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 Americanism Triumphant. 
 
 -•i 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 before the 
 
 State Teachers' Association of Pennsylvania, 
 
 at Gettysburg, Pa,, 
 Tuesday, July 4, (899. 
 
 By 
 
 Hon. MARRIOTT BROSIUS. 
 
 Lancaster, Pa. 
 
 The New Era Printing Company 
 
 J899 
 
Glass. 
 Book. 
 
 EJJ^ 
 
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 ?^1 
 
Americanism Triumphant* 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 before the 
 
 State Teachers* Association of Pennsylvania^ 
 
 at Gettysburg, Pa., 
 Tuesday, July 4, t899. 
 
 By 
 
 v/ 
 
 Hon. MARRIOTT BROSIUS, 
 
 Lancaster, Pa. 
 
 The New Era Printing Company 
 
 1899 
 
 w 
 
4.1 881 
 
 
AMERICANISM TRIUMPHANT. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen: The day, the 
 place and the character of the assem- 
 bly combine to make this an interest- 
 ing and impressive occasion. This to 
 the American patriot is a holy day, 
 reverently dedicated to the commemo- 
 ration of the birth of the Republic. On 
 this day was born the American con- 
 ception of political liberty. The De- 
 claration of Independence was a for- 
 mal notification to all the world that 
 at last a nation was to be hrought 
 forth, conceived in liberty and dedi- 
 cated to the equality of man, an event 
 of such transcendent importance that 
 Webster thought it infinitely exceeded 
 that for which the great English poet 
 invoked 
 
 "A muse of fire, a kingdom for a stage, 
 Princes to act, 
 And monarchs to behold the swelling 
 
 scene." 
 This place is the Mecca of American 
 patriotism. If there is a spot within the 
 bounds of the republic sacred to heroic 
 memory, where the citizen can come 
 to learn the lessons of right citizen- 
 ship, liberty and duty, it is where the 
 earth is hallowed by the dust of he- 
 roes and martyrs who sealed their de- 
 votion with their blood. 
 
 The field of Gettysburg has a three- 
 fold title to its world-wide renown. 
 Here was witnessed the high tide of 
 the Rebellion. From the awful holo- 
 caust of those three memorable days 
 which crimsoned hillside and plain 
 with the ruddy currents of heroes, the 
 most stupendous blunder in history, 
 the slave-holders' Confederacy, mor- 
 tally wounded and broken-hearted, 
 ebbed to its death. 
 
(4) 
 
 Here too was witnessed the high tide 
 of American heroism. Citizen soldiers 
 by their impetuous daringextorted the 
 admiration and homage of the world, 
 as they stood with iron front to re- 
 ceive the thunderbolts of battle, that 
 ploughed the fields, planted them with 
 heroic dead and watered them with 
 patriot blood; or as in the wild fury of 
 the charge they breasted floods of fire 
 that dashed themselves in pieces on 
 the rocks of Union valor and ebbed in 
 bloody foam and spray. 
 
 Here too it is thought by some was 
 recorded the high tide of American 
 letters. Edward Everett, the polished 
 scholar and classic orator of New Eng- 
 land, said to President Lincoln the day 
 following the dedication of the Na- 
 tional Cemetery: "I would be glad if 
 I could flatter myself that I came as 
 near the central idea of the occasion 
 in two hours as you did in two min- 
 utes." A friend of mine well observed: 
 "Those simple sentences of our mar- 
 tyred President are imbedded in our 
 national literature as one of the 
 brightest gems in its crown." 
 
 This assembly is remarkable in its 
 personnel. Patriotic in feeling, edu- 
 cational in profession and purpose, 
 moral in spirit, it stands for the high- 
 est and best in American life. The 
 school-master is abroad. The light of 
 learning is on every hill. The flag 
 floats over the school house. Memorial 
 day teaches the lessons of heroism. Na- 
 tional day now observed in some of 
 our colleges introduces instruction in 
 patriotism in the college curriculum. 
 Independence day keeps the holy fire 
 burning on the altar of country. What 
 a noble sequence of institutions and 
 observances for instruction in patriot- 
 ism ! What a grand chapter in the 
 splendid institutes of American educa- 
 tion! A beautiful unfolding of the 
 American idea of popular instruction. 
 
 General education is the sure founda- 
 tion of popular government. School 
 
(5) 
 
 teachers are the makers of republics; 
 they guide the march of intellect; 
 carve the marble of mind; build em- 
 pires of brains; make glad the waste 
 places of ignorance with the light of 
 knowledge. It was the saying of Ma- 
 homet "that the ink of the scholar and 
 the blood of the martyr are equal." 
 Robert C. Winthrop added, that noth- 
 ing but the ink of the scholar, that is, 
 the toil of the teacher, can preserve 
 what the blood of the martyr has pur- 
 chased. 
 
