Political Quotes

“Mr. President, in 1864, after 3 years of Civil War, many citizens of the North were ready for peace. The 13th Amendment had passed in this very Chamber but failed to do so in the House of Representatives, and the fate of Abraham Lincoln's Presidency--and perhaps the continuation of the war--was on the ballot. In that spring of 1864, Lincoln placed his hand on a Hoosier general's shoulder, and he said: ``I believe it right to give you a chance.'' What he really meant was a second chance. I rise to mark a day 160 years ago when that second chance and a refusal to flinch from duty, even in a forlorn hope, saved our Nation's Capital and possibly much more than that. Not long after his meeting with Lincoln, that same soldier was ushered into the office of Secretary of War Ed Stanton. ``What do you know of the Middle Department?'' the Secretary asked. ``Nothing,'' his visitor replied. ``Nothing?'' the Secretary repeated. ``I am from the West,'' General Lew Wallace answered. By ``the West,'' Wallace meant Crawfordsville, IN, and that is exactly where he was when the year began--an officer whose career appeared to be at a dead end. Two years before, the division under his command arrived late to the Union lines during the first day of fighting at Shiloh. Wallace was scapegoated after one of the deadliest battles in the war up to that point. He was removed from his command in the Army of Tennessee and placed on reserve. Requests for a reinstatement failed. ``I had cast my last throw.…”