Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 10.djvu/132

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS

publican, and every anti-Grant Republican, in America — of every Blaine man and every anti- Blaine man. The vote of every follower of every candidate is needed to make success certain. Therefore I say, gentlemen and brethren, we are here to take calm counsel together, and inquire what we shall do.

We want a man whose life and opinions em- body all the achievements of which I have spoken. We want a man who, standing on a mountain height, traces the victorious footsteps of our party in the past, and, carrying in his heart the memory of its glorious deeds, looks forward prepared to meet the dangers to come. We want one who will act in no spirit of un- kindness toward those w^e lately met in battle. The Republican party offers to our brethren of the South the olive-branch of peace, and invites them to renewed brotherhood on this supreme condition — that it shall be admitted for ever, that in the war for the Union we were right and they w^ere wrong. On that supreme condition we meet them as brethren, and ask them to share with us the blessings and honors of this great Republic.

Now, gentlemen, not to weary you, I am about to present a name for your consideration, — the name of one who Avas the comrade, associ- ate, and friend of nearly all the noble dead, whose faces look down upon us from these walls to-night ' ; a man who began his career of public

' A reference to the portraits of Lincoln, Sumner, Wade, Chandler and others, which were hanging in the Convention hall.

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