battalions of patriotic young men should be heard responding, as they had responded, to another President's appeal "To arms, to arms," and should be seen mustering and marching forth to the defence of the country and the support of the Government, under the influence of their example, and under the very motto of their banner!

In view of such a scene as this, - destined in the decrees of a mysterious Providence to occur while at least one survivor of their patriotic band is still living to witness it, in view of such a scene as this, could it then have been unfolded to their aching sight, with what renewed fervor, with what redoubled emphasis, with what reiterated cheers, would they have responded to that first toast and that original pledge, "Death or an Honorable Life," "The United States of America: They have drawn the sword of justice with reason; may they never sheathe it with disgrace!

I think it requires no stretch of imagination to conceive that if the founders of our corps had been initiated into the mysteries of a certain unearthly sound, which has almost become an institution with their successors, there would have been added to those cheers more than one Tiger growl.

Nor, Mr. Commander, will this name of Tiger, which you have adopted from the more recent history of our corps, as the distinctive designation of your regiment, be without its own peculiar significance, now that your martial exercises are to be transferred from the parade ground to the battle-field. There are those around me who remember how often, in years long past, we have recalled at our anniversary festivals those familiar lines of the immortal dramatist:

"In peace there's nothing so becomes a man

As modest stillness and humility:

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the Tiger."

Little did we dream in our hours of recreation that we should ever have occasion to apply those lines to any exigency more serious than the skirmish or sham-fight of a militia muster. we find them rising to our lips this day in all the solemn earnest

ness and stern severity in which they were first put by the great poet into the mouth of the Monarch-Hero of Agincourt. We feel that they are the very words for the hour, embodying the exact idea of that quick, sharp, strenuous, and overwhelming onset, which alone, so far as human eyes can reach and human instruments are concerned, would to Heaven we could see any other way!—which alone can bring this deplorable and dreadful war to an early and successful conclusion. They are words, I trust, which are destined to be familiar on the battle-fields to which you are bound, in more applications than one. Not only may we hear them recalled, in spirit if not in letter, by not a few of these brave volunteers, when rousing themselves to confront some sudden and appalling danger, or to attempt some feat of desperate and daring valor; but haply we may hear them, too, from the lips of some gallant commander, it may be the noble McClellan, or the heroic Hooker, or our own intrepid Banks, when, in the perilous front of battle, some deadly breach is to be entered, or some murderous battery to be stormed, or some forlorn hope to be led up. Then may the cry be heard, "Imitate the action of the Tiger;" or, better still, "Summon up the Tigers themselves," "Send for the Forty-third," "Tell Colonel Holbrook to bring on those sturdy Massachusetts boys, with the strange device on their banner." And then, though your ranks may be thinned, and your flag riddled, and the ground beneath your feet crimsoned with the gore of your bravest and best, then may you strike a blow and achieve a renown, which will make the action of the Tiger as memorable on the pages of American history, as it is in the matchless verse of the great English drama.

Yet let me not for a moment be thought to imply, by such an allusion to your chosen and cherished designation, that any mere brutal ferocity is all that you are called upon to exhibit and exercise in the campaign before you. You will not forget that humanity is one of the noblest attributes, and one of the most unmistakable evidences of true courage. You will not forget that the foe you are to encounter is a brother- one of your own household whom you would rather, a thousand times rather, conciliate than conquer; and whom you would rejoice to see abandoning this mad struggle against his own best interests and

his own highest obligations, and returning to his old allegiance to the Constitution and the flag of his fathers. You will not forget that admirable conclusion of a recent and most memorable order from the Headquarters of the Army of the Potomac: "In carrying out all measures of public policy, this Army will be guided by the same rules of mercy and Christianity which have ever controlled its conduct toward the defenceless." You will not forget how many of the noblest and most successful warriors of our own age and of other ages, of our own land and of other lands, have been those who have combined most perfectly the heroic with the Christian character; whose valor has been but one manifestation of their virtue; whose patriotism has been intertwined with piety; and whose bravery toward man has been at once inspired and tempered by their fear of God.

Sir, I may detain you no longer. These historical reminiscences and allusions, which I should hardly have been pardoned for omitting on such an occasion, have left me no time for dwelling on the circumstances under which you have been called forth, or on the cause in which you are engaged. But the banner at

my side will more than supply all such deficiencies. Indeed, however precious and however sacred may be the freedom of opinion and of discussion to the citizen at home, to the soldier in the field, the order of his commander, and the flag of his country, are the only and all-sufficient chart and compass of his duty. I will make no vain effort to give a new glory, or even a new gloss, to that flag. All that could be done to invest it with the charms of eloquence and poetry, has already and long ago been done. The genius of our land has inwoven itself upon every tint and thread and fibre of its hallowed texture. Yet its own majestic presence is more eloquent and more inspiring than all that ever has been, or ever can be, said of it. It is the Flag of our Fathers; the Flag of Washington; the Flag of the Union. It is the symbol of no party less comprehensive than the whole people; of no policy less broad and general than the whole Constitution; of no region, or territory, or district, or section, less extensive and wide-spread than our whole country. The stars are all there, shining out from its field of blue and red, like the glory of those who first unfurled it from the fields of their wounds

and blood. The stars are all there. We count them wistfully day by day, and hail each one of them still and always as the cherished emblem of a sister State. And most fervently do we hope and pray that, by the blessing of God, the day may soon return when each one of them may again be hailed as the emblem of a loyal and a loving sister; when a spirit of reconciliation may have been poured out effectually over all those alienated hearts; and when the blended radiance of our whole glorious constellation may once more illumine the pathway of Constitutional Liberty for all the nations of the earth!

It only remains for me, sir, to present to you, as I now do, the standard which has been prepared for you. In the name of the Boston Light Infantry Association, and of the friends of your regiment who are gathered around me, I commit it to the sacred guardianship of the regiment under your command; and may the blessing of God be upon you, whenever and wherever you may be called on to display it or defend it. And not upon you only, but upon all your gallant compeers, who have been your associates in yonder camp, and who go forth with you this day to a common field of duty and of danger:-God bless and prosper and protect them all!

WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY.

A SPEECH AT THE CELEBRATION OF THE BIRTHDAY OF WASHINGTON BY THE BOSTON LIGHT INFANTRY ASSOCIATION, FEBRUARY 22, 1863.

I THANK you, Mr. President and gentlemen, for this friendly and flattering reception. I thank you still more for any humble part which I may be allowed to appropriate to myself of the compliment which you have paid to the past commanders of the Boston Light Infantry. I may be pardoned, however, for reminding you that I am not here as an invited guest, and that I might fairly claim an exemption from the responsibilities which belong to those who are at your table in that capacity. I have come here as a member of your association, who has not forgotten his old relations to the corps from which it has derived its name and its existence, and who would not willingly be forgotten by those to whom he owes so many of the most agreeable honors of his earlier life. I was not willing to be absent from the roll-call on Washington's birthday, and most gladly did I welcome the circular note of your committee, calling on us all, without distinction of past rank, to assemble here this evening, in commemoration of that hallowed anniversary.

The day which gave Washington to his country and to mankind can never lose its hold on any true American heart. Nor ought it ever to dawn upon us without awakening a new thrill of gratitude to God, and a quicker and deeper throb of devotion to the Union. No lapse of time, no change of circumstances, can impair our veneration for his memory. No failures of others can dim the brilliancy of his triumphs. The very clouds and

darkness which surround us at this moment serve only to lend additional lustre to his transcendent character and his matchless