Republican candidate for president. (speech by columnist Patrick J. Buchanan)(Transcript)

By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN, Syndicated Columnist

Delivered before the Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences, Manchester, New Hampshire, March 20, 1995

It is good to be back home again. As you know, Shelley and I spent 10 wonderful weeks here in the winter of 1992, and we will never forget your generosity and your support when we came up here to New Hampshire, and you and I stood together to say to the national establishment of both parties, "Turn around. You're going the wrong way!"

We may have lost that nomination, my friends, but you and I have won the battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party.

Four years ago, we came here to say no to tax hikes and no to quota bills, and now every Republican says no to tax hikes and no to quota bills and no to affirmative action.

So, we want first to welcome the prodigal sons home to their father's house.

But we shall remind them: The Buchanan Brigades are not leap-year conservatives. We have borne the day's heat. We have labored in these vineyards from the very first hour. And we stand here today to resume command of the revolution that we began here three years ago - because we intend to lead that revolution to triumph and into the White House in 1996.

But this campaign is not about yesterday. It is about tomorrow. It is about America's future. It is about taking America forward toward the dream of a Constitutional Republic that first stirred in the hearts of the boys who stood their ground on the Lexington Green and the men who held at the Concord Bridge. This campaign is about an America that once again looks out for our own people and our own country first.

Three years ago when I came to New Hampshire, I went up to the North Country on one of my first visits. I went up to the James River paper mill. It was a bad day, just before Christmas, and many of the workers at the plant had just been laid off. They were sullen and they were angry and they didn't want to talk to anyone.

So as I walked down that line of workers, I will never forget: Men shook my hand and looked away. Then one of them, with his head down, finally looked up, and with tears in his eyes said, "Save our jobs." As I rode back down to Manchester, I wondered what it was I could do for that factory worker. …