Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub
[graphic][merged small][ocr errors]
[ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors]
[graphic][merged small][merged small]

GOVERNOR CRAPO'S WELCOME TO RETURN

ING TROOPS.

With the surrender of the rebel army, under General Lee, on the 9th of April, 1865, and the subsequent surrender of General Johnston's army in the same month, the war which had been waged against the Union ended, and soon after the troops belonging to the various States began to leave the field. The Michigan troops being among the first to receive orders, the Twentieth Regiment arrived in the State June 4th, 1865, and others followed in succession up to June 10th, 1866, when the Third and Fourth Regiments of Infantry reached the State, being the last belonging to the State to leave the field. On the 14th of June, 1865, Governor Crapo issued the following proclamation of welcome and thanks to the returning Michigan troops, which properly belongs to the military history of the State, and is therefore inserted herein: Michigan Soldiers-Officers and Men:

In the hour of National danger and peril, when the safety-when the very existence of your country was imperiled, you left your firesides, your homes and your families, to defend the Government and the Union. But the danger is now averted, the struggle is ended, and victory-absolute and complete victory-has perched upon your banners. You have conquered a glorious peace, and are thereby permitted to return to your homes and to the pursuits of tranquil industry, to which I now welcome you! And not only for myself, but for the people of the State, do I tender you a most cordial greeting.

Citizen Soldiers! Recognized by the institutions of the land as freemen-as American citizens, that proudest of all political distinctions-and possessing, in common with every citizen, the elective franchise, which confers the right to an exercise of the sovereign power, you had become so identified and engrossed with the National enterprise and prosperity derived from the untrammeled privileges of Republican freedom, that the enemies of those institutions, in their ignorance of the principles upon which they are founded, madly and foolishly believed that you were destitute of manhood. They supposed you had become so debased by continued toil as to be devoid of every noble impulse. They imagined that you were cowards and cravens, and that by the threatenings alone of a despotic and tyrannical oligarchy you could not only be subdued, but robbed of your inheritance of freedom-of your birthright of liberty-those glorious and priceless legacies from your patriotic sires. Through the vilest treachery and the foulest robbery, these wicked and perjured

« ÎnapoiContinuă »