William Schouler, A history of Massachusetts in the Civil War: Volume 1

[523] the battle-ground of civilization and barbarism, near the home of the arch-traitor, in the abiding-place of the social curse which has been the cause of all our woe, the tide of reverse was turned back, the men of the East and the men of the West fought side by side, the star of Banks and the star of Grant sent forth their mingled radiance. Unfriendly cabinets and aristocracies abroad caught the foreshadowing, and improved their speech, if not their wish. The free and loyal States at home have been elastic, progressive, determined, since that day. Now we witness unwonted unity among ourselves. Now, without much diversity, we stand together by the Government, and by those who administer it. Now, united, cheerful, responsive, we accede to the necessity, and accept the principles, of the policy of the President, as a basis of re-union of these States which shall endure through the policy of the fathers being at last re-affirmed and enforced, and a free republic stretching its broad belt from the eastern to the western sea, over all which the clank of the manacles of human bondage shall cease to be heard for ever.

The Governor delivered his address on Friday, Jan. 8; a considerable portion of which he devoted to the military affairs of the Commonwealth. The receipts into the State treasury, during the year 1863, from all sources, were $7,229,823.18, and the expenditures during the same period were $6,728,597.70; leaving a surplus of receipts over expenditures of $501,225.48. Of the payments made, $5,116,032.19 were for State aid to the families of soldiers, and reimbursement of bounties paid by cities and towns, and bounties paid to soldiers under the act increasing bounties, passed at the extra session in November. In regard to this act, the Governor recommended that it be extended so as to include ‘all men who in future enlist into the regular army under the late call of the President for troops,’ who might be credited to the quota of the district from which they enlisted. He also advised that the State aid be paid to families irrespective of their residence, ‘and to authorize relief to be given retro-actively when the situation of a family may require it.’ He also informed the Legislature that there was a reasonable hope that the United States would establish a general hospital in the Commonwealth, to which our sick and wounded soldiers might be transferred. A hospital has been established during the year at Worcester, and