be withheld from any community
struggling with special embarrassments or difficulties connected with
the suffrage if the remedies proposed proceed upon lawful lines and are
promoted by just and honorable methods. How shall those who practice
election frauds recover that respect for the sanctity of the ballot
which is the first condition and obligation of good citizenship? The man
who has come to regard the ballot box as a juggler's hat has renounced
his allegiance.

Let us exalt patriotism and moderate our party contentions. Let those
who would die for the flag on the field of battle give a better proof of
their patriotism and a higher glory to their country by promoting
fraternity and justice. A party success that is achieved by unfair
methods or by practices that partake of revolution is hurtful and
evanescent even from a party standpoint. We should hold our differing
opinions in mutual respect, and, having submitted them to the
arbitrament of the ballot, should accept an adverse judgment with the
same respect that we would have demanded of our opponents if the
decision had been in our favor.

No other people have a government more worthy of their respect and love
or a land so magnificent in extent, so pleasant to look upon, and so
full of generous suggestion to enterprise and labor. God has placed upon
our head a diadem and has laid at our feet power and wealth beyond
definition or calculation. But we must not forget that we take these
gifts upon the condition that justice and mercy shall hold the reins of
power and that the upward avenues of hope shall be free to all the
people.

I do not mistrust the future. Dangers have been in frequent ambush along
our path, but we have uncovered and vanquished them all. Passion has
swept some of our communities, but only to give us a new demonstration
that the great body of our people are stable, patriotic, and
law-abiding. No political party can long pursue advantage at the expense
of public honor or by rude and indecent methods without protest and
fatal disaffection in its own body. The peaceful agencies of commerce
are more fully revealing the necessary unity of all our communities, and
the increasing intercourse of our people is promoting mutual respect. We
shall find unalloyed pleasure in the revelation which our next census
will make of the swift development of the great resources of some of the
States. Each State will bring its generous contribution to the great
aggr