 / It is the beautiful thought of John 
 ,->' Fiske . that "In the roaring loom of 
 ^■^ time the endless web of events is wo- 
 
 ven, each strand making more and 
 more visible the living garment of 
 God." Carrying the fine figure of the 
 weaver into our thought to-day, let us 
 cherish our public schools as the 
 looms, and our teachers as the weav- 
 ers who weave the wondrous web of 
 destiny for the nation. 1 
 
 The great preponderance of ladies in 
 this assembly emphasizes the fact that 
 American women are conspicuous fac- 
 tors in our splendid system of public 
 schools. Here we are walking close to 
 Nature's side, as the signal success of 
 their work as teachers demonstrates. 
 Then, how grandly are they achieving 
 their intellectual independence. The 
 idea is so cordially accepted by our 
 people that it may be fairly listed in 
 the catalogue of Americanisms, "That 
 the only true measure of a woman's 
 right to education is her capacity for 
 receiving it." This noble sentiment of 
 Canon Kingsley finds a fitting com- 
 panion in the fine utterance of our 
 President the other day at Holyoke, 
 that "An educated womanhood is an 
 open school for citizenship every day 
 of the year." To woman's pluck and 
 brains college and university have 
 capitulated. No cherubim with flaming 
 sword drives her from the tree of 
 knowledge in this blessed land of ours. 
 Her triumphs in scholarship have es- 
 
(6) 
 
 tablished her title to vhe best opportu- 
 nities for education the country af- 
 fords. Not only at home, but abroad, 
 American women are beginning to be 
 appreciated at their true intellectual 
 worth. A New England Theologian 
 said to a German Professor, that the 
 ablest refutation of "Edwards on the 
 Will" that was ever written was the 
 work of an American woman, the 
 daughter of Dr. Lyman Beecher. The 
 worthy Teuton raised both hands in 
 undisguised astonishment, and ex- 
 claimed, "You have a woman that can 
 write an able refutation of Edwards 
 on the Will? God forgive Columbus 
 for discovering Amertca." 
 
 "Americanism" is a word I use to 
 express that splendid aggregation of 
 principles, ethical, political and eco- 
 nomic, which have characterized the 
 evolution of the American republic 
 and been exemplified in the constitu- 
 tions, laws, civil policy, moral devel- 
 opment and national spirit during the 
 century and a quarter of our existence 
 in the family of nations. The limits 
 of this occasion forbid an allusion to 
 more than a very few of the most 
 characteristic principles which have 
 marked or will mark signal triumphs 
 In our national life. 
 
 Civil Liberty. 
 The establishment of civil liberty 
 was the first triumph of Americanism 
 on this continent. When we consider 
 the genesis of this great principle of 
 the rights of man, we get a glimpse of 
 the meaning of Charles Francis Adams 
 when he said: "The passage of the Red 
 Sea was not a more momentous event 
 than the voyage of the Mayflower." 
 This continent, which Dr. Storrs said 
 was picked out of the ocean on the 
 point of a needle, was to be the arena 
 in which the experiment of civil lib- 
 erty was to achieve its final success. 
 Columbus was the first Pilgrim father. 
 He gave us the land on which the 
 
 r 
 
(7) 
 
 struggle for the rights of man was to 
 pursue its triumphal march from Lex- 
 ington to Appomattox. He made pos- 
 sible Washington, Jefferson and Lin- 
 coln. The first, it is said, made the 
 republic possible, the second made it 
 popular, and the last made it perma- 
 nent. He was the forerunner of the 
 heroes and martyrs who have shed 
 fadeless glory on the long, weary and 
 blood-stained way from Plymouth 
 Rock to Gettysburg, from the Pilgrim 
 Charter to the Declaration, the Con- 
 stitution, and the Emancipation Proc- 
 lamation. The merit of Columbus, 
 however, I cannot now consider, but 
 must relinquish even so alluring a 
 theme to the Irishman who said it 
 were well to do a little more honor to 
 Columbus and a little less to St. Pat- 
 rick, for the former had done more 
 for Irishmen than the latter; "for," 
 said he, "St. Patrick discovered a 
 country the Irish could not rule, but 
 Columbus discovered one they could 
 rule." 
 
