The Senator from Nebraska said that the republican party must rest its hope for success in this country upon the approval of the people of the great North. My friends. republican Senators. in my opinion if the republican party remains in power it must be for the reason that its action is in accordance with justice and in accordance with the principles of the party. In this country and at this time we are engaged in the endeavor to realize the most sublime political conception. i.e.. nothhig less than equal and full citizenship for all. without regard to race. color. or previous political condition or history. covering with that grand panoply the immigrant from every land. the emancipated sons of the soil. aul those who forfeited political rights by leading insurrection against the Government and in support of a hostile organization. I do not mention this to rail against the defunct confederacy or those who fought in its armies. as the few and feeble blows that I had the power or opportunity to give were dealt during the armed conflict. I only allude to the fact that these people. all of the classes named. have been given full citizenship in a proper and constitutional way to show the liberality of the American people anti to show that we live in times of more than ordinary import. and that it is our duty to rise to the level of the occasion. for every true man can exercise the rights of a citizen with a higher and holier feeling of pride when he knows that none are unjustly deprived of the rights that he enjoys. and that he seeks no nnmanly advantage over the unfortnate. whether the misfortune comes from adherence to political heresy or from being on what our democratic friends regard as on the wrong side of the "color line." I am for full amnesty for all whobask for it and full citizenship for all who deserve it. Equality before the law must be vindicated for everyone everywhere in this country. If need be. the wholepower of the United States should be launched againstthose who would by violence curtail the just rights of any American citizen. whether those rights be inherited or acquired by naturalization and threatened by the action of foreign powers. or whether they be gained by or through the constitutional amendments and assailed by those who owe allegiance to that Constitution. if not gratitude. for exemption from punishment for former offenses against it. The political vantageground now held by every American citizen Ias not been cheaply and easily attained. it has cost a. hundred years of political and military strife. hundreds of thousands of valuable lives and billions of treasure were lost in the struggle. and men and parties must appear before the awful tribunal of history for a verdict as to the part taken by each. Republican Senators. we are before that tribunal now.
Keywords matched
naturalization immigrant