As I came along the line of the railway to-day I was touched to observe that everywhere, upon every railway station, upon every house where a flag could be procured, some temporary standard had been raised from which there floated the Stars and Stripes. They seemed to have divined the errand upon which I had come, to remind you that we must subordinate every individual interest and every local interest to assert once more, if it should be necessary to assert them, the great principles for which that flag stands. Do not deceive yourselves as to where the colors of that flag came from. Those lines of red are lines of blood nobly and unselfishly shed by men who loved the liberty of their fellowmen more than they loved their own lives and fortunes. God forbid that we should have to use the blood of America to freshen the color of that flag. But if it should ever be necessary again to assert the majesty and integrity of those ancient and honorable principles, that flag will be colored once more, and in being colored will be glorified and purified. WASHINGTON'S MAXIM THEODORE ROOSEVELT [From an address before the cadets at the naval academy at Annapolis in June, 1897; reprinted by G. P. Putnam's Sons in American Ideals, by Theodore Roosevelt, 1901.] A CENTURY has passed since Washington wrote “To be prepared for war is the most effectual means to promote peace." We pay to this maxim the lip loyalty we so often pay to Washington's words; but it has never sunk deep into our hearts. Indeed, of late years many persons have refused it even the poor tribute of lip loyalty, and prate about the iniquity of war as if somehow that was a justification for refusing to take the steps which can alone in the long run prevent war or avert the dreadful disasters it brings in its train. Preparation for war is the surest guaranty for peace. Arbi tration is an excellent thing, but ultimately those who wish to see this country at peace with foreign nations will be wise if they place reliance upon a first-class fleet of first-class battleships rather than on any arbitration treaty which the wit of man can devise. Nelson said that the British fleet was the best negotiator in Europe, and there was much truth in the saying. Moreover, while we are sincere and earnest in our advocacy of peace, we must not forget that an ignoble peace is worse than any war. We should engrave in our legislative halls those splendid lines of Lowell: Come, Peace! not like a mourner bowed But proud, to meet a people proud, With eyes that tell of triumph tasted! Peace is a goddess only when she comes with sword girt on thigh. The ship of state can be steered safely only when it is always possible to bring her against any foe with "her leashed thunders gathering for the leap." A really great people, proud and high-spirited, would face all the disasters of war rather than purchase that base prosperity which is bought at the price of national honor. All the great masterful races have been fighting races, and the minute that a race loses the hard fighting virtues, then, no matter what else it may retain, no matter how skilled in commerce and finance, in science or art, it has lost its proud right to stand as the equal of the best. We of the United States have passed most of our few years of national life in peace. We honor the architects of our wonderful material prosperity; we appreciate the necessity of thrift, energy, and business enterprise, and we know that even these are of no avail without the civic and social virtues. But we feel, after all, that the men who have dared greatly in war, or the work which is akin to war, are those who deserve best in the country. The men of Bunker Hill and Trenton, Saratoga and Yorktown, the men of New Orleans and Mobile Bay, Gettysburg and Appomattox, are those to whom we owe most. None of our heroes of peace, save a few great constructive statesmen, can rank with our heroes of war. The Americans who stand highest on the list of the world's worthies are Washington, who fought to found the country which he afterward governed, and Lincoln, who saved it through the blood of the best and bravest in the land; Washington, the soldier and statesman, the man of cool head, dauntless heart, and iron will, the greatest of good men and the best of great men; and Lincoln, sad, patient, kindly Lincoln, who for four years toiled and suffered for the people, and when his work was done laid down his life that the flag which had been rent in sunder might once more be made whole and without a seam. TRUE AMERICANISM THEODORE ROOSEVELT [From the Forum for April, 1894; reprinted in American Ideals. Most of the men mentioned in this selection were Revolutionary patriots. John Jay of New York was a framer of the Constitution and the first chief-justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. John Sevier was a hero of the battle of King's Mountain, fought in 1780, on the border between the Carolinas. He was afterward governor of Tennessee. Francis Marion, known as "the swamp fox," was the chief of an independent command that harassed the British in the lowlands of South Carolina. Henry Laurens, also of South Carolina, was a president of the Continental Congress and spent some time disagreeably in an English prison. Philip Schuyler commanded American troops at the battle of Saratoga, in New York State, in 1777. He was afterward a senator in Congress from New York. One of the Muhlenbergs of Pennsylvania was a general in the Revolution. Philip Sheridan was the most famous cavalry leader in the Union army during the Civil War. One of his able lieutenants, George A. Custer, also famous later as an Indian fighter, was descended from a Revolutionary Hessian. Many of the Hessians settled down in America after the Revolution and became good American citizens. Mr. Roosevelt himself is descended from a Dutch immigrant who early settled in New York. All of the men just mentioned, men of non-English descent, were born on American soil. Two other names readily come to mind - Carl Schurz and Franz Sigel, efficient generals in the Civil War on the Union side. Both were born in Germany.] THE immigrant of to-day can learn much from the experience of the immigrants of the past, who came to America prior to the Revolutionary War. We were then already, what we are now, a people of mixed blood. Many of our most illustrious Revolutionary names were borne by men of Huguenot blood - Jay, Sevier, Marion, Laurens. But the Huguenots were, on the whole, the best immigrants we have ever received; sooner than any other, and more completely, they became American in speech, conviction, and thought. The Hollanders took longer than the Huguenots to become completely assimilated; nevertheless they in the end became so, immensely to their own advantage. One of the leading Revolutionary generals, Schuyler, and one of the Presidents of the United States, Van Buren, were of Dutch blood; but they rose to their positions, the highest in the land, because they had become Americans and had ceased being Hollanders. If they had remained members of an alien body, cut off by their speech and customs and belief from the rest of the American community, Schuyler would have lived his life as a boorish, provincial squire, and Van Buren would have ended his days a small tavern-keeper. So it is with the Germans of Pennsylvania. Those of them who became Americanized have furnished to our history a multitude of honorable names, from the days of the Mühlenbergs onward; but those who did not become Americanized form to the present day an unimportant body, of no significance in American existence. So it is with the Irish, who gave to Revolutionary annals such names as Carroll and Sullivan, and to the Civil War men like Sheridan · men who were Americans and nothing else: while the Irish who remain such, and busy themselves solely with alien politics, can have only an unhealthy influence upon American life, and can never rise as do their compatriots who become straightout Americans. Thus it has ever been with all people who have come hither, of whatever stock of blood. THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO RULE THEODORE ROOSEVELT [From an address delivered at Carnegie Hall, New York City, under the auspices of the Civic Forum, March 20, 1912; reprinted from the Outlook.] OUR task as Americans is to strive for social and industrial justice, achieved through the genuine rule of the people. This is our end, our purpose. The methods for achieving the end are merely expedients, to be finally accepted or rejected according as actual experience shows that they work well or ill. But in our hearts we must have this lofty purpose, and we must strive for it in all earnestness and sincerity, or our work will come to nothing. In order to succeed we need leaders of inspired idealism, leaders to whom are granted great visions, who dream greatly and strive to make their dreams come true; who can kindle the people with the fire from their own burning souls. The leader for the time being, whoever he may be, is but an instrument, to be used until broken and then to be cast aside; and if he is worth his salt he will care no more when he is broken than a soldier cares when he is sent where his life is forfeit in order that the victory may be won. In the long fight for righteousness the watchword for all of us is "spend and be spent." It is of little matter whether any one man fails or succeeds: but the cause shall not fail, for it is the cause of mankind. We, here in America, hold in our hands the hope of the world, the fate of the coming years; and shame and disgrace will be |