The following was addressed to Mr. John Albecker who read it at a recent. meeting of Farragut Post, and was ordered to be i nertedonthe minutes, As it may be interesting to Americans here we reproduce it LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Peking, China, 6th Sept. 1887, My Dear Mr. Albecker:
Your esteemed favour of the 29th, enclosing an invitation to the Reunion of the Blue and the Gray," at Evansville, 20th September and following days, came to hand yesterday. You ask me to write amy views on the subject.
"As this letter will not reach'you until a month after the event has transpired, my views become superfluous. But, if I undertook to write anything, I could add nothing to the beauty and the force of the invita: tion now in ry hand. These words: "You are most cordially invited to be present on this patriotic occasion, to take part in cele-Drating the blessings of peace and the glories of the Union preserved," tell the grand historic story.
They suggest, too, to all the world, soldier and civilian, the memory of hardships endured and heroism unsurpassed by the men who wore the gray and the blue. Long ago I urged, as you remember, this reunion..I envy the "boys," as we love to call them—though we are all gray now—the pleasure of an intercourse which, while it must recall that we were the victors, rings with' it the unqualified recognition that our quondam enemy was as brave an antagonist as over met foeman in the field.
The invitation speaks, too, of the blessings of peace"—peace which a disrupted union would never have known, and it ssu its that this Peace" means friend-one love, fraternal intercourse."
Well done, Farragut Post.
From ten thousand wiles away T send you warm and grateful greeting. I thank comrades, one and all, for the in-aspiration with which such acts as these stir the heart of one who wore the blue" in a foreign land, where he is charged with the duty of guarding the flag of his country, which is dearer to him than his
the' Chinamen call it, above the lega-life. As it floats, the Flowery Flag, a8) tion of the United States in the capital of this empire, I never look up to it without thanking God that it does not wave over discordant warring states, nor without breathing blessing on the brave and patriotic men who kept its folds intact, to float forever over our happy and peaceful country—the symbol of our priceless Union, Your obedient servant, Cuantes Dexsy.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.