Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 10.djvu/131

 GARFIELD

��the final battle of liberty until the victory was won.

Then, after the storms of battle, were heard the calm words of peace spoken by the conquer- ing nation, saying to the foe that lay prostrate at its feet: "This is our only revenge — that you join us in lifting into the serene firmament of the Constitution, to shine like stars for ever and ever, the immortal principles of truth and justice: that all men, white or black, shall be free, and shall stand equal before the law."

Then came the questions of reconstruction, the national debt, and the keeping of the public faith. In the settlement of these questions, the Republican party has completed its twenty-five years of glorious existence and it has sent us here to prepare it for another lustrum of duty and of victory. How shall we accomplish this great work? We can not do it, my friends, by assailing our Republican brethren. God forbid that I should say one word, or cast one shadow, upon any name on the roll of our heroes. The coming fight is our Thermopylse. We are stand- ing upon a narrow isthmus. If our Spartan hosts are united, we can withstand all the Per- sians that the Xerxes of Democracy can bring against us. Let us hold our ground this one year, and then **the stars in their courses" will fight for us. The census will bring reinforce- ments and continued power.

But in order to win victory now, we want the vote of every Republican — of every Grant Re- 103

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