Therefore, for the poor, and for all who labor, do I now plead, when I ask that you shall not hearken to this painful proposition.

So long as the currency continues in its present uncertainty, it cannot answer the demands of business.

How often are we told by the lawyers, in a saying handed down from antiquity, that “a wretched servitude exists where the law is uncertain”!

Nothing short of that servitude which denies God-given rights can be more wretched than the servitude of an uncertain currency.

And now that, by the blessing of God, we are banishing that terrible wrong which was so long the curse and shame of our Nation, let us apply ourselves to this other servitude, whose yoke we are all condemned to bear in daily life.

If one Commandment enjoins upon us not to worship any graven image, does not another say expressly, “Thou shalt not steal”?

It is nothing less than the good name of the Republic, and its character as an example to the Nations.

Nothing captivates more than the example of virtue,--not even the example of vice.

By this sign conquer: by fidelity to declared principles, by the performance of all promises, by a good name.

The bonds of the Nation repudiated, and the Equal Rights of the freedman, which are nothing but bonds of the Nation, repudiated also.

Alas! the example of the Republic is lost, and our Western star is quenched in darkness.

Earth felt the wound; and Nature from her seat, Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe That all was lost.

The shock will begin at home; but it will spread wherever there are hearts to thrill with anguish.

The struggling people in foreign lands, now turned to us with hope, will sink in despair as they observe the disastrous eclipse.

I would not seem too confident in the destinies of my country; but I cannot doubt, that, if only true to herself, there is nothing too vast for her peaceful ambition.

Here again I catch the aspiration of our leader in war, “Let us have peace.” Out of peace will spring all else.

Let despots break promises, but not our Republic.

Equality of rights is the standing promise of Nature to man, and the Republic has succeeded to this promise.

The Kenaians call themselves in their own dialect by yet another name, Thnainas, meaning Men; thus, by a somewhat boastful designation, asserting manhood.

As daring navigators they are unsurpassed, sailing six or seven hundred miles in open canoes.

Some have developed an aptitude for trade unknown to their northern neighbors, or to the Indians of the United States, and will work for wages, whether in tilling the ground or other employment.

Their superior nature discards corporal punishment, even for boys, as an ignominy not to be endured.

They believe in a Creator, and in the immortality of the soul.

Such is that pride of race which civilization does not always efface.

For generations they have been warriors, prompt to take offence, and vindictive, as is the nature of the Indian race,--always ready to exact an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.