"If my Democratic friends who seem to be anxious to bring about peace and quiet between the sections are sincere, and desire to make their expressions effective, they should act with that party which presents a solid front, a united North so long as we are menaced with the Solid South.
"If it could be understood in the South that they are to be met with a Solid North, I do not believe that the Solid South would exist in that condition a single year. They retain this position because they believe they can have the support of a fragment of the North; and thus with this fragment rule and control the country. I would have no fear of the control of the country by the Democratic party, if it were made up of something like equal proportions from all sections of the country. I discuss this question first, because I believe it is the most important question at issue in the pending canvass. I repeat, that it is the imperative duty of the North to meet the Solid South with a united front!"
The above little speech thrilled the North, and put new life into the Republican party. It was a regular battle-cry; it was passed along the line from city to city, and from State to State. It gave Mr. Foster the nomination for Governor of Ohio, and whereas the Democrats had possession of the State by a majority of 23,000, he reversed the whole question by a Republican majority of 17,000, and redeemed the State of Ohio to the Republican party. The rising tide of enthusiasm swept the whole country. That famous little speech was printed and set forth by all the papers of the land. Editorials were written on the subject, and orators all over the land took Mr. Foster's speech at Upper Sandusky as a text from which to preach their sermons. The whole country was aroused over the treasonable designs and aims of the South. Her intentions were to come as near back to slavery as ever she could get, or rather as near as ever she dared to come, once more. But now the North was on her guard, and presented a solid Republican front against the Solid South, and in the course of two years more returned James A. Garfield as President of the United States.
You must have observed, my dear reader, in the last few pages, how the former secessionists arose in the South, and tore down the negro, or Republican, governments that ruled in the days of Reconstruction. You have seen the arrogance and insolence of the rebel brigadier-generals who vaulted into their places, and even came to Congress at Washington, and attempted to tie the hands of President Hayes by depriving him of the right to veto. You have seen how these self-same rebels next began to talk about pensioning the very soldiers who broke up the Union for a time, or at least prevented the free course of law in the Southern States, and they next built their hopes on the payment of their own war-claims and the price of their slaves out of the United States Treasury at Washington. You have seen how all the above, and far more, welded all the Northern States into what was termed "the Solid North," and rolled back the great Southern waves of presumption and insolence, saying to the sea, "Thus far shalt thou come, and no further; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed!" Having said and done so much, and having awakened the Southern States to their proper senses, a person would have thought that colored men would have been restored to the government of these States, at least in cases where the colored men were clever men, and therefore well qualified to rule. But the aforementioned Negro, or Republican, governments of the late rebel States were not restored, though we had established the "Solid North," and returned James A. Garfield to the White House as the head of the great republic.