The greater her secular prosperity, the more sure was her ruin. Every year of delay but made the change more terrible. Now, by an earthquake, the evil is shaken down. And her own historians, in a better day, shall write, that from the day the sword cut off the cancer, she began to find her health. What, then, shall hinder the rebuilding of the republic? The evil spirit is cast out; why should not this nation cease to wander among tombs, cutting itself? Why should it not come, clothed and in its right mind, to" sit at the feet of Jesus"? Is it feared that the government will oppress the conquered States? What possible motive has the government to narrow the base of that pyramid on which its own permanence depends? Is it feared that the rights of the States will be withheld? The South is not more jealous of State rights than the North. State rights from the earliest colonial days have been the peculiar pride and jealousy of New England. In every stage of national formation, it was peculiarly Northern, and not Southern statesmen that guarded State rights as we were forming the constitution. But once united, the loyal States gave up forever that which had been delegated to the national government. And now, in the hour of victory, the loyal States do not mean to trench upon Southern State rights. They will not do it, nor suffer it to be done. There is not to be one rule for high latitudes and another for low. We take nothing from the Southern States that has not already been taken from the Northern. The South shall have just those rights that every Eastern, every Middle, every Western State has—no more, no less. We are not seeking our own aggrandizement by impoverishing the South. Its prosperity is an indispensable element of our own. We have shown by all that we have suffered in war, how great is our estimate of the Southern States of this Union; and we will measure that estimate, now, in peace, by still greater exertions for their rebuilding. Will reflecting men not perceive, then, the wisdom of accepting established facts, and, with alacrity of enterprise, begin to retrieve the past? Slavery cannot come back. It is the interest, therefore, of every man to hasten its end. Do you want more war? Are you not yet weary of contest? Will you gather up the unexploded fragments of this prodigious magazine of all mischief, and heap them up for continued explosions? Does not the South need peace? And, since free labor is inevitable, will you have it in its worst forms or in its best? Shall it be ignorant, impertinent, indolent, or shall it be educated, self-respecting, moral, and self-supporting? Will you have men as drudges, or will you have them as citizens? Since they have vindicated the government, and cemented its foundation stones with their blood, may they not offer the tribute of their support to maintain its laws and its policy? It is better for religion; it is better for political integrity; it is better for industry; it is better for money-if you will have that ground motive that you should educate the black man, and, by education, make him a citizen. They who refuse education to the black man would turn the South into a vast poorhouse, and labor into a pendulum, incessantly vibrating between poverty and indolence. From this pulpit of broken stones we speak forth our earnest greeting to all our land. We offer to the President of these United States our solemn congratulations that God has sustained his life and health under the unparalleled burdens and sufferings of four bloody years, and permitted him to behold this auspicious consummation of that national unity for which he has waited with so much patience and fortitude, and for which he has labored with such disinterested wisdom. To the members of the government associated with him in the administration of perilous affairs in critical times; to the senators and representatives of the United States, who have eagerly fashioned the instruments by which the popular will might express and enforce itself, we tender our grateful thanks. To the officers and men of the army and navy, who have so faithfully, skilfully and gloriously upheld their country's authority, by suffering, labor, and sublime courage, we offer a heart-tribute beyond the compass of words. Upon those true and faithful citizens, men and women, who have borne up with unflinching hope in the darkest hour and covered the land with their labor of love and charity, we invoke the divinest blessing of him whom they have so truly imitated. But chiefly to thee, God of our fathers, we render thanksgiving and praise for that wondrous Providence that has brought forth from such a harvest of war the seed of so much liberty and peace! We invoke peace upon the North. Peace be to the West! Peace be upon the South! In the name of God we lift up our banner, and dedicate it to peace, union, and liberty, now and forever more! Amen. ROSCOE CONKLING 1829-1888 Roscoe Conkling was for many years one of the most prominent men before the country. Born in Albany in 1829, he spent the early years of his life there, and at the age of thirteen entered Mount Washington Collegiate Institute in New York. In 1846 he entered the law offices of a prominent firm in Utica and was admitted to the bar four years later. He was prosecuting attorney of his county in 1851, and after associating himself with the ablest men in the law practice in Utica was elected mayor of that town in 1858, and representative in Congress for Oneida County in the same year. Conkling had been active in the formation of the new Republican party and gained, in the meantime, a wide reputation as a pleader at the bar. He took his seat in Congress in 1859. During both of Lincoln's presidential campaigns he worked zealously in behalf of the Republican party. Elected to the Senate from New York in 1867, he soon became a power in national politics, and frequently served on important committees. He was a strong supporter of Grant's administration and nominated him for a third term at the Chicago convention in 1880. During the campaign following he worked in the interest of Garfield, though at great personal and pecuniary sacrifices to himself. The last time Conkling came prominently before the country was in the controversy with President Garfield arising out of the appointment of Robertson to the post of Collector of the Port of New York. The contest, which was long and severe, ended in the resignation of Conkling and Platt from the Senate. Conkling resumed his law practice and once more became one of the leaders in his profession. He died in New York City on April 18, 1888, after an exposure to the great blizzard of that year. As a legislator Conkling's influence was for some time preponderant in the Senate. As a pleader at the bar he had few equals. ON NOMINATING GENERAL GRANT FOR A THIRD TERM Delivered in the National Republican Convention at Chicago, Illinois, June, 1880 W HEN asked whence comes our candidate, we say from Appomattox. Obeying instructions I should never dare to disregard, expressing also my own firm conviction, I rise in behalf of the State of New York to propose a nomination with which the country and the Republican party can grandly win. The election before us will be the Austerlitz of American politics. It will decide whether for years to come the country will be "Republican or Cossack." The need of the hour is a candidate who can carry the doubtful States, North and South; and believing that he more surely than any other can carry New York against any opponent, and carry not only the North, but several States of the South, New York is for Ulysses S. Grant. He alone of living Republicans has carried New York as a Presidential candidate. Once he carried it even according to a Democratic count, and twice he carried it by the people's vote, and he is stronger now. The Republican party with its standard in his hand is stronger now than in 1868 or 1872. Never defeated in war or in peace, his name is the most illustrious borne by any living man; his services attest his greatness, and the country knows them by heart. His fame was born not alone of things written and said, but of the arduous greatness of things done, and dangers and emergencies will search in vain in the future, as they have searched in vain in the past, for any other on whom the nation leans with such confidence and trust. Standing on the highest eminence of human distinction, and having filled all lands with his renown, modest, firm, simple, and self-poised, he has seen, not only the titled, but |