mans of St. Louis evinced at the outbreak of the war, Missouri would have been taken out of the Union and the task of our government to suppress the slaveholders' rebellion would have been infinitely harder to accomplish. The archives of the war department at Washington show, that upon the basis of the population of the loyal states, as ascertained by the census of 1860, the German element of the country furnished 60,000 more soldiers than, with reference to the whole number of enlistments during the war, it would have been obliged to furnish, had all the people of every other nativity at that time represented here enlisted in the same ratio. On every battlefield of the Union the loyalty and devotion of that element for the country and the flag was most nobly demonstrated.

But it should not be forgotten that the noble bearing of our German-American citizens in the most sacred cause of the country found at all times grateful recognition at the hands of the Republican party in this state, and that the invaluable services of the men who led them in the holy crusade against slavery were always duly appreciated and honored. Thus the patriotic Frederick Hecker, famous for his warm devotion to the cause of human freedom in the Fatherland as well as here, was as early as 1856 accorded the high honor of being placed on the Republican ticket as a presidential elector at large by the side of the immortal Lincoln. In 1860, the distinguished Francis A. Hoffmann, now a venerable patriarch, devoting his life to most useful literary labors, was elected by the Republican party lieutenant governor of the state. At the same time the Republicans of Cook county elected A. C. Hesing, another German leader of great strength, as sheriff of Cook county. In 1861 the learned and accomplished Gustav Koerner, of Belleville, was appointed by president Lincoln minister at the Court of Spain, George Schneider, of Chicago, who was an honored member of your convention, was intrusted with an important consulate in Europe, and Herman Kreissmann of the same place was made secretary of legation at Berlin.

On the whole it must be conceded that no man in the nation valued the inestimable services of the Germans in the cause of the Republican party more highly than the sainted Lincoln. Right after his inauguration, besides those already named from this state, he appointed a number of other prominent Germans from all over the country to important diplomatic and consular positions abroad, one a federal judge in Missouri and a host of others to administrative offices of every character. And this splendid example of the fair treatment of an element which had given such noble proof of its keen appreciation of the highest civic duties and its steadfast loyalty to the same, found at all times proper emulation among the Republicans of this state until recently. The Germans are not mercenaries in politics, but they have a right to ask that they be not excluded from public honors, because they not only form, next to our native American voters, the strongest element in the Republican party, as has been shown at the last as well as at all previous presidential elections during the last forty years, but such exclusion must necessarily have the effect of stamping them as unworthy to hold office.

The invitation extended to me to explain on this occasion the honorable part the Germans took in wiping out from the proud escutcheon of our nation the stain of slavery, shows the great good will cherished by the callers of this meeting for the German element of this state and country. It evinces the true spirit in which the different elements of our people should approach each other and in which harmony among all can be best fostered. Let us for the common good of all assiduously cultivate this spirit of harmony and with a heart filled with enlightened toleration bear with the legitimate peculiarities of all, no matter how widely others may vary from our own. Let no German ever berate his fellow-citizens of another race because of characteristics distinct from his. Let no other citizen look slightingly upon the German because of his manners, or believe him to be less intelligent than his fellow-man of equal station in life, because, speaking a foreign tongue, he cannot express his

thoughts in the language of the country as well as he who has imbibed the English at his mother's breast.

Every nation is visited at times by movements which partake of the character of a craze, and though they cannot lastingly divert it from its legitimate aspirations and normal political development they may nevertheless for the time being work serious mischief. In this behalf it may be safely said that no element of the American people has shown itself to be better equipped to resist such crazes, whether they are the outgrowth of our economic life or of our intercourse with the outside world, than our German-American citizens. We may, therefore, always rest assured that the honor, the dignity, and the greatness of our common country will never suffer at their hands. True, blind partisanship has sometimes stigmatized them as unreliable, but the dictates of party are not always prompted by patriotism and good statesmanship, for it sometimes happens that, either from stupidity or for the sake of office or pelf, the honor of the country is placed in jeopardy by the very men who direct the policy of a party. Although it may sound paradoxical, it is nevertheless true, as stated by one of the foremost writers of our history, that "one of the most powerful factors in the progressive nationalization of the republic is its adopted citizens who have come from all the countries of the earth." It was largely due to this fact that the Germans, at the time of our country's greatest peril, rallied round the flag of liberty and Union, and upon that rock alone they will always rest their adherence to party.

