this right
of government may work itself out. The only means placed in the
hands of the individual citizen by which he may accomplish his
portion of this great task is the ballot, or the _viva voce_
vote. If this right of self-government is a natural right, and if
it can be exercised alone by the ballot, then is the right to the
ballot a natural right, and he who stands up against this
everlasting right of nature, had better look to it, and take
himself out of the way. As this is a political question I may
venture a single word to politicians. We of the masculine gender,
are all of us, more or less politicians; and of all the timid
things in the world the professed politician (a member of
Congress excepted) is the most timid. [Laughter.] He is afraid of
his soul, as if he had one, or one large enough to occasion
apprehension. [Laughter.] I have this thing to say to them, that
when any great idea or great truth finds itself at large in this
lower world, and is obliged to get itself incorporated into the
working processes of a government, if it does not find a
political party ready, willing, and worthy to receive it, it
forthwith makes for itself a new party. [Applause.] And as it
does not create new human beings to form a party of, it must
necessarily gather them from the old parties. Just as the
distinguished Senator (Senator Nye) will recollect the present
Republican party was formed, and against which the two old fossil
parties united, as they always do. Now, this new great idea, if
rejected, will disintegrate these old parties; take that which is
fit, proper, and deserving for its own great mission, leaving the
residuum to unite, and crumble and pulverize together under the
feet of the new.

The right of self-government, as I have said, is a natural right
pertaining to all alike, and is to be exercised by the ballot.
And the right to that is therefore a natural right, as is the
right to wear clothes. Decency and comfort require that clothes
should be worn; but they are artificial wholly. Just so is the
right to vote a natural right, though the vote, or the mode of
voting at least, is an artificial means. This logic can not be
caviled with or gainsaid. The young man and the young woman
outside of political considerations, in every othe