Alexander Mitchell Palmer

“ Must we forever sit silent under partisan charges of waste, extravagance or mistake—many of them the necessary accompaniment of war—without any credit for the great and overwhelming result which we achieve? Let history begin to tell the truth now, and it will say that the common courage of our men and women, the combined efforts of capital and labor, the joint support of city and farm, all were welded into an irresistible force, by a leadership never surpassed in the history of parliamentary government. ”

“ Though fought under the leadership of the greatest Democrat since Jefferson, and although without the support of his party in every crisis it could not have been brought to its successful and triumphant conclusion, it was the people's war in a peculiar sense. The patriotic support given to the government during the war by men of every political faith, proves that passionate love of country and intense devotion to our institutions are a part of the creed of every political party in the nation. ”

“ We may give to individual Americans the full measure of praise which a grateful republic will always shower upon the men who sprang to its defense with unprecedented valor and unhesitating devotion to its Christian cause. But the impartial historian must and will write it down as an incontrovertible fact that the party in power rose with unstinted enthusiasm to the needs of the hour, while its leadership translated the will and spirit of the American people into decisive and courageous action, without which ignominious failure would have been our portion in the Armageddon of the nation. ”