flict and accomplish the results upon which the American heart was set without the necessity of war. For long weeks he labored, by all the arts of diplomacy and the exercise of high statesmanship, to save this people from bloodshed, and yet to rescue the people of Cuba from the oppressive hand of Spain.

When at last the war became inevitable, he entered upon the war with the same earnestness, the same vigor, and the same power with which he had sought to conduct this country through the times of peace. With a sureness of aim that was unerring, with a directness that was unfaltering, with a breadth and sweep of success that was absolutely unbroken, we entered upon this war and prosecuted it, so that in August we were celebrating peace. Here we are five months only from the time the tocsin sounded, and the echoes of that glorious May-day, when the heroic Dewey steamed into the harbor of Manila, defiant equally of mine and of fort, and won the greatest seafight of modern times, are still ringing in our ears and thrilling our hearts. The triumphs of Santiago, on land and on sea, added no less lustre to our arms.

In April, as we entered upon this contest, every man was asking whether it would last one year or two, or more; every man was asking himself what reverses and what sacrifices we must suffer before we could achieve the ultimate triumph in which we all had implicit faith. Every man was asking himself which of our great war-ships would it be the Oregon, or the Texas, or the Iowa, or the Massachusetts-that would follow the fate of the Maine in this contest, and go to the bottom of the sea, for surely we could not go through the war without some loss on our part. And yet, within less than one hundred days, after brilliant campaigns in two hemispheres, after completely annihilating two Spanish fleets and accepting the surrender of two Spanish armies; after

absolutely obliterating the power of Spain on the sea and extinguishing the colonial remains of Spain on land, we come to a climax of triumph which stands. absolutely unparalleled in history-a triumph which in the splendor of its character and in the far-reaching extent of its influence is absolutely unprecedented. A hundred days of war, and civilization, measured by the influence which is to be exercised in far-distant climes, carried forward not less than one hundred years.

We have taken a new position in the great family of nations. We have stepped out upon the broad stage of the world's action, and have become one of the great powers. We have advanced from continental domain to world-wide influence. We have emerged from a restricted sphere into the arena of the world's activities, and the whole world to-day recognizes that the American Republic holds such a position as it has never held before. We have not only commanded the new recognition of our position on the part of the world, but we now know ourselves better than we ever knew ourselves before. We know the things of which we are capable; we know the stuff of which the American people are made. We have reunited our country and brought North and South together as they have not been since those early days when the Puritan and the Cavalier shed their blood on the field of Yorktown. We have seen the men who came from the prairies and the men from the brownstone mansions all upholding this flag of ours. We have learned that the manhood and the strength of the American character still remain. We have risen to a new conception of our national possibilities and our national greatness.

We all feel the blood of true patriotism leap in our veins. We are all prouder to be Americans, and all have a broader and truer understanding of the greatness of our country and of the grander destiny which lies before the American people. And it is worth more

than all the cost of the war to have had this revelation of the character of the people and the possibilities of our great Republic brought thus home to our hearts and our minds. It remains for us to recognize that we have great problems in peace, as we had great problems in war; but I am sure I do not misinterpret the spirit of this assemblage when I say that just as you followed and trusted the President of the United States during these trying times, so you expect him to lead you in the work of peace, and to determine what the position and attitude of this Republic shall be.

A year ago it was my fortune to be at Newport when nearly two hundred pleasure-craft, many since converted into fighters, and some of the great war-ships of the nation, were assembled in that harbor. Ten thousand Chinese lanterns made a fairy-scene of beauty. Suddenly, far above the myriad lights on sea and shore, on the topmost mast of the commodore's boat, since made illustrious as the invincible Gloucester, under the gallant Wainwright, the bright Stars and Stripes of Old Glory burst forth under the glittering rays of the keenest search-light, with a splendor of coloring, all the more brilliant against the background of darkblue sky, and all the cannon boomed a tribute to the new lustre which the flag seemed to gain under such circumstances. And so the search-light of the great events through which we have passed has given a new glory and meaning to the flag, and it is for us, as American citizens, to be worthy of the mission upon which we enter.

THE REPUBLIC'S HIGHER GLORY

[Delivered at the laying of the corner-stone of the new Federal Building at Chicago, October 9, 1899.]

Ir is the glory of our American system that its opportunities and advantages are not limited to any class, but are shared by all the people. With this unmatched growth, what imagination shall put metes and bounds to the advancement of our country? Is it expected that the marvellous development which has come with the wonderful material appliances and forces of the past three decades will now pause and stand still? Are we henceforth to mark time instead of marching forward? Has our incomparable industrial production reached its limit? Is our growing commerce to halt on the frontier of its old domain? Is the opening door of wider fields and enlarged activity, within the broken walls of the Orient, to be unrecognized and unused?

American valor and heroism have never touched sublimer heights or shed brighter lustre on the American name than during the past two years. Are the genius of American progress and the fibre of American purpose unequal to the achievements of its heroism, and can it be said that the people who have wrought these masterful triumphs at home and abroad are too blinded to perceive that the waiting opportunity which has come with the high discharge of national duty lies along the true pathway of our commercial expansion? But we do not and cannot think alone or chiefly of material development. Splendid as it has been in its colossal proportions, the higher glory of the Republic is its moral position and its embodiment of the principles of liberty. To that standard it can never be recreant.

The flag floats to-day over a domain ten times as

great as that upon which its shining stars first shed their joyous beams. Its beneficial rule has been extended from time to time over vast new acquisitions, but it has never broadened its sway without carrying freedom, progress, and enlightenment to the fortunate peoples who were brought under its protecting folds. It is the same flag to-day that it has always been, but with added lustre and higher renown and a far deeper respect throughout the world. It has the same import and the same virtue. It signifies everywhere right, law, justice, and self-government within the limits of national sovereignty.

What citizen of the Republic shall so impugn the honor of his country and the integrity of her institutions as to proclaim before the world that her sceptre extended over rude and remote peoples means wrong and oppression and spoliation? What American shall so discredit his own blood as to declare that the American people will either falter in the duty of their trust or fail in the capacity of their task?

Our inspiring past is the prophecy of our glorious future. The architect who plans a great capitol or cathedral sees with the eye of imagination the majestic structure in the full grandeur of its imposing proportions, and unless he could thus prefigure its finished beauty he would be unfit to lay its foundations. The builders and promoters of states also see with the eye of imagination. It is the function of creative statesmanship to penetrate the future and discern its course and its needs. This Republic has a mission among the nations of the earth. It should be the highest exemplar of peace, liberty, humanity, and civilization. As the noble statue of Liberty Enlightening the World rises from its great harbor and first greets the visitor as he comes from foreign lands, it is a symbol that our country carries a torch of liberty to mankind, and its light must not be hid.