Destroy exchange, and even these untold resources would be an infinite chaos, without form and void.

Employment would cease, capital would waste, mills would stop, the rich would become poor,--the poor, I fear, would starve.

The fountains of the great deep would be broken up, and the deluge would be upon us.

Thus, fellow-citizens, at every turn are we brought back to one single point, the Public Faith, which cannot be dishonored without infinite calamity.

The child is told not to tell a lie; but this injunction is the same for the full-grown man, and for the nation also.

We cannot tell a lie to the national freedman or the national creditor; we cannot tell a lie to anybody.

But falsehood to the national freedman and the national creditor is a national lie.

Breaking promise with either, you are dishonored, and Liar must be stamped upon the forehead of the nation.

Mankind is now looking to us, and just in proportion to the eminence we have reached is the eminence of our example.

It remains for us to show how a Republic can conquer in a field more glorious than battle, where all these millions of citizens and all this untold treasure uphold the Public Faith.

Such an example will elevate Republican Government, and make the idea of a Republic more than ever great and splendid.

Helping here, you help not only your own country, but help Humanity also,--help liberal institutions in all lands,--help the down-trodden everywhere, and all who struggle against the wrong and tyranny of earth.

Faith is nothing less than a part of that sublime harmony by which the planets wheel surely in their appointed orbits, and nations are summoned to justice.

But faith in this Republic must be fixed as the sun, which illumines all.

It only remains, come what may, that we should at all hazards preserve this Public Faith,--never forgetting that honesty is not only the best policy, but the Golden Rule.

For myself, I see nothing more practical, at this moment, than, first, at all points to oppose the Democracy, and, secondly, to insist that yet awhile longer ex-Rebels shall be excused from copartnership in government.

I will not be outdone by anybody in clemency; nor at the proper time will I be behind any one in opening all doors of office and trust.

Who can object, if men recently arrayed against their country are told to stand aside yet a little longer, until all are secure in their rights?

Here is no fixed exclusion,--nothing of which there can be any just complaint,--nothing, which is not practical, wise, humane,--nothing which is not born of justice rather than victory.

Even in the uncertainty of the future it is easy to see that the national freedman and the national creditor have a common fortune.

In the terrible furnace of war they were joined together, nor can they be separated until the rights of both are fixed beyond change.

In our foreign relations there are with me two cardinal principles, which I have no hesitation to avow at all times: first, peace with all the world; and, secondly, sympathy with all struggling for Human Rights.

Still in the right hand carry gentle peace,” and there is nothing we cannot do.

Filled with the might of peace, the sympathy we extend will have a persuasive power.

Following these plain principles, we should be open so that foreign nations shall know our sentiments, and in such way that even where there is a difference there shall be no just cause for offence.