HOME AT PROVIDENCE-LOVE OF THE SOLDIERS FOR "OLD BURNEY" COURTESY TOWARDS INFERIORS AN ACT OF KINDNESS - ATTACK MADE ON HIM BY SENATOR SPRAGUE-DEFENSE OF HIM BY SENATORS ANTHONY, NYE, CHANDLER, ABBOTT, AND MORTON-TESTIMONIAL FROM CITIZENS OF RHODE ISLANDNINTH ARMY CORPS ASSOCIATION.

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ENERAL BURNSIDE'S home in Providence was a commodious, substantially-built house on Benefit Street, comfortably, although although not extravagantly furnished, and containing many souvenirs of the war. He had there a good library of reference, which he frequently consulted, not skimming over the books to pass away time, but looking into them as a man of mind, who wishes to derive benefit from all that he reads. When he undertook to study a question he went directly to the first principles, separating that which was casual and local from that which was permanent and founded on the basis of moral justice. There was nothing about him of that bustling smartness so often seen in persons of ordinary mind, striving to perform something to attract the attention of those around them. He never seemed hurried or confused, in the performance of his multitudinous avocations, but went about them systematically, calmly, and quietly.

Blessed with an iron frame that felt few or no infirmities, and free from those vices which often bring down the mighty intellect to a degrading enslavement, his path of duty was not obstructed by any physical, moral, or mental weakness. His was "a sound mind in a sound body.”

General Burnside was a lover of peace, of industry, and of progress. To help those who were endeavoring to help themselves, was his sagacious plan, and he was eminently successful. Kindness was the means to all his ends — and to every one, on every suitable occasion, he preached kindness. The soldiers who had served under him were the constant objects of his solicitude, and when the silvertoned bugles had proclaimed peace, he was none the less anxious to promote their welfare.

His military nature was heroic, but at the same time childlike; and in his camp deportment there was a strange union of sternness and gentleness. He was loved by his soldiers, not coldly, as men love men, but tenderly and intensely, as men love women. He was as perfect an embodiment as the Republic affords of the patriotism, the integrity, the sobriety, the magnanimity, the virtue, and the valor of the American citizen-soldier,-bred from youth up to the calling of arms, and gifted with the bravery, judgment, and modesty of the knights of old, who sat at King Arthur's Round Table.

The Rev. Mr. Woodbury, who knew him so well, speaks of the love and respect, as well as confidence, entertamed towards General Burnside by the soldiers, especially those who served in the Ninth Army Corps. As had been the case when he was moving among them, in camp or on the march, when they met him in civil life there was always a cheer for "Old Burney," and the soldiers now love to tell of the cheerful smile that brightened up his countenance

as he lifted his broad-brimmed felt hat and returned their salute. They had no reason for calling him "old," except as an expression of their affection, for he was only forty-one years of age when the war ended. The love they had for their commander tightened the bonds of comradeship throughout the corps, and united the officers and men very closely together. Mr. Woodbury has also borne testimony to the kind considerateness which General Burnside always showed towards others, and especially towards those in humble life.

The general's faithful colored servant, who had accompanied him on his ride across the plains and throughout the war, was always treated by him more like a brother than a domestic. Toward those who were at service in the families of his friends there was always the same friendly courtesy. He recognized and greeted them on the street, taking off his hat to them as to a lady or gentleman of his acquaintance, or taking them by the hand and speaking a kindly word. He seldom, if ever, left his home, to be away even for a day or two, without going into the kitchen to bid good-bye to those in his own employ; and they said, when he was no more, that they had lost their best friend. He remembered their birthdays, and certain anniversaries in their lives or his own, and had some little gift or token of remembrance ready for them. The kind-hearted gentleman, courted and admired by the best society in the land, never forgot to be courteous and helpful to the humblest dependent. It was the natural expression of his generous heart.

Among many other instances of General Burnside's goodness of heart, the following was narrated in the New York Sun at the time: A laborer who was at work upon a new pavement on the Fifth Avenue, near Twentieth

Street, in that city, was prostrated by heat, and fell near the curb-stone. No other workmen were near at hand, but General Burnside, who happened to be passing, having seen him fall, hastened to his relief and aided in placing him in an easier position on the sidewalk. The general then stopped a passing ice-cart and obtained ice which he applied to the poor man's head and hands. By this time. a multitude began to collect, but no policemen were in sight. After putting the sufferer in an easier position and requesting the throng to stand back and give him the benefit of the little air there was, the general himself went to the Union Club for a physician, and returned to look after his charge. "Our reporter," said the newspaper paragraph, "knew the modest gentleman who was taking such an interest in the laborer, but the spectators did not dream that the generous stranger was the distinguished citizen who led Rhode Island to the war."

Just before the expiration of General Burnside's third term as governor of Rhode Island, and after he had peremptorily declined a re-nomination, he was unexpectedly assailed in the United States Senate, in a speech delivered by ex-Governor William Sprague, then a Senator from Rhode Island. Stimulated, doubtless, by financial embarrassment which subsequently resulted in bankruptcy, Mr. Sprague recounted, in doleful jeremiad, the financial disasters which were threatening the country. These dangers, he asserted, were caused by the pernicious influence of those who control capital on legislation, society, business, and even the fortunes of war. Selecting the timehonored house of Brown & Ives, of Providence, as an illustration, he proceeded to denounce that firm, and finally held it responsible for the reverses of the United States forces at the first battle of Bull Run. Nor was this all.

He arraigned the First Rhode Island Regiment as cowards, and their commander, General Burnside, as incompetent, and only anxious to save the lives of the rich men under him.

Senator Anthony, of Rhode Island, took the floor at the earliest possible moment, and replied in scathing language to the extraordinary speech of his colleague. He said that he could be silent under crude theories of political economy, and exploded schemes of finance; he could be silent under long extracts from history and biography, and any inconsequential and unconnected comments upon them; he could remain silent under personal aspersions, but he would not remain silent when men among the most respectable of his constituents are assailed, and when the honor of Rhode Island is insulted.

After paying an elaborate tribute to the business career of the long-established house of Brown & Ives, Mr. Anthony spoke of them as "rich without ostentation, powerful without arrogance, and enjoying a political influence which they use for what they deem the public good, and not for their own personal ambition. Their prosperity is not based upon the ruin of their neighbors." He then went on to remark:

But individuals are not sufficient to gratify the vengeance of my colleague. He assails the whole State, by charging the First Regiment with pusillanimity and Burnside with incompetency, if not with cowardice. Burnside incompetent! What does Tennessee say to that? What does Indiana say to that? What does Ohio say to that? What does North Carolina say to that? I know what Rhode Island will say to it The First Regiment fills one of the proudest chapters in the history of Rhode Island. Springing to arms at the sound of the first gun on Sumter, it was composed of some of the finest young men in the State. They came from all classes and conditions of our people. The millionaire stood shoulder to shoulder with the mechanic, the student with the plowboy, each respecting the other, all animated by a common purpose and