Captain Everest:--Mr. President, as chairman, and for the committee, I report: The committee on appointment of orator would respectfully recommend that Captain Gilbert A. Pierce be elected as orator, and as alternate. General Smith D. Atkins. The report of the committee was adopted. The President:-The next business in order will be the annual election of officers. Is the committee ready to report? The chairman of that committee does not seem to be present and we will pass to the next order of business. The next committee in order is the one appointed last year, a committee of five, of which General Pearson is chairman, for the selection of permanent headquarters for the Society. General Pearson:-Mr. President, the committee has written its report, which I now present and will read: DETROIT, MICH., September 15, 1887. MR. PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY OF THE ARmy of the TENNESSEE: Your committee appointed at our last meeting to take into consideration and report to this meeting, "First. The securing of a permanent location as headquarters for the Society, and what yearly expense t will likely incur. Second. The advisability of holding our annual meetings at such, or at some other permanent location," have the honor to make the following report: The subject is one of importance to the Society, and its consideration and investigation has been attended with some difficulty. In order to make a report which should, as far as possible, voice the views of the members of the Society, your committee deemed it advisable to obtain from the members their views on the two questions embodied in the resolution. To this end, a circular was prepared, giving, very briefly, a portion of the discussion which took place when the resolution was introduced at Rock Island last year. The Recording Secretary had this circular printed and sent to the members of the Society, requesting its return to the committee with their views expressed thereon. The committee have received replies from about two hundred and thirty-five (235) of the members, and from these we are satisfied that it is the wish of the members of the Society that a permanent headquarters should be established, where books, relics, banners, photographs of members and other property of the Society can be properly cared for and preserved. Your committee, therefore, recommend that some central location be fixed, and a suitable room be rented as and for the permanent headquarters of the Society, to remain such until such time as the Society shall by a two-thirds vote of all the members present and voting at any regular meeting otherwise direct. The expense of such headquarters not to exceed three hundred (300) dollars per annum. Of the advisability of establishing a permanent place at which to hold our annual meetings, your committee is not clear. There seems to be among our members quite a difference of opinion on this part of the resolution, and the committee deem it unwise for the Society at present to select any city where it would be obliged to hold its annual meetings. Respectfully submitted, R. N. PEARSON, E. C. DAWES, G. M. DODGE, W. Q. GRESHAM, The President:-You have heard the report of the committee. Any remarks will be in order. Are you ready to act upon the report. On motion of General Belknap, Resolved, That the report of the committee be adopted. Major Towne:-In connection with the report, I move that Cincinnati be selected as the place for permanent headquarters. General Pearson:-The committee did not understand that it was within its province to designate any place, but reported upon. the advisability of establishing permanent headquarters, the Society to decide where the headquarters should be. Secretary: What officers do you say shall have charge of the matter? Does it include the vice-presidents and other officers as well? General Pearson:-No, sir; there is nothing in the report as to who shall designate the place. Colonel Dayton:--I understand you personally now suggest the officers. What officers do you mean by that? General Pearson:-No, we do not say that; simply that the expense shall not exceed $300. The President:-The motion now before us is that Cincinnati be selected as the place for our permanent headquarters. Remarks will be in order. There was no discussion of the motion of Major Towne, and being put was carried. On motion of General Pearson, Resolved, That the officers of our Society, resident in Cincinnati, select the room to be used as headquarters. The President:-We have disposed of that subject completely. Is the committee ready to report on the subject of our officers for the next year? General Fisk, I think, is the chairman of that committee, but I do not see him present. In the meantime we will pass to the next committee. Colonel Dawes:-I wish to say for the information of members, that the Ohio Commandery of the Loyal Legion have tendered for our use their headquarters, at Cincinnati, free of charge. [Applause.] The President:-The committee appointed will take that matter in charge, and in the meantime this Society recognizes the courtesy of the Ohio Commandery of the Loyal Legion. Is the committee on General Logan's death ready to report? General Raum stated the committee ready to report, and presented the following: MR. PRESIDENT and MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY: The committee appointed to draft and submit resolutions. on the death of the late Major-General John A. Logan, beg leave to report the following: I. The Society of the Army of the Tennessee deplores the death of their late comrade and