroads, more turnpikes, more acres of cultivated land, more people, more intelligence, more schools, more colleges—­more of everything which constitutes a refined and enlightened State—­than the whole State of Georgia.”

“My God,” says the man, “it’s awful.  I didn’t dream of that.”

“Well,” says I, “look here, my friend; I was once a banker, and have some knowledge of notes, indorsements, and so forth.  Did you ever have anything to do with indorsements?”

Says he:  “Yes, I have had my share.  I have a factor in Savannah, and I give my note and he indorses it, and I get the money somehow or other.  I have to pay it in the end out of the crop.”

“Well,” says I, “now look here.  In 1861 the Southern States had 4,000,000 slaves as property, for which the States of Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and so forth, were indorsers.  We were on the bond.  Your slaves were protected by the same law which protects land and other property.  Now, you got mad at them because they didn’t think exactly as you did about religion, and about this thing and t’other thing; and like a set of fools you first took your bond and drew your pen through the indorser’s names.  Do you know what the effect will be?  You will never get paid for those niggers at all.” [Laughter.] “They are gone.  They’re free men now.”

“Well,” says he, “we were the greatest set of fools that ever were in the world.” [Laughter.]

And so I saw one reconstructed man in the good State of Georgia before I left it. [Laughter and applause.]

Yes, my friends, in those days things looked gloomy to us, but the decree came from a higher power.  No pen, no statesman, in fact, no divine could have solved the riddle which bound us at that time; nothing but the great God of War.  And you and your fathers, your ancestors, if you please, of whom I profess to be one [applause], had to resort to the great arbiter of battles, and call upon Jove himself.  And now all men in America, North and South, East and West, stand free before the tribunal of the Almighty, each