Address
by
Major- General 0.0. Howard
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
ADDRESS
Major-General 0. 0. HOWARD
Delivered at the"
BANQUET OF THE 41sT ANNIVERSARY
OF
Associated Veterans, Mexican War
SEPTEMBER 14th, 1888.
Veterans of the Mexican War,
COMRADES: As men grow older they dwell more and more
in the past. The few Mexican Veterans who remain amongst
us have the clearest cut recollections of the wonderful work
done by our little Army and Navy, from the first venture
across the Rio Grande with Taylor, to the grand consumma-
tion, under Scott, at the City of Mexico.
I sympathize with all this, and love to hear over again the-
thrice told tales of our youth. But somehow, in view of the
present condition of our Army and Navy, and of coming
events in which they are to bear a part, my eye turns to the
future. Your past record is certainly fruitful, grand and
inspiring, but now the pressing question is: "What can
your children and your children's children do to secure,,
enhance and perpetuate the blessings which they inherit
from you?"
We learn from our President that there is in the United
States Treasury a surplus of more than $130,000,000.
Now as the two great political parties are contending as to
the best method ol raising a permanent revenue for the
country, which we who live on salaries hope indeed they will
do, it is nowhere said just what they propose to do with this
$130,000,000, or with any other such trifling sum that may
again, by some want of statesmanship, get fixedly into the
Treasury.
As every man, Mexican Veterans included, but Army and
Navy excepted, has an interest in the exercise of his individ-
ual sovereignty, would not you, Mr. Chairman, be willing,
speaking for the Army and Navy, to suggest that in future
messages to Congress, his Excellency, the President of the
United States, do call upon our legislators to remember the
Army and Navy in connection with this surplus.
The Navy does not want wooden hulks, except for memorials
of the several wars the Bovolutionary, the War of 1812, the
Mexican and the War of the Rebellion. She must have the
right sort of bottoms, even if she is to cover them with iron
or steel, and she must have the iron and the steel and pay
the architect and builder. Behold the honorable naval
structures, which Homer and Virgil with all their wild imag-
inings could not have conceived, carved out of that surplus.
Why we might even restore our merchant marine under our
own flag, with naval officers commanding first-class ships of
modern build; which, sailing to the ports of France or into
the Bosphorus, would rival those of Great Britain, if by any
chance the surplus should continue itself from year to year.
My mind rests on the Navy. I am almost afraid, it is so
personal, to speak of the Army; but you know Sir, how the
Army and Navy have worked together. They gave us our
birth-right twice, which England threatened to withhold or
destroy, they enlarged our heritage by whipping naughty
Mexico, and then holding her fast while our people bargained
. /
for her land. Hence we own to-day the fruits and flowers of
California. So, Mr. Chairman, do not forget the Army. We
do not want tumble-down forts, old wooden shanties for bar-
racks, obsolete ordnance, old guns, always faced to the rear,
gun-carriages that would fall to pieces on the first discharge.
Oh no, foreign officers are very polite, but they can not help
laughing at our poverty-stricken condition. Just think what
a relief might come through that surplus, and the additions
sure to come to it, to the little Army, which with the Navy,
has always been and must forever be the nucleus of our de-
fense.
Veterans, see in no distant epoch the borders of the lauds
which you conquered peopled with modest garrisons, well
housed! Why not? Why should custom houses, mints, post-
offices and sub-treasury buildings be constructed of the hand-
somest quarried rock? Oh, it honors the nation to have them;
it gives to our people the idea of grandeur, of strength, of
permanency to erect such noble structures made of the best
material, like the nation's Capitol and the New York Custom
House. Then pray, Mr. Chairman, why not do a similar
favor for the Navy and the Army, if not for their own comfort,
and honor, aud efficiency, at least for the nation's grandeur
and strength ?
Yes, yes, if I dared to be a statesman, I would advocate
with all my heart such adjustment of our revenues as would
^ enable large and suitable appropriations to put our Navy a
C^ little, just a little, ahead of that of any nation in the world.
I do not mean in the quality of its officers and men, for they
| are already abreast of the best, but in all of its appointments,
J in all its structures, in everything necessary to its cornplete-
^ ness, nay, its superiority.
v
And further, I would give to New York, San Francisco and
other coast cities, such Naval and Army defenses as would be
not only intrinsically a source of safety, but in the eyes of
other nations make them honorable and durable monuments
40495IF
of a nation's foresight strong barriers against any selfish
greed or sudden hostility on the part of any foreign people.
Yes sir, surplus or no surplus, in keeping with the possi-
bilities of a free people, I would not stint the Army. The
soldiers work just as hard and fight just as bravely, aye,
harder and better, if they have good barracks and good
equipments. Show the world that we respect them and they
will respect themselves. To be a Roman soldier was once to
be the noblest man. To be an American sailor or an Amer-
can soldier should always be honorable. As in the past, so
in {he present; so in the future. Is it not then, Mr. Chair-
man, a pyequisite to this soldier-honor, to make all proper
provisions for the Army and Navy ?
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
AT
LOS ANG
LIBRARY
404956
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7,1 Address deli-
-. vered at
banquet . . .
E
467.1
H8A43
GlONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
001 155563 8