Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 9.djvu/212

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS work at the very foundation stone of this error and reconstruct this party on a proper basis. To my countrjTuen of the South I have a few words here to say. Be true to your constitu- tional duties and rights. Be true to your own sense of right. Accept of defeat here, if de- feat is to attend the assertion of the right, in order that you may secure a permanent victory in whatever contest you carry a constitutional banner. Yield nothing of principle for mere party success — else you will die by the hands of your associates as surely as by the hand of your avowed enemy. A party, in its noblest sense, is an organized body that pledges itself to the people to admin- ister the government on a constitutional basis. The people have no interest in parties, except to have them pledged to administer the government for the protection of their rights. The leaders of the masses, brilliant men, great statesmen, may, by ever ignoring the people's rights, still have a brilliant destiny in the rewards of office and the distribution of eightj^ millions annually; but when those leaders, those statesmen, become un- true to the people, and ask the people to vote for a party that ignores their rights, and dares not acknowledge them, in order to put and keep them in office, they ought to be strung upon a political gallows higher than that ever erected for Haman. 202