"The great task is to educate a whole people in these high virtues, to the end that they may be equal to their opportunities and to the dangers that surround them. The chief instrumentalities in this education are the home, the school, the platform, the pulpit, and the press, and all good men and women are the educators.
"Doubt and difficulty and danger lend to every human enterprise its chief interest and charm. Every man who fought in the Army of the Tennessee at Shiloh knows that the gloom and despondency in which the first day's battle closed, gave an added glory to the victory of the second day; that the victory is always most highly prized which, after a long and desperate struggle, is snatched at last from the very jaws of disaster and defeat.
"If, in the future of our country, trials and conflicts and calamities await her, it is but the common allotment of Providence to men. The brave and the good will (here always) find noble work and a worthy career, and will rejoice that they are permitted to live and to act in such a country as the American republic."
In July, 1872, Ex-Governor Hayes received a petition, signed by the most influential men in the second Congressional district in Cincinnati, asking him to accept a nomination for Congress. Scores of letters and telegrams were sent to him at Fremont, where he was detained by illness in his family, urging upon him the duty of sacrificing personal to public interests and consent to become a candidate. He refused absolutely. The nominating convention met August 6th, and the following telegram tells the story:
"In spite of your protests, you were nominated on first ballot. Great enthusiasm, and whole party lifted up. We assured Republicans that Governor Hayes never retreated when ordered to advance. Things are looking bright.
Two days after, a petition was forwarded, signed by two hundred influential Republican and non-partisan voters of the second district, containing the words, we "most urgently solicit you to accept the nomination given you."
His acceptance being demanded on the ground of duty, he returned to Cincinnati and made the canvass. At Glendale, on September 4, he delivered a lengthy speech, from which we take these extracts:
