The ill-timed publication of a personal letter defeated Cass in 1848; and within our day the utterance of a single word, unheard by the candidate to whom it was addressed, lost the Presidency to Blaine.
Stevenson illustrates how a single misstep can alter the course of political events.
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My countrymen, the little settlement planted just three centuries ago near the spot upon which we have to-day assembled has under divine guidance grown into a mighty nation.
God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform!
Politics, the prime cause of fortune's favors to them in the beginning, proved their undoing in the end.
My fellow-citizens have a right to know my views upon all public questions, and I have nothing to conceal.