And now, my son, let us hie to the siege of Washington.  Washington was besieged and Washington was saved; and the history of its salvation must not perish.  Rome, you know, was saved by the cackling of a goose.  And when I tell you that Washington, the capital city of this great nation was saved by the too free use of a barrel of whisky, you must not be surprised.  When its great circle of fortifications, now bristling with cannon, and filled with busy soldiers, shall become so many grassy mounds, their history must still live to excite the patriotism of those who come after us.

Remember, my son, that had Washington fallen the nation had perished.  To this remarkable siege, then, and its results, let all the succeeding glories of this great Republic be attributed.

As I have told you before, my son, after the first battle of Manassas, when our militia did such good running, there was nothing to prevent the rebels from entering and capturing it but the few hastily constructed forts, or tˆtes de pont, on the Virginia side.  Nor could these have offered any resistance worth naming.  Our demoralized troops, however, never halted until they got safe inside of them.  And but for these forts, weak as they were, the city would have fallen.  When General McClellan assumed command, he saw at once the necessity of properly fortifying the city.  And the nation ought never to forget him for his decision.  Experienced engineers, with large gangs of laborers, were set to work throwing up these huge masses of earthwork.  To this was added the labor of a large number of the troops of the Army of the Potomac, during its organization in the autumn and winter of 1861 and 1862.  When, therefore, the army moved for the Peninsula in the spring of 1862, the city was so strongly fortified that it was considered safe by General McClellan and his corps commanders.  That is, my son, if its forts were properly garrisoned, and there was a working force of forty thousand men.  But nothing was safe against the fears of a timid administration.

But forts, my son, however strong, are only inert masses.  They cannot fight themselves; and to give them strength and action they require to be properly and fully garrisoned.  And the troops in them require to be properly instructed in all their duties.  Now, my son, it was a question with the government, which was very timid at that time, whether General George had left, in and around Washington, a force sufficient to make the city perfectly safe when he started on his memorable campaign.  It is the opinion of nearly all our best military men that he did.  But the politicians got frightened, the government got frightened, and the political generals got frightened.  And all the frightened people got their heads together; and they made the President and Secretary of War believe just as they believed—­that Washington had been “unarmed,” and that Washington was in danger.  Yes, my son, our good-hearted