 The Pilgrim Covenant executed on 
 that stormy winter night in the cabin 
 of the Mayflower contained the germ 
 of popular government. It was a no- 
 table instrument. John Adams said it 
 was founded on reason and revelation. 
 These were its words: "In the pres^ 
 ence of God and one another we do 
 agree that all the laws, ordinances, 
 acts and constitutions which shall be 
 made from time to time by the major- 
 ity shall be binding upon all, and to 
 them we will yield due submission and 
 obedience." Among American consti- 
 tutions this was the Pilgrim father. 
 Out of it came the town meeting which 
 was the first governing body in Amer- 
 ican politics. To establish and main- 
 tain the principle of this covenant in 
 American government has been the 
 pursuit of statesmen, has evoked the 
 grandest exertions of the patriot and 
 the most heroic achievements of the 
 
(8) 
 
 soldier. The story is grand and thrill- 
 ing, a splendid epic of liberty; a sub- 
 lime triumph of Americanism; for the 
 Pilgrim Covenant still lives in the 
 Constitution of the United States, and 
 its spirit animates a system of govern- 
 ment which is the proudest achieve- 
 ment of political genius; and whose 
 distinguishing characteristics are no- 
 where more finely stated than in "the 
 words of a late lamented statesman 
 and jurist: "A government where 
 Law with the civic crown on his brow, 
 wearing the judicial ermine, treading 
 the pathway of our civilization with 
 no iron heel, and gently, with unmail- 
 ed hand, leads forth Liberty as his 
 wedded wife; and she, when asked for 
 her most precious jewels, points to her 
 happy children looking up with loving 
 hearts to the honored parents of their 
 
 peace and joy."'^ 
 «■ 
 Religious Liberty. 
 
 Among the legends inscribed on the 
 panels of the inner front of the Water 
 Gate at the World's Fair at Chicago 
 was this: "Toleration in Religion the 
 best fruit of the last four centuries." 
 The beneficent principle of "private 
 judgment" revived by the Reforma- 
 tion, that great appeal from the judg- 
 ment of the Church to the conscience 
 of man, received the warmest hospi- 
 tality in the new world, though its ful- 
 lest development was postponed many 
 years. I say "revived by the Reforma- 
 tion," for it is interesting to note that 
 absolute religious toleration prevailed 
 in Greece and Rome at the beginning 
 of the Christian era. The manner in 
 which their various faiths were re- 
 garded by the people of that age made 
 toleration easy. The masses thought 
 all religions equally true, the philoso- 
 phers thought them equally false, and 
 the magistrates thought them equally 
 useful. In the fourth century the Em- 
 peror Galerius enunciated the true 
 doctrine in his edict respecting the 
 
(9) 
 
 Christians, "We permit them there- 
 fore freely to profess their private 
 opinions and to assemble in their con- 
 venticles without fear of molestation." 
 This suggested to Charles Francis 
 Adams "that in the matter of religious 
 tolerance the world has struggled back 
 to where it was when Paul preached 
 on Mars Hill." 
 
 It must ever remain a poignant re- 
 gret that the founders of New Eng- 
 land, though schooled in the princi- 
 ples of resistance, both to arbitrary 
 civil power and ecclesiastical autho- 
 rity, yet carried with them the taint 
 of religious bigotry which marred the 
 otherwise spotless raiment of the set- 
 tlers of Massachusetts colony. Reli- 
 gious toleration was not born at Ply- 
 mouth Rock. So far from it indeed 
 that a distinguished statesman of Mas- 
 sachusetts has said that in this re- 
 spect her record is only less discredit- 
 able than that of Spain. There was 
 one prayer the liberty-loving Puritans 
 did not pray; the Universal Prayer of 
 Pope: 
 
 "Let not my weak, unknowing hand 
 
 Presume Thy bolts to throw 
 And deal damnation 'round the land 
 To each I judge Thy foe." 
 
 But the Quaker and the Baptist and 
 the plain German sects of Pennsylva- 
 nia leavened the loaf, and our reli- 
 gion soon became Americanized, as Dr. 
 Holmes suggests, as did our politics 
 and government, and the great princi- 
 ple of religious toleration became bet- 
 ter understood and more firmly estab- 
 lished in the United States than in any 
 other country. We believe with Lieber 
 that conscience lies beyond the reach 
 of government, that liberty of worship 
 is one of the primordial rights of man. 
 David Dudley Field suggested that if 
 we had nothing else to boast of we 
 could claim with justice "that first 
 among the nations we made it a matter 
 of organic law that the relations be- 
 
(10) 
 
 tween man and his Maker were a pri- 
 vate concern into which other men had 
 no right to intrude." The provisions in 
 the Constitutions of all the States and 
 in that of the United States prohibiting 
 religious tests, which Dr. Eliot, of 
 Harvard College, says gave the United 
 States the leadership among the na- 
 tions in dissociating theological opin- 
 ions and political rights, are the ex- 
 pression of the common thought of 
 Americans that religious restrictions 
 imposed by human tribunals upon the 
 consciences of men are "impious en- 
 croachments upon the prerogatives of 
 God and the liberties of men." 
 
