The Portland daily press., 1896-02-13
HON. II. N HEATH.

the clanking OF the chains of slavery. In
it's cradle, it was rocked to sleep to the
music of the bursting she'll. 1t was
nourished at the breast of patriotism. Its
muscles hardened like iron as it wrested
for home. for country, for liberty, for
God. The Republicans of Maine has
trod the path OF history with unf1inohing
loyalty, with courage born Of unyield
ing devotion to the principle, "Dare to
do right and leave the consequences to
Infinite Wisdom" Its leaders, today face
the problems of the hour with an honesty
of conviction that spurns all compromise
with wrong. Compromise? There can
be no COMPROMISED Protection, staple
money, loyalty to America, the Republi-
can trinity of jewels Can you compro-
mise upon such principles? Who can
paint the lily, who add lustre to the dia-
mond, who gild the yellow gold?
Is this the hour for compromise, when
industry sits at the outer gate in idle
poverty, her very rags appealing to the
nation for the protection that comes from
Il wise and beneficent tariff? Compro-
mise, after three weary years of business
stagnation hitherto unknown and sup
posed impossible? Do weIrealize that un-
der Democratic rule We have lost more
wealth than WAS accumulated from the
surrender at Yorktown to the bursting
shell that flew over Sumter's crumbling
walls? We stand on history. We have
right to appeal to the confidence of long
suffering people. Upon this night made
g orious by the birth Of lincoln di-
vine, America cannot forget his life, his
character, nor its inspiration. She does
not forget that when God chastened this
nation for its sins, when mothers clasped
babes to their bosoms and prayed for the
father on the tented field, that man of
sorrows placed his hand in the trusting
clasp of the Almighty an led His chosen
people out of Egypt into the Promised
Land. She does not forget that kin with
his love of liberty was his undying faith
in the dignity of American labor. Would
he, at this hour, turn deaf ear to the
prayers. of a million toiles? No more than
he VINO today with the conscience and
courage Of q Lincoln, towers above his
fellows at Washington, like a stately pine
on his native hills.
Parties are to be judged by their lead
ers. We learned loyalty to America ssand
to American labor at the feet of the hero
that crowned with Appomattox knocked
at the doors of Heaven and wide open
swung the gates to receive his noble soul
Dare we be false to such memories?
Dare we turn aside from the paths blazed
through the forests of time by Lincoln,
by Grant, by Blaine? It's on mems lips
that the price of success is TO daily with
principle, to forget the teachings of the
fathers, to be silent when silence is a
crime. Better defeat than victory with
dishonor! Better a few more years of
national humiliation, that the sun of
prosperity may one mors shine from the
frozen North to the sun-Kissed South,
from the stormy seas Of the Atlantic to
where rolls the Oregon.
Time WAS when the historian wrote OF
America: Content sits basking on the
cheek cf toll. y Into power came a party
without head, head without party.
Would that | had time to pay my re-
specus to it's fragrant and mouldy record.
1t looted the treasury and left it bank
rupt. 1t stabbed the national credit and
left it bleeding on the rocks of rebellion.
1t played with The fire of treason. until