ADDRESS BY S. PARKS CADMAN, D.D.

Nothing is lighter or less tolerable than mere praise. Hence when we deal with those who have completed their part upon the stage of life we should avoid the beaten paths of undiscriminating eulogy and useless panegyric. The dispassionate critic is the true friend of noble memories, the ally of reality, the companion of the historic conscience. As men and women advance in morality and intelligence, they resent the intrusion into occasions of this sort of that species of oratory which is mere heart-foam, disdainful of facts, credulous of exaggerated reference and comparison, given to intense and highly colored recitals which have neither pith nor meaning. The hero of the hour was a simple, direct, highly gifted soldier; accustomed to plain, unadorned speech; taught by repeated and phenomenal experiences to respect what has been justly called the majesty of facts. He would, I am sure, deprecate any attempt to belaud him without reason, or to indulge those partisan proclivities which are fed by sentimentalism rather than by that veracity which, as the Greek adage had it, was the fellow-citizen of the gods. The knowledge of the main lines of his career, of the sources from which it derived, of the motives at the root of his singularly steadfast patriotism, of the shaping power of eminent events, acting and reacting upon his vigorous personality, are prime requisites for the successful interpretation of that favored son of war's fearful engagements, Philip Henry Sheridan.

Few of his companions in arms have escaped "the contagion of the world's slow stain." They were in closest fellowship

with the hosts they directed, and the fierce after light has beaten upon them and their deeds. Yet still fewer among them sacrificed principle to power or ambition, while ever and anon appeared among them those who redeemed the credit of their profession, exalting it, and showing what could be effected by untrammeled character and service. Among these, General Sheridan has found an honorable place. He takes rank, not alone as a military chieftain, but as a most useful agent for the sovereignty of the people. His arduous endeavors materially aided the ever-deepening conviction that democracy is the best basis for political morality, and the true source of just and beneficial government. This conviction gave rise to the American Republic, regenerated France, transformed the rule of Britain both in the homeland and in her colonies and still strives for an adequate formulation among other peoples of mankind. It would seem to me, and I hope, to you, that Sheridan's attitude toward our national political genius was not the least of his meritorious achievements. Not that he fought, and fought strenuously, but the causes which induced him to fight and held him as their bondsman in days of storm and stress, should ever be emphasized in any mention of his name.

Allusion has been made here to his birth in this city, which took place on March 6, 1831. Albany has a right to be proud of Sheridan's advent thus made in the capital of our State. But I would remind you that Ohio also claims him for her own, and has named him as one of the sons of her training whom she gave to the preservation of the Union. This, of course, is due to his having spent his earlier years in Perry county, Ohio, from a rural district of which county he proceeded to West Point in 1848 and was graduated there in 1853. Yet neither of these localities should be allowed to obscure his real origin. His parents, John and Mary Sheridan, were

natives of County Cavan, Ireland, God-fearing folk, who had emigrated from that beautiful province the year previous to the birth of their third and most distinguished child. They were Celts in every sense of the term, devout Roman Catholics, thrifty and enterprising souls, who scrupulously reared their family in the ancestral faith and inculcated in them the virtues of reverence, obedience and piety. The ancient Church of Ireland, which had spread the Christian religion throughout Brittany, Spain and far-off wintry, inhospitable Iceland; the church whose incurably nomadic monks entered the sister island of Britain and there became the founders of the Rule of Columba, was the spiritual mother of this man whom we celebrate. Her monasteries were once the centers of western civilization and learning. They alone retained some knowledge of Greek when that language was lost to the remainder of Europe. In the sixth century she nourished and sent forth the courageous and sacrificing missionaries who were found at Finnian, Ciaran, Comgell, and Brenlan. In the early ninth century whoever knew the classics on the adjoining continent was either an Irish monk or taught by an Irish monk. Day was turned into night when this living church and the Irish race were ravaged by Norsemen and Danes; pirates and outlaws of the sea, who swept away in a hurricane of blood and fire the spiritual movement so scantily known by many historians.

Nevertheless no ruthlessness could permanently repress the children of a consecrated land. In reviewing their past one is struck by the extent and variety of their activities beyond the seas, and filled with wonder that any nation, leave alone one harassed and oppressed, had the enormous mental and physical resources to undertake and accomplish so much for other nations. Both Empire and Republic are debtors to Ireland for soldiers, administrators, poets, patriots, for men of faith and vision, of action and realization. The country

that gave Sheridan to the United States in the hour of her gravest peril has given a goodly number of their bravest and best public servants to Britain, Canada, Australia, France, and Spain. The monument in Somerset, Ohio, and this one we dedicate today, should be succeeded by one erected in county Cavan, Ireland.

As a rule, the greatest reputations and the greatest results have been obtained by the concentration of human powers upon a single object. This observation applies to Sheridan. His distinctive attribute was an exhaustless energy; his wisest one, the prudence which guarded that energy from waste and projected it toward a carefully ascertained object. Hence, he left his impress, and an ineffaceable one, as a soldier. This seed, as a military magnate, was in himself. He was guided to the heights he attained in his chosen calling by the radiance of his own breast. Educationally, he was nothing notable, yet as a boy in a country store on a salary of $24 a year he studied history and mathematics, and soon began to chafe against the dull routine of his lot. The Mexican war aroused his instinct for the fray. What he thought about the righteousness of our conflict with Mexico I do not know, and perhaps he was too young to have matured opinions on the issue. One thing is apparent, that from the moment of its outbreak his determination was made, and he applied to the Hon. Thomas Richey, member of Congress from his district, for a cadetship at West Point. The letter was unaccompanied by the usual flood of testimonials from influential politicians. The writer was poor and friendless. He asked that the assignment might be given to him and subscribed his petition, "Phil Sheridan." Fortunately for the commonwealth Mr. Richey knew him and his father before him, and with admirable prescience, the Congressman gave Sheridan the appointment. He was graduated thirty-fourth

in a class of fifty-two. Cadet Henry W. Slocum was his roommate and afterwards his life-long intimate. Here again, while not deprecating for a moment the value of the discipline he received, and which, in some respects, he sorely needed, West Point does not explain his fortune. The academy polished the metal which it did not produce. For Sheridan was a fighting man by nature, and the stubborn valor, adaptability, skill, and at intervals, overwhelming onslaught of his attack were as congenital to him as ballad poetry to Robert Burns and oratory to John Bright or Daniel O'Connell.

It would be superfluous for me to dwell on the triumphs of his work, which have or will receive ample treatment from Governor Whitman, Governor Glynn and other eloquent speakers. Assuredly his environment and associations after he left the academy were not permitted to quench his zeal, and when the Civil War began, the full force of his individuality, the inflexibility of his purpose, the thoroughgoing faith he had in Mr. Lincoln and the Union soon made themselves felt. It was evident to his superiors that here was no ordinary officer, but one whose nature, aristocracy of military mind, must predominate. As a young and intrepid leader of forlorn hopes, a rising cavalryman whose comrades passed his name from camp to camp and called him the bravest of the brave, he surged onward and upward to a dazzling and even romantic celebrity; a sturdy, indomitable, and at intervals, inspired warrior whose presence in the field of action was worth ten thousand men. Perhaps this aspect of his character has been unduly magnified. There was, at any rate, another and, as I venture to think, a larger side to Sheridan, hidden from the superficial, but palpable to those who understood the mighty game in which they were severally engaged, and keenly appreciated by them. This was the cool, calculating strategy that lay beneath his terrific drives and dictated their