Year: 1871

Delivered ut the ltepuDlican


Ratification Meeting, at Col


umbus, Ohio, June 2lSt.


beiLU0 CitisenS:--Ihere is
not room here on this platform,
and there is not room down
there, and there is not room
around this State House,
and there is hardly room
enough in this State Tor the
Republican party, and the
work it has to do this fall
There are so many Of you, |
fear you will overdo it, and any
man that expects to speak to
you all tonight must be able to
speak TO the State. l have
never seen a time in the recent
history OF the Republican par
ty so full of hope, so full Of
reasons for congratulatiOn, as
this night. What a spectacle
do you here present; look
above you, look around you,
land think on the. stability and
glory Of our Institutions, re,
sombIing the very glory and
stability Of the heavens above
us. Tonight the whole unlo
verso sweeps on in its calm
peace, every star keeping its
appointed round, every light
cleaning in the eternal iirma
ment, and yet all regulated
and governed by law, and all
sphorej and perfect in its or
der. SO it is with this glorious
Republic Of ours. These stars,
these States, this glorious con-
stellation OF States that our
fathers hurled out into the
worlds history to shine forever
and cvermore, each one a per-
feet sphere, all bound together
as one grand, universal, all
beautiful and glorious form Of
government.


And we here, in the great
State of OHIO, one Of the no
blost, brightest and highest lu


minaries Of the system, here
are met ,by our representative
people, Tonight, TO rejoice to-
gether that we arc q great, ard
glorious, aid free people, low
ing our State, ana loving the
Union abovo ali else. And
who has brought US this glory,
who has preserved This won
derful balance Of our system,
who has held together all the
planetary worlds that 60 to
make up our glorious SYSTEM
1t is that party that has given
its first love to the Union, and
its second love TO the State,
and which has said that the
Union shall be perpetual, and
the States shall be free. There
is a better thought than that
in it, my friends. We are able
now, almost for the first time
in the history Of mankind, to
say that in all this innumera-
bic company that stand around
these pillars, to night, there
are no classes. We are all ore
class, or class is not the word.
There is not, under The shining
hcavens,another country where
such an audience as this can
be assembled, where you can
say there is only one Glass;
TheIe is no horizontal stratili-
cation Of society here, like the
rocks of the earth, that hold
one class down below, forever
more, and let none other come
up to the surface to stay there
forever. Our stratiiication Of
society is not like that, but we
arc rather like the great ocean,
where every individual drop is
free to move, ard where from
tho Sternest depths of the
mighty deep any drop may
come up TO glitter OH the sur
face of the highest wave that
rolls. TCries of "good," "good,"
and cheerS.1 Not one man so
humble, not one man so poor,
not one little boy born to such
poverty but that, with a true
heart and a clear brain, and a
stout arm, he may rise to the
very top, and where else on the
whole face of the habltable
globe can you find another
spot, save in our own favored
land, where that thing can be
said 10 be true? Why, sir, a
few months ago a distinguish
cd Englishman said to me, that
after twenty-five years of OBJ
servation, he was compelled to
say that he had never known,
in all England, mere farm la


borer TO rise above his class. -
What a tremendous statement
that was to make! He had
/ L. Il,