 That religious liberty has had a con- 
 spicuous agency in American progress 
 no one doubts. It has promoted con- 
 ditions which invited enterprise, stimu- 
 lated intellectual growth, advanced 
 moral development and secured human 
 happiness; results which can only pro- 
 ceed from that unfettered mind and 
 conscience enjoyed by the people of 
 the United States, and which cannot be 
 better described than by borrowing the 
 words of Henry Buckle which he mis- 
 applied to another country, saying: 
 "That of all countries ours is the one 
 where popular liberty is settled on the 
 widest basis; where each man is most 
 able to say what he thinks; where 
 every one can propagate his own opin- 
 ions; where religious persecution is 
 little known and the unchecked play 
 and flow of the human mind may be 
 clearly seen; where the profession of 
 heresy is least dangerous and the prac- 
 tice of dissent most common; where 
 hostile creeds flourish side by side and 
 rise and decay without disturbance ac- 
 cording to the wants of the people, un- 
 affected by the wishes of the church 
 and uncontrolled by the authority of 
 the State." 
 
 Such conditions of unrestricted free- 
 dom explain and emphasize the sug- 
 gestion of Goldwin Smith that "not de- 
 
(11) 
 
 mocracy in America, but free Chris- 
 tianity, is tlie real liey to the study of 
 the people and their institutions." Not 
 that Christianity is in any legal sense 
 "a part of the law of the land" as has 
 been frequently asserted, for no man 
 was ever indicted in a criminal court 
 for not loving his neighbor as himself; 
 still the spirit of Christian liberty and 
 freedom of conscience universally pre- 
 vails and affords a graphic illustration 
 in an important direction of American- 
 ism triumphant. 
 
 International Peace. 
 There are some principles of Ameri- 
 canism that are yet in the making and 
 belong to the category of the unper- 
 formed, but are yet to be triumphant. 
 Here prophecy invites us; the unper- 
 formed commands us. Prophet, Seer 
 and Poet have spoken: 
 "Years of the unperformed! Tour horizon 
 rises. I see it parting away for 
 more august dramas; 
 I see not America only. I see not only 
 Liberty's nation, but other nations 
 preparing; 
 I see tremendous entrances and exits, I 
 see new combinations, I see the 
 solidarity of races; 
 I see that force advancing with irre- 
 sistible power on the world's stage." 
 One of the coming triumphs of 
 Americanism is international peace. In 
 the promotion of this consummation 
 the American Republic has been easily 
 foremost among the nations. In one 
 hundred and seven years, from the 
 adoption of the Constitution to 1896, 
 Dr. Eliot suggests the United States 
 has had only four and a quarter years 
 of international war, while within the 
 same period they have been a party 
 to forty-seven arbitrations, more than 
 half of all that have taken place in the 
 modern world. Some of these tribunals 
 of peace composed differences of the 
 gravest character and adjusted ques- 
 tions of the greatest magnitude, de- 
 monstrating the possibility and desir- 
 
(12) 
 
 ability of averting the horrors of war 
 by an appeal to reason in the settle- 
 ment of international controversies. 
 Along this line a glory radiant with 
 light from heaven awaits the American 
 people if they continue in the vanguard 
 of the nations, in the agitation of the 
 greatest undertaking now engaging the 
 thought of the Christian world, the 
 establishment of an international 
 tribunal of arbitration. On this re- 
 alization, civilization builds a great 
 hope. Soldier and sage, philosopher 
 and statesman, join hands in pushing 
 forward the splendid consummation 
 which will hasten the great 
 
 "far off divine event 
 To which the whole creation moves." 
 
 The millennium will visibly advance 
 when by common consent the sword 
 shall rust in its sheath, the cannon's 
 bi'azen tongue be dumb, and the truce 
 of God proclaimed throughout the 
 civilized world. The enlightened senti- 
 ment of mankind deprecates war, and 
 surely the American people, who have 
 tasted of its bitterness, instructed by 
 experience, by the memory of its in- 
 humanity, its ghastly horrors, its 
 terrible compensations, will not lag 
 in the movement which is marshaling 
 the conscience of Christendom in ag- 
 gressive opposition to its continuance. 
 Humane, Christian sentiments are be- 
 ing exchanged by civilized powers, 
 flying to and fro like mighty shuttles 
 weaving a web of concord among the 
 nations, and the world's peace will be 
 the ultimate outcome despite the re- 
 cent increase in the armaments of the 
 great powers. The United States must 
 keep the lead in the great crusade. The 
 honor of America and her greatest 
 service to the human race lie in that 
 achievement. It is the gate of mercy 
 and blessing. Let us not rest until we 
 open it to mankind and mark another 
 splendid triumph of Americanism by 
 
( 13 ) 
 
 ushering in the glorious day by pro- 
 phets foretold: 
 "When the war-drums beat no longer and 
 
 the battle-flags are furled, 
 In the parliament of man, the federation 
 
 of the world." 
 
