better than a picture on a church
window; I have learned that the American people, and especially the good
people of Minnesota, do not strip a fallen foe; I have learned that
whoever says "there is no God" is a fool; I have learned that politics is
often mere traffic, and statesmanship trickery; I have learned that the
honor of the republic is put upon the plains and battled for; I have
learned that the English language is too often used to deceive the
commonwealth of labor; I have learned that the man who prides himself on
getting on the wrong side of every public issue is as pernicious an enemy
to the country as the man who openly fires upon the flag; and I have seen
mute sufferings of men in prison which no human pen can portray.

And I have seen men die there. During my twenty-five years of
imprisonment, I have spent a large portion of the time in the hospital,
nursing the sick and soothing the dying. Oh! the sadness, the despair,
the volcano of human woe that lurks in such an hour. One, a soldier from
the North, I met in battle when I wore the gray. In '63 I had led him to
safety beyond the Confederate lines in Missouri, and in '97 he died in my
arms in the Minnesota prison, a few moments before a full pardon had
arrived from the president.

The details of this remarkable coincidence were pathetic in the extreme,
equalled only by the death of my young brother Bob.

And yet, my dear friends, prisons and prison discipline, which sometimes
destroy the reason, and perpetuate a stigma upon those who survive
them,--these, I say, are the safeguards of the nation.

A man has plenty of time to think in prison, and I might add that it is an
ideal place for a man to study law, religion, and Shakespeare, not
forgetting the president's messages. However, I would advise you not to
try to get into prison just to find an ideal place for these particular
studies. I find, after careful study, that law is simply an
interpretation of the Ten Commandments, nothing more, nothing less. All
law is founded upon Scripture, and Scripture, in form of religion or law,
rules the universe.

The infidel who ridicules religion is forced to respect the law, which in
reality is religion itself.

It is not sufficient alone to make good and just laws, but our people must
be educated, or should be, from the cradle up, to respect the law. This
is one great lesson to be impressed upon the American people. Let the
world know that we are a l