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Fatherland with reverential affection—upon that great nation whose valor has written so many of the heroic pages of history, and whose thought, like a far shining beacon light, has so brightly illumined the world. I am profoundly grateful to those kind friends in the land of my birth who, at this period of my life, have so warmly remembered me. [Applause.]
Nor can I fail to speak with pride of those American citizens of German blood; who hold their rank among the best of our people by their industry, their civic virtues, the conservative spirit and their self-sacrificing patriotism, which has drenched every American battlefield with Teutonic blood. [Applause.] It may well be said of them that, however warm their affection for their native land, they have never permitted that affection to interfere with their duties as American citizens, and, least of all, to seduce them into any design or desire to use their power in American politics for foreign ends. [Applause.] And of the services they are doing this Republic it will not be the least valuable that their presence on our soil helps to preserve that peace and friendship between the two nations, which, happily, has always existed to the benefit and honor of both and which, of late, such wicked attempts have been made to disturb without cause. [Applause.] May that peace and friendship endure forever.
And now a last word, which may be fittingly uttered on an occasion like this. I have reached the age which may speak from experience; and of the experiences of my long public activity I will give you the best.
If there is any one among us who has lost faith in democratic government—in what Abraham Lin-
