tionary assault upon law and order, and upon those to whom is confided by the constitution and laws the authority to uphold and maintain them, which our opponents have made, with the same courage that we have faced every emergency since our organization as a party, more than forty years ago. Government, by law, must first be assured, everything else can wait. The spirit of lawlessness must be extinguished by the fires of an unselfish and lofty patriotism. Every attack upon the public faith and every suggestion of the repudiation of debts, public or private, must be rebuked by all men who believe that honesty is the best <’ policy, or who love their country and would preserve unsullied its National honor. SECTIONALISM ALMOST OBLITERATED. The country is to be congratulated upon the almost total obliteration of the sectional lines which for so many years marked the division of the United States into slave and free territory, and finally threatened its partition into two separate governments by the dread ordeal of civil war. The era of reconciliation, so long and earnestly desired by General Grant and many other great leaders, North and South, has happily come, and the feeling of distrust and hostility between the sections is everywhere vanishing, let us hope never to return. Nothing is better calculated to give strength to the Nation at home, increase our power and influence abroad, and add to the permanency and security of our free institutions, than the restoration of cordial relations between the people of all sections and parts of our beloved country. If called by the suffrages of the people to assume the duties of the high office of President of the United States, I shall count it a privilege to aid, even in the slightest degree, in the promotion of the spirit of fraternal regard which should animate and govern the citizens of every section, State, or part of the Republic. After the lapse of a century since its utterance, let us, at length, and forever hereafter, heed the admonition of Washington: “There should be no North, no South, no East, no West—but a common country.” It shall be my constant aim to improve every opportunity to advance the cause of good government by promoting that spirit of forbearance and justice which is so essential to our prosperity and happiness by joining most heartily in all proper efforts to restore the relations of brotherly respect and affection which in our early history characterized all the people of all the States. I would be glad to contribute towards binding in indivisible union the different divisions of the country, which, indeed, now “have every inducement of sympathy and interest ” to weld them together more strongly than ever. I would rejoice to see demonstrated to the world, that the North and the South and the East and the West are not separated, or in danger of becoming separated, because of sectional or party differences. The war is long since over; “we are not enemies, but friends,” ' and as friends we will faithfully and cordially co-operate, under the approving smile of Him who has thus far so signally sustained and guided us, to preserve inviolate our country’s name and honor, its peace and good order, and its continued ascendency among the greatest governments on earth. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, WILLIAM McKINLEY. 16
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