Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 10.djvu/130

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS

to cross. It made them free for ever. Strength- ened by its victory on the frontier, the young party, under the leadership of that great man who on this spot,^ twenty years ago, was made its chief, entered the national Capitol, and assumed the high duties of government. The light which shone from its banner illumined its pathway to power. Every slave-pen and the shackles of every slave within the shadow of the Capitol were consumed in the rekindled fire of freedom.

Our great national industries by cruel and cal- culating neglect had been prostrated, and the streams of revenue flowed in such feeble currents that the treasury itself was well-nigh empty. The money of the people consisted mainly of the wretched notes of two thousand uncontrolled and irresponsible State banking corporations, which were filling the country with a circulation that poisoned, rather than sustained, the life of busi- ness.

The Republican party changed all this. It abolished the Babel of confusion, and gave to the country a currency as national as its flag, based upon the sacred faith of the people. It threw its protecting arm around our great in- dustries, and they stood erect with new life. It filled with the spirit of true nationality all the great functions of the government. It con- fronted a rebellion of unexampled magnitude, with slavery behind it, and, under God, fought

I Lincoln was nominated for pre.sldent in CUcago. 102

�� �