Battle Flags of Ohio. 249
If you will incorporate this letter I
will be much obliged.
It will explain why I was not there, and
will also show that I
appreciated the patriotic and
significant character of the oc-
casion.
Trusting that this will meet with your
approval, and again
thanking you for the kindness you have
shown me in this matter,
which I assure you is highly
appreciated, I remain
Very truly your, etc.
(Signed) J. B. FORAKER.
HON. D. A. LIGGITT,
Rushsylvania, Ohio.
TRIBUTE OF EX-GOV. MYRON T. HERRICK.
Grant, the two Shermans, Sheridan,
Garfield, Thomas,
Hayes, Harrison, McKinley, Foraker,
Edwin M. Stanton, Sal-
mon P. Chase-what a host of brilliant
soldiers and statesmen
Ohio gave to the nation for the winning
of the Civil War and
for the work of reconstruction and civil
administration in the
years that followed. Men born in Ohio
occupied the White
House for half of the last fifty years
during which the United
States grew out of its provincial
isolation into a world power.
Their policies set the standards to
which nations conformed;
they determined the course of national
and international history.
Officers are an index of the type of men
that they command.
These courageous and skilful leaders of
the armies were not
more devoted to the noble cause for
which they fought or more
arduous to advance it than the legions
of men from this state
who served in the ranks or in minor
posts during the Civil War.
Almost 350,000 they were in number, and
25,000 of them gave
their lives while thousands more came
back to bear through life
the scars of battle and the impairments
of exposure and disease.
To the valiant officers of Ohio who
filled high places to the
honor of their State and Nation; to
those who went and did not
return but "gave the last full
measure of devotion" that the
Union might live, and live free from the
shame of slavery; to
those who served until peace was won and
then came back to live