1. We are masters of the field. Completeness of victory [told in military
language].

2. Sympathy for the defeated. We will treat their leaders with Good
Samaritan generosity, but we invite the rank and file to enlist with us,
unless they prefer to go home and pray for better luck next time.

3. Only by joining us can they get a nibble at the spoils. Probably they
will, for many of them are men of seven principles--five loaves and two
fishes. The "cohesive power of public plunder."

4. We must not be careless after victory, but reorganize, be vigilant, keep
our powder dry. The "outs" are hungry, and an enemy will fight terribly for
rations. "Brag is a good dog, but Holdfast is a better."

5. Now let us all rejoice over the defeat of a party many of whose members
we respect personally, but which, as a whole, we regard as an immense
nuisance.


SPEECH AFTER A POLITICAL DEFEAT. SELECTED

My Political Brethren: You seem to be in the dumps! Don't like the figures;
wish they were a cunningly devised fable. How did it happen? Big vote and
intolerable cheating cooked our goose. But we are india-rubber and steel
springs, and no amount of hard usage can take the fight out of us.

Let our opponents laugh! We are not savage--would not hurt a hair of their
heads personally, but politically will skin them alive next time. But we