_My Friends_--I feel very conscious of the compliment which is conveyed by your presence here to-day. You come as citizens of an adjoining State to manifest, as your spokesman has said, some personal respect for me, but much more, I think--your interest in the pending contention of principles before the people of the United States. It is fortunate that you are allowed, not only to express your interest by such popular gatherings as these, but that you will be called upon individually, after the debate is over, to settle this contention by your ballots. An American political canvass, when we look through the noise and tinsel that accompanies it, presents a scene of profound interest to the student of government. The theory upon which our Government is builded is that every qualified elector shall have an equal influence at the ballot-box with every other. Our Constitutions do not recognize fractional votes; they do not recognize the right of one man to count one and a half in the determination of public questions. It is wisely provided that whatever differences may exist in intelligence, in wealth, or in any other respect, at the ballot-box there shall be absolute equality. No interest can be truly subserved, whether local or general, by any invasion of this great principle. The wise work of our fathers in constructing this Government will stand all tests of internal dissension and revolution, and all tests of external assault, if we can only preserve a pure, free ballot. [Applause.] Every citizen who is a patriot ought to lend his influence to that end, by promoting necessary reforms in our election laws and by a watchful supervision of the processes of our popular elections. We ought to elevate in thought and practice the free suffrage that we enjoy. As long as it shall be held by our people to be the jewel above price, as long as each for himself shall claim its free exercise and shall generously and manfully insist upon an equally free exercise of it by every other man, our Government will be preserved and our development will not find its climax until the purpose of God in establishing this Government shall have spread throughout the world--governments "of the people, by the people, and for the people." [Cheers.]