commander, Major-General John A. Logan. At this, its first, meeting after his death, it takes the opportunity to spread upon its records the high estimation in which he was held both as a citizen and a soldier. II. This Society desires to emphasize its appreciation of General Logan's qualities as a soldier. We, therefore, declare, that he was the embodiment of an American patriot, and is universally recognized as the foremost volunteer soldier of the Union army. Entering the army as colonel of volunteers, without special military training, he passed rapidly to the rank of Major-General and became the commander, in the field, of the Army of the Tennessee. His special merit is, that he was equal to every emergency; whether commanding a regiment, brigade, division, army corps or the grand old Army of the Tennessee-in either and all places, his success was the evidence of his capabilities. In his various commands his ability, fortitude, courage and pa triotism were of the very highest order. III. This Society would not do its full duty if it did not attest his high character and reputation as a statesman and citizen. He was honest, pains-taking and industrious; his career was brilliant and conspicuous; his name and fame are imperishable, and both will ever be held in grateful remembrance by his countrymen. IV. This Society further declares, that General Logan performed an act of heroism-second to no other-in sustaining President Lincoln in his policy of a vigorous prosecution of the war, at a time when such support was most needed; and which, in our opinion, is one of the crowning glories of his eventful life. V. Resolved, That in the opinion of this Society it would be fitting that a suitable statue should be erected at the National Capital in some public place to commemorate the great services in war and peace rendered by Major-General John A. Logan to the country, and this Society proposes to co-operate with the Grand Army of the Republic and other organizations, and citizens in general, in raising the necessary funds and securing suitable legislation by Congress to accomplish the proposed end. Resolved, therefore, that a committee of five be appointed for the above purpose, and said committee is hereby authorized to fill vacancies in its own body, to appoint other committees and to co-operate with committees appointed by other organizations or bodies of citizens, to raise funds, and to take such action from time to time as they may deem necessary and proper to secure the erection of a statue to General Logan as above proposed. VI. We extend to Mrs. Mary A. Logan and her family the sincere sympathy of this Society in their great bereavement. VII. These resolutions shall be engrossed and a copy sent by the Secretary of this Society to the widow and family of the deceased. GREEN B. RAUM, The President:-You have heard the report of the committee; what is your further pleasure? Colonel Brush:-I hear the motion for the adoption of the resolution reported, and I wish to say that probably the only man in this house that knew the subject of this resolution as long as I did stands before you. In the year 1830 I went to the county of Jackson, where John A. Logan was born. I was intimate with the family, and I knew John from the time he was a little boy like this, and from that time up. While it is not necessary for me to make a speech here eulogizing him, I wish to say to the Society that always, whatever undertaking he had, he was always a little bit in advance of the crowd. After he grew to manhood, his politics did not agree with mine, but he was active and not backward in putting forth his views and having them carried out in that country; and I say that while we differed from the time he went into politics, as politicians, up to the time he went into the army, there was never any occasion for hard feeling or anything of that sort between us. While I opposed the views of John A. Logan before he went into the army, as a politician, after he took up the sword there was no act of his, and I was a close observer of his conduct and with him a great deal of the time, of which I could say he was not right as a soldier. I will not make other remarks in regard to him, but I beg leave to second the passage of the resolutions. General Leggett:-Mr. President, I am most heartily in favor of that portion of the resolution that proposes to erect a monument to the memory of General Logan. I have heard a suggestion that it might be a bad precedent; that others might feel that their friends should be remembered in the same way. Now, there are but few members of the Army of the Tennessee, I don't know of any one outside of the commanders who at that time commanded it, that there would be that feeling in reference to it; that is, that the Society should take hold of it and be responsible for a fund for erecting a monument. General Logan's position was unique. It differed from that of any other general officer in the army. Our regular army men, who were educated to military life as a profession, expected to do what they did do. Some of them did more than we supposed it was possible for anybody to do, but we expected they would do all in their power to save the government in its hour of danger. We did not look to civilians so much, but in John A. Logan we found that in civil life he was fully qualified for the positions which fell in his hands as a soldier. It made no difference what the command was or what the position was, whether it was a military position or civil position. He sometimes occupied a position more civil than military, you know; but in every position he |