But I am not going to try to remember his
speech and perhaps improperly quote the chaplain. The speech was so
good that they made him do it again at the very opening of the caucus
the next morning, so I'm going to lead off with it in my story of the
proceedings of the last day, just as the stenographers recorded it.
CHAPTER VIII
THE SILVER LINING
Soon after the caucus opened on Saturday morning, May 10, the minutes
read as follows:
THE CHAIRMAN: "Gentlemen, before we have the report of the Resolutions
Committee, I want to say to those who were not of the Executive
Committee and in its meeting last night, that there seemed to me to be
there a more splendid crystallization of the real purpose of this
caucus and a foresight into what it is going to mean, not only to
these four millions of men but to the people of the United States for
the next half century, than I have ever heard, and at the request of a
number of those who were there at that meeting, I am going to ask one
of them to interpret to you in just a few minutes, as well as he can,
and he did it wonderfully well last night, the spirit that we believed
in that meeting is your spirit here to-day and the spirit that is
going out from this caucus as a slogan to all American citizens and
through them to the world, indicating the purposes for which we
fought, and more than that, the purposes for which American manhood
stands and for which it will fight again, if necessary, the heritage
we will hand down to our children, and I will ask this gentleman to
present that thought to you.
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