"Heaven doth with us as we with torches do;
Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues
Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike

As if we had them not."

Upon the corner-stone laid here to-day will rise the symmetrical and harmonious proportions of a worthy edifice, which shall symbolize the authority of the Government, and become the pride of the city, and so upon the corner-stone laid by the fathers of the Republic, we of this day, like those who have gone before us, are rearing the noble superstructure which, whether it arches the continent or spans the sea, shall represent and perpetuate the principles of law and liberty.

EMORY SPEER

[Extracts from a speech delivered at the Peace Jubilee, Chicago, October 18, 1898.]

I.

"ONE AND INSEPARABLE"

A SOUTHERN man, it is anticipated to-day that I shall respond for the South. The sunny land of my home is very dear to me, and I shall be ever glad to testify to the devoted and genuine Americanism of its people; but now it would appear to be superfluous. Here, in this great American city, where the people with pious hands gathered the ashes of the Confederate dead-here where with civic bounty they reared the funereal marble to guard and to immortalize the sacred trust-here before numbers of that noble grand army of veterans, whose comrades reverently attended on the pathway to the tomb, the pale inanimate form of Winnie Davis, the daughter of the Confederacy-here before those who with sons of Confederate veterans, aye, and with Confederate veterans themselves, were aligned under the starry banner of our united country against the common foe-with facts so eloquent no tongue less than divine could add one thought to quicken the fancy or stir the soul of the Union-loving patriot. Let me then speak not as a Southern man, not as an ex-Confederate soldier, but as a citizen of our reunited country. Let me thus speak for other

millions of Southern men whose hearts are inflamed with the same patriotism as that which animates yours on this, the national triumph, for the swift victory and glorious peace we celebrate to-day.

Spain had long been our near and dangerous neighbor. Its people have a degree of reverence, almost superstitious, for monarchy, and regard republican institutions with great disfavor. It has been said of Spain that some incurable vice in her organization, or it may be in the temper of her people, neutralizes all of the advantages she ought to derive from her sturdy hardihood, her nearly perfect capacity for endurance, and the sombre genius alike for war, for art, and for literature which has so often marked her sons. While this seems to be true, the Spaniard is not only a formidable antagonist, but there is a wealth and charm in his rich, romantic history which command the admiration of a generous foeman. This must be accorded, whether we contemplate that ancient people as they alternately resist the aggressions of Carthage and of Rome, the fierce cavalry of Hamilcar, the legions of Scipio, of Pompey, and of Cæsar, or, in more recent times, the achievements of their renowned infantry, which broke to fragments the best armies of Europe, or the infuriated people in arms against the hitherto unconquered veterans of Napoleon, or, but now as with patient and dogged courage, with flaming volleys they vainly strive to hold the works of Caney and San Juan against the irresistible and rushing valor of the American soldier.

The first to recognize the infant republics of South America, our Government took its favorite and accustomed post in the vanguard of liberty. For that recognition that typical American, Henry Clay, in strains of persuasion as sweet as the honey of Mount Hymettus, with burning invectives like those which fell from the lips of Demosthenes, had alternately pleaded and

stormed at the door of the American heart. The opulence of Argentina; the military power and national pride of Chile; the minerals, the marbles, the fruit, the grains, the flocks, and ordered strength of regenerated Mexico; the marvellous increment to the commerce of the world, the boundless possibilities for the support of millions of men in the redeemed colonies of Spain, persuade us that the smiles of heaven have approved the aspiration of the noble American who pleaded for their independence.

The Spaniards now had no foothold on the mainland of the North American continent save their Mexican possessions. Nor were these to be long retained. The genius of liberty nurtured and strengthened here soon winged its way to the southward. In 1818, Buenos Ayres had declared its independence. Paraguay and the opposite shore of La Plata were in revolt. The movement traversed the passes of the Andes, and animated the people of Peru and Chile. Venezuela and the northern portion of South America rallied to the banner of freedom, and finally, when, in 1822, the heroic Bolivar, the South American Washington, in pitched battle destroyed the Spanish army, the American Congress, by a vote of 159 to 1, recognized the independence of Buenos Ayres, Chile, Peru, and Columbia.

May the worn and wasted followers of Gomez and Garcia come to appreciate the blessings of that liberty under the law. No other wish is in consonance with the aims of the American people. We would not, if we could, be their masters. The gigantic power of the country has been put forth for their salvation and for their pacification. Connected with them by bonds of genuine sympathy and indissoluble interest, we labor with them to secure for them established justice, domestic tranquillity, general welfare, and the blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity. For the

common defence, in the blue ether above the Island of Cuba, is ever poised the eagle,

"Whose golden plume

Floats moveless on the storm, and in the blaze,
Of sunlight gleams when earth is wrapt in gloom."

II.

THE MONROE DOCTRINE

It was not enough for the American people to recognize the independence of the Spanish-American republics. It soon became our duty to notify the world that in certain eventualities it was our purpose to defend their national existence. The Holy Alliance, as it was termed, had been formed. The great powers who signed the famous compact, declared their purpose to maintain as Christian doctrine the proposition that useful or necessary changes in legislation or in the administration of states can only emanate from the freewill and well-weighed convictions of those whom God has rendered responsible for power. Whom had God made responsible for power? What is a well-weighed conviction? These are questions about which the irreverent Americans might perchance differ with royalty. We had been led to believe, and yet believe, that the voice of the people is the voice of God. When, therefore, the absolutism of the Holy Alliance, not content with smothering a feeble spark of liberty in Spain, initiated a joint movement of their arms against the Spanish-American republics, it gave the people of our country the gravest concern. Meantime our relations with Great Britain had grown cordial. That they may grow ever stronger and more cordial should be the prayer of every man of the English-speaking race. An