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laugh had subsided, "it is with the tariff; somebody gets the picayune, but I don't exactly understand how."

I am glad to assist in embalming in the minds of his countrymen, the true history and eminent character of the greatest American President, before they are overrun with the weeds of fable.

Gert Minier

MINIER, 1882.

JOHN B. GOUGH

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ABRA

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, one of the grandest men this country or the world has ever produced, pure in life and motive, inflexible in his purpose to do right as he understood it, of undaunted courage in carrying out the principles he believed to be true, largehearted, and tender in his sympathy with human suffering

Bold as a lion and gentle as a child

He lived to bless the world.

He broke no promise, served no private end,
He gained no title, and he lost no friend.

John B. Gryt

WORCESTER, 1880.

SPEECH TO VARIOUS REPUBLICAN ASSOCIATIONS, NEW YORK.

It was not intimated to me that I was brought into the room where Daniel Webster and Henry Clay had made speeches, and where, in my position, I might be expected to do something like those men, or do something worthy of myself or my audience. I have been occupying a position since the Presidential election, of silence, of avoiding public speaking, of avoiding public writing; I have been doing so, because I thought upon full consideration that was the proper course for me to take. I have not kept silence since the Presidential election from any party wantonness, or from any indiffer ence to the anxiety that pervades the minds of men about the aspect of the political affairs of this country. I have kept silence for the reason that I supposed it was peculiarly proper that I should do so until the time came when, according to the custom of the country, I could speak officially. I alluded to the custom of the Presi dential-elect, at the time of taking the oath of office; that is what I meant by the custom of the country. I do suppose that, while the political drama being enacted in this country, at this time, is rapidly shifting its scenesforbidding an anticipation, with any degree of certainty, to-day, what we shall see to-morrow-it was peculiarly fitting that I should see it all, up to the last minute,

SPEECH TO VARIOUS ASSOCIATIONS.

193

before I should take ground that I might be disposed (by the shifting of the scenes afterwards) also to shift. I have said several times, upon this journey, and I now repeat it to you, that when the time does come I shall then take the ground that I think is right, right for the North, for the South, for the East, for the West, for the whole country. And in doing so, I hope to feel no necessity pressing upon me to say anything in conflict with the Constitution; in conflict with the continued Union of these States, in conflict with the perpetuation of the liberties of this people, or anything in conflict with anything whatever that I have ever given you reason to expect from me.

13

SPEECH AT NEWARK, NEW JERSEY.

I AM sure, however, that I have not the ability to do anything unaided of God, and that without his support, and that of this free, happy, prosperous, and intelligent people, no man can succeed in doing that the im portance of which we all comprehend.

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