hio steadily and heartily supported him,
and now that the war was over, there was no reason why Kentucky
and Ohio might not stand side by side in maintaining the principles
of the Republican party. I said:

"You might naturally inquire why I came to the city of Louisville
to make a Republican speech, when I knew that the majority of your
population belong to a different school of politics, and that I
could scarcely hope to make any impression upon the Democratic vote
of the city of Louisville or the State of Kentucky. Still, I have
always thought it strange that your people, who through many long
years followed the fortunes and believed in the doctrines of Henry
Clay, should willingly belong to a party opposed to all his ideas,
and I was curious to learn why the same great events that led the
people of Ohio into the ranks of the Republican party should lead
the people of Kentucky into the ranks of the Democratic party. It
is to make this discovery that I come here to-night, and I will
speak to you, not for the purpose of reviving past controversies,
but to see whether, after all, the people of Ohio and Kentucky
ought not now to stand side by side in their political action, as
they did in the days of old.

"When approaching manhood I, in common with the people of Ohio,
was in ardent sympathy with the political opinions of the people
of Kentucky. I was reared in a school which regarded Henry Clay,
John J. Crittenden, Thomas Ewing and Thomas Corwin as the brightest
lights in the political firmament, chief of whom was Henry Clay.
I need not remind a Kentucky audience with what pride and love your
people followed him in his great career, and with rare intermissions
supported and sustained him to the close of his life. And so, too,
with John J. Crittenden, who represented the people of Kentucky in
both Houses of Congress, in the cabinet of two administrations,
and, to the close of his eventful life in the midst of the Civil
war, retained the confidence and support of the people of Kentucky.
It may be said, also, that Thomas Ewing and Thomas Corwin, the warm
and lifelong friends of Clay and Crittenden, represented the people
of Ohio in the highest official positions, and that these great
men, united in counsel, in political opinions and in ardent
friendship, were the common standards of political faith to the
people of these neighboring states.

"I had the honor to cast my first vote for Henry Clay for President
of t