The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1876-11-02

II
any State to protect the rights of the humblest
American citizen in that State" [Cheers.
l am Republican. Laughter / am a
Republican because that party allows me to be
free-allows me to do my own thinking in my
own way. (Cheers. / am a Republican be-
cause it is party grand enough and splendid
enough and sublime enough to invite every hu-
man being in favor of liberty and pro-
gress to fight shoulder to shoulder for the
advancement of mankind. Cheers. 1t in
vites the Methodist 1t invites the Catholic; It
invites the Presbyterian, and every kind of sec
tartan ; it invites the free-thinker IL invites the
infdel, provided he is in favor of giving to every
other human being every chance and every
right that he claims for himself. [Cheers.] ]
am Republican, tell you. Laughter.
wing there is room on the Republican sea for
every sail. Republicansm says to every man,
Let your soul be like an eagle fly out in the
great dome of thought, and question the stars
for yourself [Cheers "T That's so."1 But the
Democratic party says: " Be blind, owls; sit on
the dry limb of n dead tree, and only hoot when
Tilden Il Co. tell you to-" [Laughter.] In
the Republican party there are no followers.
We are all leaders. [Cheers. There is not
party chain. There is not party LASH Any
man that does not love this country; any man
that does not love liberty; any man that is not
in favor of human progress; that is not in ia
vor of giving to others all he claims for him
self-we don't ask him to vote the Republican
ticket. [Cheers. You can vote it if you
please, and If there is any Democrat within
hearing who expects to die before another
election we are willing that he should vote one
Republican ticket simply as a consolation
upon his death-bed. [Great laughter What
more: / ain a Republican, because that party
believes in frse labor. 1t believes that free
labor will give us wealth. 1t believes in free
thought, because it believes that free thought
will give us truth. voice. That's so."1
YOn don't know what a grand rtv bo
long to. never want any holier or grander
title to nobility than that l belong to the Re-
publican party and have fought for the lib
crty Of man. [Cheers.] The Republican
party, l say, believes in free labor The
Republican party also believes in slavery
What kind of slavery' In enslaying the
forces of nature. We believe that free
labor, that free thought, have enslaved
the forces of nature and made them
work for man. We make old Attraction and
Gravitation work for u.s. we make the light
ming do our errands we make steam hammers
and fashion what we need. The forcess of
nature are the slaves of the Republican party.
lCheers. They have got no backs to be
whipped they have got no hearts to be torn
no hearts to be broken they cannot be
separated from their wives they cannot be
dragged from the bosoms Of their husbands
they work night and day, and they never tire.
You cannot whip them, you cannot starve
them, and Democrat even can be trusted
with one of them. Laughter tell you
am Republican. laughter l believe, as
slaves Free labor will produce all these things,
and everything you have got to-day has been
produced by free labor, nothing by slave labor.
Slavery never invented but one machine, and
that was a threshing machine in the shape of a
whip. Laughter. Free labor has invented
all the machines. We want to come down to
the philosophy of these things. The problem
OF free labor, when a man works for the wife he
loves, when he works for the little children he
adores-the problem is to do the most work in
the shortest space of time. The problem of
slavery is to do the least work in the longest
space Of time. That is the difference. Free la
bor love, affection-they have invented every
thing of use to the world [Cheers.] I am
Republican. tell you, my friends, this world
is getting better every day. and the Democratic
party is getting smaller every day. See the ad-
vancement we have made in a few wears: see
what We have done. We have covered this ma
ton with wealth and glory, and with liberty
This is the first free Government in the world
The Republican party is the first party that was
not founded on some compromise with the devil.
Laughter 1t is the first party of pure, square,
honest principles; the first one. And we have
got the hrst free country that ever existed. And
right here want to thank every soldier that
fought to make 1t free cries of ''good ~
good y and cheers every one, living and
dead thank you again and again and again.
You made the first free government in the world
lcheers and we must not forget the dead he
roes. If they were here they would vote the
Republican ticket, every one of them. | tell
you We must not forget them.
The past, as it were, rises before me like a
dream. Again we are in the great struggle for
national life We hear the sounds of prepara-
tion-the music of the boisterous drlms-tbe
silver voices Of heroic bugles. We see thousands
OF assemblages, and hear the appeals of orators
we see the pale cheeks of women, and the
fiushed faces OF men, and in those assembaCes
we see all the dead whose dust we have covered
with flowers. We lose sight of them no more
We are with them when we enlist in the great
army of freedom. We see them part with those
they love. Some are walking for the last time
in quiet woody places with the maidens they
adore. We hear the whisperings and the sweet
VOWS OF eternal love as they lingeringly part
forever. Others are bending over cradles, kiss
ing babes that are asleep. Some are receiving
the blessings of old men. Some are parting
with mothers who hold them and press them to
their hearts again and again, and say nothing
and some are talking with wives, and endeavor-
ing with brave words spoken in the old
tones to drive from their hearts the awful
fear. We see them part. We see the
wife standing in the door with the babe in
her arms-standing in the sunlight sobbing-at
the turn Of the road hand waves-she answers
by holding high in her loving hands the child
He is gone, and forever.
We bee tnelH all as lney march proudly away
under the Haunting flags, keeping time to the
wild grand music of war-marching down the
streets of the great cities-through the towns
and across the prairies-down to the fields of
glory, to do, and to die for the eternal right.
We go with them one and all. We are by
their side on all the CORY felds-in all the hos
pitfalls of pain-on all the weary marches. We
stand guard with them in the wild storm and
under the quiet stars. We are with them in
ravines running with blood-in the furrows of
old fields. We are with them between contend
ing hosts, unable to move, wild with thirst, the
life ebbing slowly away among the withered
leaves. We see them pierced by balls and torn
with shells in the trenches by forts, and in the
whirlwind of the charge, where men become
iron, with nerves of steel.
We are with them in the prisons of hatred
and famine; but human speech can never tell
what they endured.
We are at home when the news comes that
they are dead We see the maiden in the
shadow of her first sorrow. We see the sill
vered head of the old man bowed with the last
grief.
The past rises before us, and we see four mil
ions of human beings governed by the LASH
we see them bound hand and foot-we hear the
strokes of cruel whips-we see the hounds
tracking women through tangled swamps. We
see babes sold from the breasts of mothers.
Cruelty unspeakabe +! Outrage infinite!
Four million bodies in chains-four million
souls in fetters All the sacred relations of