kings and emperors gazed and marveled that from the rude touch of this handful

cast on a bleak and unknown shore should have come the _embodied genius of human

government AND THE PERFECTED MODEL OF HUMAN LIBERTY!_ God bless the memory of

those immortal workers, and prosper the fortunes of their living sons--and

perpetuate the inspiration of their handiwork....

 

Far to the South, Mr. President, separated from this section by a line--_once

defined in irrepressible difference, once traced in fratricidal blood, AND NOW,

THANK GOD, BUT A VANISHING SHADOW--lies the fairest and richest domain of this

earth. It is the home of a brave and hospitable people. THERE IS CENTERED ALL

THAT CAN PLEASE OR PROSPER HUMANKIND. A PERFECT CLIMATE ABOVE a fertile soil_

yields to the husbandman every product of the temperate zone.

 

There, by night _the cotton whitens beneath the stars,_ and by day _THE WHEAT

LOCKS THE SUNSHINE IN ITS BEARDED SHEAF._ In the same field the clover steals

the fragrance of the wind, and tobacco catches the quick aroma of the rains.

_THERE ARE MOUNTAINS STORED WITH EXHAUSTLESS TREASURES: forests--vast and

primeval;_ and rivers that, _tumbling or loitering, run wanton to the sea._ Of

the three essential items of all industries--cotton, iron and wood--that region

has easy control. _IN COTTON, a fixed monopoly--IN IRON, proven supremacy--IN

TIMBER, the reserve supply of the Republic._ From this assured and permanent

advantage, against which artificial conditions cannot much longer prevail, has

grown an amazing system of industries. Not maintained by human contrivance of

tariff or capital, afar off from the fullest and cheapest source of supply, but

resting in divine assurance, within touch of field and mine and forest--not set