So I might go on, and take New Orleans, for example, where General Jackson fought a battle with the assistance of pirates, many of them black men and slaves, who became free by that act.  There the black man first fought for his freedom, and I believe black men must fight for their freedom if they expect to get it and hold it secure.  Every white soldier in this land will help him fight for his freedom, but he must first strike for it himself.  “Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow.” [Cheers.] That truth is ripening, and will manifest itself in due time.  I have as much faith in it as I have that the manhood, and faith, and firmness, and courage of New England has contributed so much to the wealth, the civilization, the fame, and glory of our country.  There is no danger of this country going backward.  The Civil War settled facts that remain recorded and never will be obliterated.  Taken in that connection I say that these battles were fought after many good and wise men had declared all war to be a barbarism—­a thing of the past.  The fields stained with patriotic blood will be revered by our children and our children’s children, long after we, the actors, may be forgotten.  The world will not stop; it is moving on; and the day will come when all nations will be equal “brothers all,” when the Scotchman and the Englishman will be as the son of America.  We want the universal humanity and manhood that Mr. Beecher has spoken of so eloquently.  You Yankees don’t want to monopolize all the virtues; if you do, you won’t get them. [Laughter.]

The Germans have an industry and a type of manhood which we may well imitate.  We find them settling now in South America, and in fact they are heading you Yankees off in the South American trade.  It won’t do to sit down here and brag.  You must go forth and settle up new lands for you and your children, as your fathers did.  That is what has been going on since Plymouth Rock, and will to the end.  The end is not yet, but that it will come and that this highest type of manhood will prevail in the end I believe as firmly as any man who stands on this floor.  It will be done not by us alone, but by all people uniting, each acting his own part; the merchant, the lawyer, the mechanic, the farmer, and the soldier.  But I contend that so long as man is man there is a necessity for organized force, to enable us to reach the highest type of manhood aimed at by our New England ancestors. [Loud applause.]

* * * * *

A REMINISCENCE OF THE WAR

[Speech of General William T. Sherman at the eighty-first annual dinner of the New England Society in the City of New York, December 22, 1886.  Judge Horace Russell presided and introduced General Sherman as a son of New England whom the Society delighted to honor.  The toast proposed was, “Health and Long Life to General Sherman.”  The General was