d her part in the war for the Union. From the beginning to
the end, with the ballot at home and with the musket in the field,
this county stood among the foremost of all the communities in the
United States in devotion to the good cause. And since the Nation's
triumph, Lawrence county, sooner or later, but never too late to
rejoice in the final and decisive victory, has supported every
measure required to secure the legitimate results of that triumph.
You have done your part forever to set at rest the great questions
of the past. It is settled that the United States constitute a
Nation, and that their government possesses ample power to maintain
its authority over every part of its territory against all
opposers. It is settled that no man under the American flag shall
be a slave. It is settled that all men born or naturalized in the
United States and within its jurisdiction shall be citizens
thereof, and have equal civil and political rights. It is settled
that the debt contracted to save the Nation is sacred, and shall be
honestly paid. You may well be congratulated that on all of these
questions you fought and voted on the right side.

Fortunately, there is still further cause for congratulation. Our
adversaries, who were on the wrong side of all of these questions,
and who opposed us on all of them to the very last, are now
compelled to be silent in their platform on every one of them. Not
a single one of their fourteen resolutions raises any question on
any of these long-contested subjects. It is not strange that they
are silent. I do not choose on this occasion to recall the
predictions of evil which they so confidently made when discussing
the measures to which I have referred. It is enough for my present
purpose to point to the grand results. When the Republican party,
with Abraham Lincoln as president, received the government from the
hands of the Democratic party, fifteen years ago, the Union of the
fathers was destroyed. A hostile Nation, dedicated to perpetual
slavery, had been established south of the Potomac, and claimed
jurisdiction over one-third of the people and territory of the
Republic. These States were "dissevered, discordant,
belligerent"--our land was rent with civil feud, and ready to be
drenched in fraternal blood. Now, beho