 National Altruism. 
 Another Americanism which is to be 
 triumphant is the great principle of 
 National Altruism in the exemplifi- 
 cation of which the United States is 
 leading the world. It seems from ob- 
 servation of the course of history that 
 in the providential order one or an- 
 other nation has been selected to rep- 
 resent the dominant principle of an 
 era or the controlling spirit of an age. 
 We behold to-day a new power loom- 
 ing above the world's horizon to be- 
 come the chosen nation, crowned with 
 leadership, the evangel of the new 
 gospel of National Altruism, the light- 
 bearer to all the continents and the 
 islands of the sea. That new power, 
 nay that power already manifest, need 
 I name it! Archbishop Ireland says 
 American hearts quiver, loving it. 
 "My country, 'tis of thee, 
 Sweet land of liberty, 
 Of thee I sing." 
 The Christian world is coming more 
 and more to realize that nations have 
 moral duties. The role of the Samari- 
 tan is not alone for individuals. 
 Justice Brewer, of the Supreme Court 
 of the United States, is right in saying 
 that "a nation is a great moral entity, 
 expressing in its life the sum of all the 
 moral obligations which rest upon its 
 individual citizens, and there may be 
 times and circumstances when hu- 
 manity calls upon it to look beyond 
 dollars and cents, beyond personal 
 sacrifices, and lend its exertions to 
 succor other nations and peoples from 
 tyranny, oppression and cruelty. There 
 is a duty that strength owes to weak- 
 ness, an obligation that civilization is 
 under to barbarism. That the United 
 
(14) 
 
 States are sensible to this duty and 
 obligation denotes the progress of the 
 altruistic ideal in our national life. It 
 has been well said by another, "The 
 appeal that determines duty is the cry 
 of need; and duty, not ambition, is to 
 write the story of the century just 
 dawning." It does not follow that we 
 should become a knight-errant in quest 
 of adventure and imagine ourselves 
 the general righter of wrongs and re- 
 dresser of grievances among nations, 
 but we are to meet obligations when 
 imposed upon us. We must not shirk 
 a manifest duty, or we will miss our 
 manifest destiny. It has been humor- 
 ously suggested that the good Samari- 
 tan was not on the road to Jericho 
 looking for a job when he found a 
 robbed and beaten brother by the way- 
 side. He was attending to his own 
 business when circumstances threw in 
 his way the opportunity to succor his 
 brother. 
 
 When we see that the development 
 of humanitarian feeling has charac- 
 terized the most advanced races, been 
 a part of their progress, and a consti- 
 tuent in their glory; when we note how 
 sensible we have become that this is an 
 ethical world, a divine universe, God's 
 workshop, in which the moral law is as 
 unfailing as the law of gravitation in 
 this material world ; when we see that 
 the universal hope is that this Republic 
 may be placed on a foundation of 
 righteousness, where the ages will not 
 prevail against it; that it may become 
 the foremost nation in recognizing that 
 equity, justice and humanity are the 
 winning forces of civilization, the 
 moral trade-winds of the universe, we 
 may well inquire what is the purpose 
 of this altruistic development in con- 
 nection with the tendency to expansion 
 which American civilization exhibits. 
 Is there not a warrant for the as- 
 sumption that the United States have 
 a mission to guide this force of altru- 
 
(15) 
 
 istic feeling to beneficent ends in the 
 amelioration and civilization of the 
 inferior peoples within the sphere of 
 our influence? 
 
 The initial movement against the 
 Spanish power in Cuba was inspired 
 by the grandest purpose that ever 
 moved a nation to arms. We struck 
 the blow in the name of liberty, justice 
 and humanity. We took the sword to 
 redress the wrongs of others, not our 
 own, and gave the world a sublime il- 
 lustration of how nations as well as 
 men in their ascent pass from the 
 plane of the struggle for their own 
 lives to that of the struggle for the 
 lives of others, from self-regarding to 
 other-regarding motives, a distinctly 
 higher level. Service for others at the 
 call of humanity is the noblest exercise 
 of power and marks the highest out- 
 look of national purpose and con- 
 science. 
 
