previous next

[569] been for eleven years a decided labor of love. The continued success of this enterprise as a last work of an active life I greatly desire and earnestly pray for.

In 1896 was the first presidential campaign in which I participated. I had made up my mind, as soon as I was retired from the active list of the army, that I would engage in political work as an example to my children, and also as I wished to carry out my theory as to the importance of citizenship. I began by canvassing Vermont and then Maine, making many addresses in different parts of those two States. Suddenly I received a dispatch from my friend, General R. A. Alger, entreating me to join his special car in Chicago for a political tour. There with General Sickles, General Thomas J. Stewart, Corporal Tanner, and a few others I joined General Alger. We were designated a little later by the opposition as “The Wrecks of the Civil War.” We made a remarkable campaign, carefully scheduled so as to pass from place to place and give addresses, sometimes from the rear platform of our car, but mostly from stands arranged for us near the railway line. We began habitually about seven o'clock in the morning and met audiences, as a rule, every half hour during the day, and often had meetings that lasted until eleven o'clock at night. We passed through Illinois, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and finished in Pennsylvania. To carry it through and meet all the expenses of this extensive tour, cost General Alger upward of $25,000. As we met the old soldiers, their children, and their grandchildren in every part of the land, we received a royal welcome, and I am sure contributed largely

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide People (automatically extracted)
Sort people alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a person to search for him/her in this document.
R. A. Alger (2)
James Tanner (1)
Thomas J. Stewart (1)
Daniel E. Sickles (1)
Russell A. Alger (1)
hide Dates (automatically extracted)
Sort dates alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a date to search for it in this document.
1896 AD (1)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: