What else is in this platform? You have no idea of the number of things
in it till you look them over. It wants to cultivate friendly feelings
with all the governments in North, Central and South America, so that
the great continents can be one--instigated, moved, pervaded, inspired
by the same great thoughts. In other words, we want to civilize this
continent and the continent of South America. And what else? This great
platform is in favor of paying--not giving, but paying--pensions to
every man who suffered in the great war. What would we have said at the
time? What, if the North could have spoken, would it have said to the
heroes of Gettysburg on the third day? "Stand firm! We will empty the
treasures of the Nation at your feet." They had the courage and the
heroism to keep the hosts of rebellion back without that promise, and is
there an American to-day that can find it in his heart to begrudge
one solitary dollar that has found its way into the pocket of a maimed
soldier, or into the hands of his widow or his orphan?
What would we have offered to the sailors under Farragut on condition
that they would pass Forts St. Phillip and Jackson? What would we have
offered to the soldiers under Grant in the Wilderness? What to the
followers of Sherman and Sheridan? Do you know, I can hardly conceive of
a spirit contemptible enough--and I am not now alluding to the President
of the United States--I can hardly conceive of a spirit contemptible
enough to really desire to keep a maimed soldier from the bounty of this
Nation. It would be a disgrace and a dishonor if we allowed them to
die in poorhouses, to drop by life's highway and to see their children
mourning over their poor bodies, glorious with scars, maimed into
immortality. I may do a great many bad things before I die, but I give
you my word that so long as I live I will never vote for any President
that vetoed a pension bill unless upon its face it was clear that the
man was not a wounded soldier.
What next in this platform? For the protection of American homes. I am
a believer in the home. I have said, and I say again--the hearthstone is
the foundation of the great temple; the fireside is the altar where the
true American worships. I believe that the home, the family, is the unit
of good government, and I want to see the aegis of the great Republic
over millions of happy homes.
That is all there is in this world worth living for. Honor, place, fame,
glory, riches--they are ashes, smoke, dust, disappointment, unless there
is somebody in the world you love, somebody who loves you; unless there
is some place that you can call home, some place where you can feel the
arms of children around your neck, some place that is made absolutely
sacred by the love of others.
So I am for this platform. I am for the election of Harrison and Morton,
and although I did nothing toward having that ticket nominated, because,
I tell you, I was for Gresham, yet I will do as much toward electing the
candidates, within my power, as any man who did vote on the winning
side.
We have a good ticket, a noble, gallant soldier at the head; that is
enough for me. He is in favor of liberty and progress. And you have
for Vice-President a man that you all know better than I do, but a good,
square, intelligent, generous man. That is enough for me. And these
men are standing on the best platform that was ever adopted by the
Republican party--a platform that stands for education, liberty, the
free ballot, American industry; for the American policy that has made us
the richest and greatest Nation of the globe.