 From this point of view the war 
 with Spain appears to be unexampled 
 in history, not alone in its origin, but 
 in its results as well; and if our ex- 
 pectations are not disappointed, it can 
 not fail to be regarded by the dispas- 
 sionate judgment of mankind, as far 
 as the United States are concerned, as 
 one of the few totally disinterested, 
 stainless, and wholly virtuous acts re- 
 corded in the history of the race. It 
 may sound like rhapsody, but it is not, 
 when Edward Everett Hale declares 
 "that in one hundred days God has 
 set forward the civilization of the 
 world one hundred years." 
 
 I have no doubt that even this ex- 
 travagant hope will be, in a large mea- 
 sure, realized if we have the nerve to 
 embrace our opportunity, and the 
 heroism to meet manfully the duties 
 and responsibilities which the results 
 of war impose. If the same elevated 
 purpose and altruistic spirit shall 
 characterize the last as gave just re- 
 nown to the first act of the drama, im- 
 measurable good will come to our- 
 
(16) 
 
 selves, to the inferior peoples involved 
 and to mankind. To ourselves in rais- 
 ing our Republic into prominence as 
 a co-equal with the great world powers, 
 and making it a conspicuous factor in 
 the world problems which loom in the 
 near future, giving us that influential 
 place among nations which belongs 
 to a people who stand distinctly for 
 freedom, humanity, justice, progress — 
 the essential principles of western 
 civilization. To the people of the 
 islands of the sea in their gradual in- 
 struction in the art of right living and 
 in the principles of just government, 
 in having planted among them the es- 
 sential spirit of American institutions, 
 education, law, order, industry, com- 
 merce and self-control. To all man- 
 kind in the impetus it will give to the 
 development of those principles and 
 qualities which are the product of the 
 ethical system on which Christian 
 civilization is founded, and which have 
 through the ages and by the rivalries 
 of races advanced toward that altruis- 
 tic ideal which is the goal toward 
 which humanity has tended from the 
 beginning. 
 
 This would be the realization of the 
 dream of patriots and the aspiration 
 of statesmen, that our country through 
 its social, commercial and political in- 
 fluence should become the means of 
 diffusing civilization among the back- 
 ward peoples in the Oceanic spaces to 
 the west of us, as well as those on the 
 shores of Asia. Senator Seward fifty 
 years ago expressed the hope that the 
 ripening civilization of the v/est would 
 in its circuit of the world meet and 
 mingle with the declining civilization 
 of the east; and that a new and more 
 perfect civilization would arise to bless 
 the earth under the sway of our own 
 cherished and beneficent institutions. 
 
 That the situation is one we did not 
 see from the beginning does not les- 
 sen our responsibility. It is character- 
 istic of important enterprises to lead 
 
(17) 
 
 to results not contemplated in the ini- 
 tial steps. It is a maxim of diplomacy 
 that "no war ever left a nation where 
 it found it." Events moved by a high- 
 er guidance than our own have led us 
 into the present situation, and I am 
 sure the ethical warrant, the humani- 
 tarian motive, and the altruistic spirit 
 of our undertaking set the compass 
 that points the way we are to go. In- 
 deed, it is not too much to say that 
 the obligations of duty toward man- 
 kind as well as toward the people 
 who have been brought within the 
 sphere of our influence and our future 
 usefulness imperiously demand that 
 we hold and defend our title to the 
 possession and sovereignty of the Phil- 
 ippines until we have fully accom- 
 plished the moral purpose which in- 
 spired our undertaking in the begin- 
 ning, and rounded out the noble des- 
 tiny upon which we are just entering. 
 
 That some rough surgery may be- 
 come necessary, as Colonel Roosevelt 
 suggests, must not deter us from a 
 manifest duty. We had some rough 
 surgery in our country in coercing a 
 portion of our own people to acqui- 
 esce in the government of the Union. 
 We must undergo this ordeal if neces- 
 sity imposes it in any portion of our 
 wide domain. We have never shrunk 
 from it in the past and never will in 
 the future. That our way is beset 
 with dangers no one doubts, but these 
 must be incentives, not deterrents. It 
 may be as Judge Grosscup suggests, 
 that a providential hand, gloved in the 
 smoke of battle, is leading us out of 
 our isolation on to a moral elevation, 
 where we can see more clearly the 
 pointing of the finger of duty and des- 
 tiny, and from which a wider outlook 
 will open a view of the way we are to 
 advance as the evangel of liberty, the 
 messenger of civilization and hope to 
 the inhabitants of our new posses- 
 sions. 
 