Owen Lovejoy, Constitutional Abolitionists and the Republican Party.

Pres. Davis:

Benjamin F. Shaw, for nearly half a century editor and proprietor of the Dixon Telegraph, a delegate to the editorial convention of February 22, 1856, that called the convention of May 29, and also a delegate to that convention, has written a paper on "Lovejoy and the Constitutional Abolitionists, and the Republican Party." I have the pleasure of introducing Mr. Benjamin F. Shaw, of Dixon.

BENJAMIN F. SHAW, OF DIXON, ILL.

The evangelist awakens interest in his cause by recalling the suffering of Christ and His fellow-martyrs. On the Fourth of July the American citizen renews his patriotism in recalling Valley Forge and the "times that tried men's souls." Is it not well that we, also, in our own day recall deeds of heroic sacrifice rendered for our fellow men? I could not refuse a request of the McLean County Historical Society, to tell in my own poor way, what I know about "Lovejoy, Constitutional Abolitionists and the Republican Party." They took up a political contest that meant, in a goodly portion of the country, social and political ostracism at that time; while the chances were that the people they interceded for would never hear their names mentioned. It was an unselfish and patriotic labor, for the relief of a people; and, indeed, a great nation.

It may not be gracious to compare matters political with sacred history, still I shall urge that the party whose birth we today celebrate, stands without a rival in the line of advancing a great nation to a higher civilization. No human agency in all the tide of times has accomplished more in modifying

B. F. Shaw was born in Waverly, New York, March 31, 1831, of American parents. His father's mother was the last survivor, at her death, of the "Massacre of Wyoming." Her father and two uncles were killed in the battle. His mother's father, Major Zephon Flowers, was a Revolutionary soldier, and a descendant of Governor Bradford, of Massachusetts, who kept the log of the Mayflower.

Mr. Shaw is now owner and proprietor of the Dixon Telegraph and has been for many years. Was Washington correspondent of a leading Chicago paper in 1867 and 1868. He was two terms clerk of the circuit court and recorder of Lee county and six years a canal commissioner of the state of Illinois. Has served one term as postmaster at Dixon, Illinois, and is the present incumbent of that office.

He was a member of the Decatur convention February 22. 1856, that called the Bloomington convention, which on May 29, 1856. nominated the first Republican state ticket and a member of the convention of May 29.

"man's inhumanity to man, which makes countless thousands mourn," than the Republican party. Its efforts have been in a spirit of pure patriotism and the universal brotherhood of

man.

It turned a despotism, the worst the world had ever seen, into a republic; transformed slavery into freedom. The first act of the Republican party was that of giving a farm and a home to every poor man who would accept. It gave, through protection to American industry, the laborer of this country such wages as no nation before gave to the wage-earner. It has always acted the part of the mighty philanthropist toward all the people. Republicanism not only extended into the jungle of ignorance in our own land, but it is now penetrating the jungles of the far east, and its beacon light of civil and religious liberty is blessing the Orient; there to enlighten barbarism. It is through Republicanism that this nation has become the guiding star of liberty everywhere.

Lovejoy, Constitutional Abolitionists and the Republican party, a host of heroes my theme, patriots who endured many trials, a subject requiring volumes, to be condensed into a brief essay my task is not easy. A talk on a mighty epoch in the history of recent civilization condensed into a brief hour. A brave and mighty host battling against slavery and depotism, manfully as Greek at Marathon. Suffering as Christian martyrs suffered. If Paul fought with beasts at Ephesus, they were not more beastly cruel than the men that the Lovejoy brothers fought against at Alton in our Own state. The preliminary skirmish in the fight for liberty in this land was begun by the Radical Abolitionist long before the final battle. They were, it is true, but a mere handful; but they were strong men, with brilliant intellects and brave hearts, well fitted to bear the jeers of ignorant partisans. Both the great parties of the day were bitterly opposed to them. Many churches were indifferent. I heard the great Frederick Douglass state that while in slavery, the burden of the prayers he heard were quotations from Scripture that servants should obey their masters.