Mr. Hughes knew the occasion was momentous, and he had prepared his
manuscript carefully. In a box sat Theodore Roosevelt just back from
Missouri. All over the house sat the veterans of Armageddon in various
stages of doubt and dismay. On the platform and in the other boxes the
ex-whited sepulchres and ex-second-story men of 1912 were to be seen,
obviously in the best of health and in a melting mood. Out beyond the
hall there were powerful pro-Germans and powerful pro-Allies; a war
party in the East and in the big cities; a peace party in the middle
and far West. There was strong feeling about Mexico. Mr. Hughes had to
form a majority against the Democrats out of people divided into all
sorts of combinations on Taft vs. Roosevelt, pro-Germans vs.
pro-Allies, war vs. neutrality, Mexican intervention vs.
non-intervention.
About the morality or the wisdom of the affair we are, of course, not
concerned here. Our only interest is in the method by which a leader
of heterogeneous opinion goes about the business of securing a
homogeneous vote.
"This _representative_ gathering is a happy augury. It means the
strength of _reunion._ It means that the party of _Lincoln_
is restored...."
The italicized words are binders: _Lincoln_ in such a speech has
of course, no relation to Abraham Lincoln. It is merely a stereotype
by which the piety which surrounds that name can be transferred to the
Republican candidate who now stands in his shoes.
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