 The ratification of the peace treaty 
 
(18) 
 
 has made us responsible for law and 
 order in the Philippines before the 
 world. The United States being in le- 
 gitimate possession are in honor and 
 good morals bound to hold control in 
 trust for civilization, and discharge the 
 duties which dominion and responsi- 
 bility impose. This obligation we sol- 
 emnly assumed when we destroyed 
 Spanish authority and accepted a ces- 
 sion of Spain's title and sovereignty. 
 We are' morally bound to provide them 
 with the best government their condi- 
 tion will admit of. This duty can not 
 be performed by leaving the people 
 to govern themselves in any way they 
 can. We must teach them the ways of 
 good government. We must make 
 conditions favorable to the growth of 
 intelligence, integrity and honest liv- 
 ing. We must teach them self-control, 
 obedience to law, and make them ca- 
 pable of self-government before we 
 abandon them to the tender mercies of 
 mercenary adventurers, unscrupulous 
 military leaders, or to become a casus 
 belli to involve the world in war. The 
 national honor is involved in the man- 
 ner in which we fulfill these responsi- 
 ble obligations. The eyes of the world 
 are upon us, and for the character of 
 our conduct and the elevation of our 
 principles we must answer to the de- 
 liberate judgment of enlightened 
 Christendom. 
 
 There is but one safe path. The 
 conscience of the American people 
 must control our policy and guide its 
 administration. The problem is not 
 how to escape our responsibilities — 
 any coward can solve such a problem 
 — but how to meet them; not how to 
 use these new possessions for our own 
 benefit, but for their own and the 
 world's. We have duties to the weal 
 of the human race. What we do may 
 give a facility to commerce, a stimulus 
 to shipbuilding, an encouragement to 
 intercourse, but that is not enough to 
 justify us. We must find our justifi- 
 
(19) 
 
 cation in the higlier motives of liberty, 
 humanity, justice — duties we owe ttie 
 people who have by the fortunes of 
 war come under our protection — and 
 the more sacrifice we made in dis- 
 charging them the greater the glory 
 that redounds to us. 
 
 This should be our guiding principle, 
 for in it is lodged the power and po- 
 tency of the humanitarian purpose in 
 our Eastern policy. The government 
 we set up must be for the benefit of 
 the people governed, not the govern- 
 ment that will conduce most to the 
 benefit of the United States, nor to 
 some fraction of the people of the 
 islands, or to the revolutionary, 
 adventurous and ambitious leaders, 
 but to the body of the people who in- 
 habit the islands. Their peace, hap- 
 piness, growth, education and civili- 
 zation are the first objects of our 
 solicitude, and all the agencies em- 
 ployed should bend to these beneficent 
 ends. 
 
 The government of an inferior race 
 is a trust, and the ruling and protect- 
 ing people must never forget that they 
 are in the position of trustees and 
 bound like them to serve the objects 
 of the trust. I agree with Dr. Lyman 
 Abbott that to attempt to govern these 
 islands for our own benefit exclusively, 
 to utilize them for our trade, and ex- 
 ploit them for our commercial advant- 
 age merely, would be to re-enact the 
 folly, if not to repeat the crime, of 
 Spain. And any such attempt, how- 
 ever disguised, the patriotism and con- 
 science of the American people should 
 promptly repudiate and condemn. 
 
 These high considerations must be 
 our guide in the oceanic policy we are 
 about entering upon. No maxims of 
 prudence, no considerations of eco- 
 nomy, no sordid purpose can stand in 
 the way of those ethical principles 
 which alone afford justification for our 
 new departure. We enter upon no un- 
 
(20) 
 
 holy rivalry for the possessions of 
 others. We have no adversary in all 
 the world to which the old threat can 
 be applied, "Delenda est Carthago." 
 Dr. Abbott expresses the full scope of 
 our purpose — to put an end to foreign 
 tyranny, to terminate domestic an- 
 archy, to establish the foundations of 
 just and stable government and build 
 the superstructure as fast and as far 
 as the conditions of population make 
 it possible. 
 
 We seek to destroy no country that 
 we may rear an empire upon its ruins. 
 We propose only to take care of our 
 own possessions and protect and safe- 
 guard the weak and defenceless until 
 they are capable of self-government. 
 We will be a knight of chivalry among 
 nations, bringing valor, heroism and 
 statesmanship to the rescue of the vic- 
 tims of oppression and wrong, and 
 teaching the world that liberty and 
 law, right and justice shall be lords 
 paramount within the sphere of Ameri- 
 can influence. 
 
