Frank A. Flower

"The Republican party has been, the most powerful champion of freedom and equal rights in the world. The feeble and scattered elements that fifty years ago began to combine, here and there, were all lovers of human equality. Under various names, led by a purer patriotism far in advance of the different political organizations to which they had belonged, they continued to grow in numbers and influence, until, composing a majority of their respective communities in this Republic, they were, in response to an inexorable law, drawn into one great spirited army, with a common purpose—equal and perpetual freedom for all—and a common name, ."