It is not the Eastern question, not the control of Constantinople, not the obtaining of concessions from China which is at stake.

It is the question which of two principles shall prevail.

The one represented by a despotism in which the people have no part, or the one represented by a system of government through which the will of the people freely acts.

There can be but one result in such a conflict, one answer to such a question.

The eternal purposes are writ too large in the past to mistake them.