OCR Text |
Show H GARFIELD'S APPEAL TO YOUNG MEN. B "Pitch Your Tent Among the Living and Not HI Among the Dead." H (Extract from the speech of the Hon. James A. H Garfield, delivered at Cleveland, O., October BH 11, 1879.) B Now, fellow citizens, a word before I leave you, HI on the very eve of the holy day of God a flt mo- H ment to consecrate yourselves finally to the great H work of next Tuesday morning. I se in this great H audience tonight a great many young men, young H men who are about to cast their iim vote. 1 H want to give you a word of suggestion and advice. H I heard a very brilliant thing said by a boy the H other day up in one of the northwestern couutiw. Hi He said to me: "General, I have a great m'nd to H vote the Democratic ticket." That was not the H .vbrllliant thing. I said to him: "Why?" "Why," B said he, "my father is a Republican and my broth- H era are Republicans, and I am a Republican all H over l3Ut want t0 lj0 an lnuPend6nt man an,i L K don't want anybody to say: 'That fellow votes the K Republican ticket just because his dad does,' and H I have a mind to vote the Democratic ticket just H to prove my independence." I did not like the H thing the boy suggested, but I did admire the H spirit of the boy that wanted to have some inde- Ht pendence of his own. H Now, I tell you, young man, don't vote the Re- H publican ticket just because your father votes it. H Don't vote the Democratic ticket, even if he does Hj vote it. But let me give you this one word of Ht advice, as you are about to pitch your tent in one R of the great political campj. Your Ufa is full and Bj buoyant with hope now, and 1 beg you, when you E pitch your tent, pitch it among the living and not B among thd dead. If you are at ah Inclined to pitch H It among' the Democratic people and with that B party, let me go with you for a moment while we IH survey, the ground where I hop, you will, not K sKortly lie. It is a sad place, young man, for you H to put your young life into. It Is to me far more B like a graveyard than like a camp for the living. H Oh, young man, come out of that! That is ho H place in which to, put your young Hfe. Come out, and come over Into this camp of iiberty, of law, of order, of justice, of freedom, of all that Is glorious glor-ious under these night stars. Is there any death here in our camp? Yes! Yes! Three hundred and fifty thousand soldiers, tho noblest band that ever trod the earth, died to make this camp a camp of glory and of liberty forever. But there are no dead issues here. There are no dead Ideas here. Hang out our banner from under the blue sky this night until it shall sweep the green turf from under your feet! It hangs over our camp. Read away up under the stars the inscription we have written on It, lo! these twenty-five twenty-five years. Come down the glorious steps of our banner. Every great record we have made we have vindicated vindi-cated with our blood and with our truth. It sweeps the ground and it touches the stars. Come there, young man, and put In your life where all is living, and where nothing is dead but the heroes that defended it. |