Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-02-13


campaign. lie dwelt with telling erect
upon the subject of protection, RECIPROCITY
sound finance, and, taking up the foreign
policy OF our government discussed thc at-
titude of America toward the present cues
tons OF international controversy, closing
with an apostrophe to the purposes OF re-
publican government and the meaning OIL
the flag,
The next speaker was Hon. Herbert NJ.
Heath of Augusta. who delighted the vast
audience by his wit and brilliancy. He
said;
Mr. President and Gentlemen;
In the wealth of orauory that has
flooded you, / am stranded, high and dry.
| am in grave doubt whether we have met
to commemorate the birth OF the first
| Republican President or the next. My
rhetoric threatens to be as mixed as that
of an ancient friend of mine at the saga
dahoc bar. Dazzed by the eioquence OF
the States attorney. he closed his plea by
saying: "Oh, gentlemen, they have
heaped abuse upon my client. Not con
tent with charging him with the awful
crime of larceny and of arsonv, they now
seek to wreathe about his brow the dia-
dem Of perjury"
Our rhetoric may be mixed, but down
on the kennebec we take our politics
straight. We are living ii life OF peaceful
and bucoic content We have passed
through the Venezuelan war with sense
Of absolute security. We pinned our faith
To the magnificent forts that ornament
your harbor. Had they failed. we knew
the President could fall back upon the
Lincoln club, at least, upon John Prlnd-
able with his Montgomery guards from
Massatuse
Most everything good in Maine now
comes from Portland. Most everything
good in America comes from Maine We
| furnish the best Of timber, architectural
d-presidential. Our mines Of granite
are a. ineXhaustlbe as Populist orator
Our pulp furnishes material for that most
expansive work Of modern history. the
| Congressional Record. We are harvesting
this winter crop Of Ice ample n quantity
| for the coming funeral of the Democratic
party
| We have signed contract 10 run every
branch of the national government
Bangor has taken the navy Belfast the
public buildings, Lewiston the Senate
and the ways and means, Ellsworth the
appropriations, Augusta the supreme
court, and Portland the national House.
with first mortgage on the presidency,
TO be foreclosed at st Louis
Down on the Kennebec, we are willing
to give Portland everything she asks, ex-
cept the state House The last session,
We gave you what we didn't need the
| frf
your comfortable clubs. Whatever our
small differences, orr Republicanism is
| all wool and yard wide. It's as broad in
| its nationality ms our trackless forests. a.
lofty in its aspirations as Katahdin with
! it kingly peaks, as resistless In its march
to victory as the tides that beat on our
rock bound coast.
Here, ON these hills, forty years ago,
was born Gods best gift 10 modern
civilization, the Republican PARTY. Ii was
christened amid the clanking OF the
| chains of slavery. In its cradle. il was
rocked to sleep to the music Of the burst
| ing shell. 1t was nourishcd at the breast
OF patriotism. Its muscles hardened like
| iron as it wrestlcd for home. for country.
for liberty, for Sod
The Repuhlicanism Of Maine has trod
| the path of history with unflnching
loyalty, with q courage born of unyicld
ing devotion to the principle Dare to do
right and leave the consequences to in
finite wisdom Its leaders, today. face
the problems Of the hour with an honesty
Of conviction that spurns ali compromise
with wrong. Compromise There can be
| no compromise Protection, stable money,
! loyalty to America, the Republican trinity
| Of Jewels Can You compromise upon
| such principles Who can paint the lily.
VINO add iuStre 10 the diamond, 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
wise aud benehcent tariff Com
promise. after three weary years of bust
ness stagnation hitherto unknown and
supposed impossibley DO we realize that
under Democratic rule we have lost more
wealth than was accumulated from the
surrender at Yorktown 10 the bursting
she'll that flew over Sumter's crumbling
walls? We stand on history. We have
right to appeal to the confidence of IA
long suffering people.
Upon this night made glorious by the
birth Of Lincoln, the divine. America can
not forget his life his character, nor It's
inspiration. She does not forget that
when God chastcncd this nation for Sits
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 and 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
be, at this hour, turn q deaf ear to the
prayers OF million homes? No more
than he, who today, with the conscience
ana courage of Lincoln, towers above
his fellows at Washington, like stately
pine on his nativehills
Parties are to be judged by their
leaders. We learned loyalty to America
and 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 blazrd
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
t.k,,-