 In carrying forward our new and en- 
 larged policy, which is made necessary 
 by the new relations in which we stand 
 to the world, and the new obligations 
 to humanity and civilization we have 
 assumed, we propose cultivating peace- 
 ful relations with all the world. We 
 are advancing according to the higher 
 altruistic law governing the develop- 
 ment of States and nations and the 
 growth of empire; we are moving in 
 harmony with that providential order 
 by which all races are to come under 
 the reign of a higher social regime. We 
 are fulfilling the prophecy of the "Old 
 Gray Poet" written forty years ago: 
 "I am the chanter; I chant the world on 
 
 my Western sea; 
 I chant copious the islands beyond, thick 
 
 as stars in the sky; 
 I chant the new Empire, greater than 
 
 any before, as in a vision it comes 
 
 to me; 
 I chant America, the mistress; I chant a 
 
 greater supremacy; 
 
(21) 
 
 I chant, projected, a thousand blooming 
 cities, yet in time on those groups of 
 sea islands; 
 I chant my sailships and steamships 
 
 threading the archipelago; 
 I chant my stars and stripes fluttering in 
 
 the wind; 
 I chant commerce opening, the sleep of 
 ages having done its work, races re- 
 born, refreshed." 
 I accept the thought of Henry Wil- 
 son, uttered a quarter of a century ago 
 in the Senate of the United States, 
 when he said: "I believe, sir.that every 
 race God has made is capable of im- 
 provement, of civilization, of elevation, 
 of Christianity, whether they dwell in 
 the temperate or tropical regions of 
 the eat-th. I believe Christian civiliza- 
 tion will not be limited to lines of lati- 
 tude, but will make the tour of the 
 globe, lifting up all races and condi- 
 tions of men I have undoubting 
 
 faith that every portion of this globe 
 is to be the home of civilized man." 
 
 This, I believe, is the goal toward 
 which the moral forces of this divine 
 universe, the beneficent Power in and 
 over all, are certainly tending. The poet 
 hath seen it and foretold it in the lines 
 of Sir Lewis Morris: 
 
 "There shall come from out this noise of 
 strife and groaning 
 A broader and a juster brotherhood; 
 A deep equality of aim, postponing 
 
 All selfish seeking to the general good. 
 There shall come a time when each shall 
 to another 
 Be as Christ would have him, brother 
 unto brother. 
 There shall come a time when brother- 
 hood grows stronger 
 Than the narrow bounds which now 
 distract the world; 
 When the cannons roar and the trum- 
 pets blare no longer, 
 And the iron-clad rusts, the battle-flags 
 are furled, 
 When the bars of creed and speech and 
 race which sever 
 Shall be fused in one hunmanity for- 
 ever." 
 He who opposes this progress fights 
 against the nature of things, contends 
 
(22) 
 
 with God, and must wage a losing bat- 
 tle. In this majestic march from height 
 to height of world beneficence we must 
 not forget that America can only es- 
 tablish the legitimacy of her title to 
 that leadership which belongs to the 
 English-speaking people by so minding 
 her footsteps and guarding her action 
 that every page of our annals will re- 
 veal elevation of mind,rectitude of pur- 
 pose, integrity of principles and supre- 
 macy of conscience, tnus certifying to 
 all the world that we are moving on 
 the everlasting lines of equity, truth, 
 humanity and liberty, following the 
 foreshadowings of the ethical method 
 of God in human history. 
 
 If we adhere to these principles and 
 aspire to these higher ideals; if we 
 cultivate not a spirit of vain-glory or 
 aggression, but rather, as James Bryce 
 suggests, of pride and joy in the ex- 
 tension of our language, our literature, 
 our laws, our institutions, our com- 
 merce, over the vast spaces of the 
 earth and the islands of the sea, with 
 a sense of the splendid opportunities 
 and solemn responsibilities that exten- 
 sion carries with it, and if we remem- 
 ber at all times what it is the primal 
 duty of Americans never to forget: 
 
 "That man is more than nature, that 
 wisdom is more than glory, that vir- 
 tue is more than dominion of the sea, 
 and that justice is the supreme good," 
 then will the next triumph of Ameri- 
 canism be equal to former ones, and 
 the latest jewel in the diadem of 
 American glory rival the earlier ones 
 in royal splendor. 
 
 "Dear country mine: this is the 
 prayer we lift: Mayst thou be, Land, 
 noble and pure as thou art free and 
 strong. So shalt thou lift a light for 
 all the world and for all time and 
 bring the age of peace." 
 
I ■ . " 
 
 ZTJ°'^o^'^^ 
 
 0'1783 143 7 " 
 
 I