Pages 194-198: Chapter I--Introduction

It seems as though there is an element of hero worship in every one, and I confess to a full share of it. My hero is a private soldier. Having embarked in this life, and after devoting a quarter of a century to elaborating it in every from in the public press, it seems to me that I can see but one course for me to pursue, and that is, on, right on, in the line in which I have started. In the year 1868 I wrote and published some memories of John Gray, the last of the "men of '76" to leave us, which work was received with much interest. Aside from the many copies sold, copies were placed in most of the more prominent libraries in this country. Two thousand copies of this work I published at my own expense. When the edition became exhausted, there seemed to be no demand for a second edition, until this centennial year of Ohio's history, which has revived interest in such matters, and has demanded a new, and enlarged, and revised edition, which is now set forth with the modest hope that its pages may be read with interest. In 1876, Hon. F. W. Green, Secretary of the Ohio Centennial Commission, requested me to furnish him with a copy of my original history of John Gray for exhibition in Philadelphia. As I had placed copies in the principal libraries in the country, I had no difficulty (though the book was then out of print) in forwarding a copy according to his request. This copy he suspended by a ribbon just inside the main entrance of the Ohio house, and there it hung until the close of the Exposition, was inspected with interest by millions of people during this time, and returned to me by Mr. Green, well thumbed, about November 15, 1876, accompanied by the following grateful acknowledgement:

Philadelphia, Pa., November 13, 1876
Hon. J. M. Dalzell, Caldwell, O.:
Sir: -- I send you by express to-day your book and picture of John Gray, and a few copies of our catalogue, and the address of E. D. Mansfield on "Ohio." I regret that I was absent when you were here. Very truly yours, F. W. Green, Secretary

When I conceived the idea of venturing this revised edition, in response to what I believed to be popular sentiment favoring it, I wrote to my old friend (and the friend as well of our departed hero), Hon. John A. Bingham, our venerable ex-congressman, the greatest orator Ohio ever produced, and so long our distinguished Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of Japan; and, in reply, he honored me with the following graceful and eloquent tribute to our venerated hero:

Cadiz, O., February 22, 1888
My Dear Mr. Dalzell,
In reply to your kind note of the 20th instant, wherein you request my recollections of Mr. John Gray, a patroit of our Revolutionary War, I regret to say that I had but one interview with that venerable man, who, at that time, had attained the great age of one hundred and four years. I visited him at his home in Noble County, O., accompanied by a friend, who had known him for years and who regarded him as a man of truth and strict integrity. I was much impressed with Mr. Gray's conversation concerning his early life in Virginia, where he was born, and the statement of his services, while yet a youth, in the war for American independence. Satisfied that Mr. Gray had served the sacred cause as a private soldier of the Virginia line, and that he participated, in that capacity, in the final conflict at Yorktown, I did not hestitate to draft and introduce the bill of which you speak, granting him a pension -- which bill, I am pleased to say, passed the House of Representatives with great unanimity, and was prompty passed by the Senate. You doubtless have a copy of this act. It is most gratifying to record the fact that in his last days this aged patroit was not forgotten, and was made happy by the generous acknowledgement of the Nation's gratitude.
Very truly your friend, John A. Bingham.

But, before proceeding further, I consulted also the opinions of many of the most distinguished men in the Nation -- among them Governor J. B. Foraker; Governor Beaver; Samuel Bowles, Jr., editor of the Springfield (Mass.) Republican; Governor Young, of Ohio; R. B. Hoover, Springfield, Ill.; Colonel J.D. Taylor; Frederick Douglass; General Joseph R. Hawley, of Connecticut; Colonel James Washburn; General R. T. Buckland; Hon. W. S. Capellar; Judges Knowles, and Lawrence, and Phillips, Generals Brown and Gibson, of Ohio; General Harrison, of Indiana; Ex-Governor Foster of Ohio; Rev. T. J. Dague, my pastor at Caldwell, O.; General N. P. Banks; Ex-President R. B. Hayes; Senator Sherman; Hon. Wm. R. McKinley; Generals Legett, Conger, Cowan, Lee, Dawes, Robinson, Grosvenor, Hickenlooper, Devens, and Butler, and Corporal Tanner; besides thousands of the rank and file in all parts of the country, from Maine to California -- and from them, one and all, received such hearty encouragement, that I ventured to proceed. And the result is before the reader.