"I need not make any long statement of the case to you. We are here
assembled to elect a President. Our position is almost unprecedented in
the history of the country. Instead of acquiescing in the declared will of
the people, our fellow-citizens, we are told that the people's wish is
divided, and we are called upon to act spontaneously for the people, in
accordance with the constitution of our country. By our individual and
unhampered votes the life of the country is to be determined for the next
four years. Let us not forget the vast responsibility that is upon us. Let
us join our hands and say to each other, 'We are no longer Republicans,
nor Democrats, nor Independents--we are one party, the party of the Union,
and there are none against us.'
"A partisan is not necessarily a man who asserts a truth and defends it
with his whole strength. A partisan means one who takes up his position
with a party. There is a limit where a partisan becomes an asserter of
falsehood, and that limit is reached when a man resigns his own principles
into the judgment of another, his conscience into another's keeping; when
a man gives up free thought, free judgment, and free will in absolute and
blind adherence to a set of thoughts, judgments, and decisions over which
he exercises no control, and in the formation of which he has but one
voice in many millions.
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