But when I first received your invitation, the result of the great quadrennial struggle between the opposing and enduring forces of Loyalty, Liberty and Progress was not yet determined. And it seemed to me that no gratulation personal to myself, no celebration of a victory that embraced only the narrow confines of a State, was allowable while the tremendous issues of the National contest were involved in doubt. I come now, in response to your summons, with a heavy heart. The Republican victory in Kansas was, I know, complete. The largest vote ever polled in the State shows the largest Republican majority, and the vote cast for me exceeds the wildest anticipations of my most sanguine friends. To receive nearly double the votes cast for the Republican nominee two years ago; to turn a minority of nearly ten thousand into a majority of nearly forty thousand; to be indorsed by a majority of the votes cast in all but about half a dozen counties of the State; to receive over twenty-five thousand more votes than were cast for the Republican candidate for President four years ago; and notwithstanding the fact that the whole force of the enemy’s attack was massed against me, to fall only a little more than six thousand votes behind the poll for James G. Blaine, who for ten years past has been the idol of the people of Kansas—this is indeed a victory, a triumph, of which any man would have a just right to feel proud. And I certainly am proud of it, and as grateful as I am proud. I am grateful to the generous Republicans of the State, who, after nominating me with unprecedented unanimity, supported me with unparalleled earnestness and enthusiasm. I am grateful to the eloquent and vigorous speakers, who, in city, town, village and school-house, pleaded my cause with the people, defended me against unjust assault, and did far more than justice to my services or my deserving. I am grateful, especially, to the thousands of earnest, enthusiastic young men whose torches, for weeks, turned night into day from Doniphan to Barber, and from Cherokee to Cheyenne, and who, with flashing flambeaux, blazing rockets and loud hurrahs, often did what neither the logic, the eloquence nor the wit of orators could do, to arouse the sluggish and convert the doubtful. I am grateful to the bright, enterprising, enthusiastic journalists of Kansas—and no State in the Union can boast of brighter or better newspapers than can Kansas—who so ardently and intelligently supported me. I am grateful to hundreds of Democrats and Greenbackers in the State, who, believing that I stood for obedience to law, voted for me. I am grateful even to the opposition, who, as a general rule, treated me courteously and fairly. The exceptions to this rule only emphasized it.