scale and proclaimed objects of which had caused the world to look on in expectation of achievements the like of which man had not seen.  Why was it so? was it not that they were unable to move from the depot of supplies, though a distance less than half of that over which our army passed before reaching a productive region would have brought the allied forces to a country filled with all the supplies necessary for the support of an army.  Is it boastful to say that American troops, and an American treasury, would have encountered and have overcome such an obstacle?  He did not forget the complaints which had been made on account of the vast expenditures which had been made in the prosecution of the war with Mexico; but he remembered with pride the capacity which the country had exhibited to bear such expenditure, and believed that our people had no money standard by which to measure the duty of their government, and the honor of their flag.  We bear with us from the wars in which we have been engaged no other memory of their cost than the loss of the gallant dead.  To the printed reports and tabular statements we must go when we desire to know how many dollars were expended.  The successful soldier when he returns from the field is met by a welcome proportionate to the leaves which he has added to the wreath of his country’s glory.  Each has his reward; to one, the admiring listener at the hearthstone; to another, the triumphal reception; to all, the respect which patriotism renders to patriotic service.  To the soldier who, in the early part of the Mexican war, set the seal of invincibility upon American arms, and subsequently by a signal victory dispersed and disorganized the regular army of Mexico, his countrymen voted the highest reward known to our government.  Twice before have the people in like manner manifested their approbation and esteem.  Thus has the military spirit of the country been nursed; to-day it needs not the monarchial bundles of ribbons, orders and titles to sustain it.  Thus has the American citizen been made to realize that it is sweet and honorable to die for one’s country; and to feel proudest among his family memories of the names of those who successfully fought or bravely died in defence of the national flag.  Often he had had occasion to feel, and to mark the mingled sensation of pride and of sorrow with which friends revert to those who gallantly died in the field.  Even at this now remote day he could not travel in Mississippi without having the recollection of his fallen comrades painfully revived by meeting a mother who mourns her son with the agony of a mother’s grief; a father, whose stern nature vainly struggles to conceal the involuntary pang, or tender children who know not the extent of their deprivation, though it is indeed the sorest of all.  Let none then be surprised that he could not see thee laurel save through the solemn shade of the cypress.  Time, however, softened the shadow long before it withers the leaf.  On