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SOLDIERS---You are about to return to your homes and your friends, after having, as I learn, performed in camp a comparatively short term of duty in this great contest. I am greatly obliged to you, and to all who have come forward at the call of their country. I wish it might be more generally and universally understood what
the country is now engaged in. We have, as all will agree, a free Government, where every man has a right to be equal with every other man. In this great struggle, this form of Government and every form of human right is endangered if our enemies succeed. There is more involved in this contest than is realized by every one. There is involved in this struggle the question whether your children and my children shall enjoy the privileges we have enjoyed. I say this in order to impress upon you, if you are not already so impressed, that no small matter should divert us from our great purpose. There may be some irregularities in the practical application of our system.2Jump to section It is fair that each man shall pay taxes in exact proportion to the value of his property; but if we should wait before collecting a tax to adjust the taxes upon each man in exact proportion with every other man, we should never collect any tax at all. There may be mistakes made sometimes; things may be done wrong while the officers of the Government do all they can to prevent mistakes. But I beg of you, as citizens of this great Republic, not to let your minds be carried off from the great work we have before us. This struggle is too large for you to be diverted from it by any small matter. When you return to your homes rise up to the height of a generation of men worthy of a free Government, and we will carry out the great work we have commenced. I return to you my sincere thanks, soldiers, for the honor you have done me this afternoon.
[1] New York Times and Tribune, August 19, 1864. This speech is misdated September, 1864, in Hertz (II, 492). The One Hundred Sixty-fourth Ohio was one of the hundred-days regiments of Ohio state militia whose terms of service were expiring in August. James C. Wetmore, Ohio state military agent, notified the colonels of the several regiments on August 15, that ``His Excellency the President has signified to me that he would be pleased to receive a call at the Executive Mansion from you and your command when on your way to your homes in Ohio.'' (Wetmore to Ohio State National Guard Colonels, August 15, 1864, enclosed by Wetmore to Nicolay, same date, DLC-RTL). See Lincoln's speeches of August 22 and 31, infra.
[2] In the Tribune this sentence reads: ``There may be some inequalities in the practical working of our system.''