as speedily as possible to get into such relations that
it will be easy for them to walk well in the new life.
We are not to be excused if we selfishly sit down
and enjoy gifts that have been given to us and do
not try to share them with our poorer fellows com-
ing from every part of the world, who many of
them stand in such need of the helping hand; who
often not only meet too • many people anxious to
associate w^ith them for their detriment, but often
too few anxious to associate with them for their
good.
I trust that with the consecration of each new
church of the Reformed creed in this our country
there will be established a fresh centre of effort to
get at and to help for their good the people that
yearly come from over seas to us. No more im-
portant work can be done by our people; important
to the cause of Christianity, important to the cause
of true national life and greatness here in our own
land.
Another thing: let us so far as strength is given
us make it evident to those who look on and who
are not of us that our faith is not one of words
merely; that it finds expression in deeds. One sad,
one lamentable phase of human history is that the
And State Papers 449
very loftiest words, implying the loftiest ideas, have
often been used as cloaks for the commission of
dreadful deeds of iniquity. No more hideous
crimes have ever been committed by men than those
that have been committed in the name of liberty,
of order, of brotherhood, of religion. People have
butchered one another under circumstances of dread-
ful atrocity, claiming all the time to be serving the
object of the brotherhood of man or of the father-
hood of God. We must in our lives, in our efforts,
endeavor to further the cause of brotherhood in
the human family ; and we must do it in such a way
that the men anxious to find subject for complaint
or derision in the churches of the United States, in
our church, may not be able to find it by pointing
out any contrast between our professions and our
lives.
This church is consecrated to-day to duty and
to service, to the worship of the Creator, and to
an earnest effort on our part so to shape our lives
among ourselves and in relation to the outside world
that we may feel that we have done our part in
bringing a little nearer the day when there shall
be on this earth a genuine brotherhood of man.
AT THE SAENGERFEST, BALTIMORE, MD.,
JUNE 15, 1903
My Fellow-Citizens:
Let me in the first place congratulate the city
of Baltimore upon what she has done and upon the
way she has done it; and then let me welcome the
3— Vol. 'XIV
45° Presidential Addresses
members of the Saengerfest Association and all the
guests of Baltimore this evening. Since the begin-
ning of our country's history many different race
strains have entered to make up the composite
American. Out of and from each we have gained
something for our national character; to each we
owe something special for what it has contributed
to us as a people.
It is almost exactly two hundred and twenty
years ago that the first marked immigration from
Germany to what were then the colonies in this
Western Hemisphere began. As is inevitable with
any pioneers those pioneers of the German race on
this side of the ocean had to encounter bitter priva-
tion, had to struggle against want in many forms;
had to meet and overcome hardship ; for the people
that go forth to seek their well-being in strange
lands must inevitably be ready to pay as the price
of success the expenditure of all that there is in
them to overcome the obstacles in their way. It
was some fifty years later that the great tide of
German immigration in colonial times began to flow
hither; one of the leaders in it being Muhlenburg,
the founder of a family which has contributed to
military and civil life some of the worthiest figures
in American history. The first of the famous
speakers of the House of Representatives was
Muhlenburg, of German ancestry.
Baltimore is a centre in that region of our land
where from the earliest days there was that inter-
mingling of ethnic strains which finally went to
And State Papers ^51
the making of the iVmericans who in '76 made this
country a nation. Within the boundaries of this
State was founded that colony which first of all
on this western continent saw a government mod-
eled upon these principles of religious freedom and
toleration which we now regard as the birthrights
of American citizens.
Throughout our career of development the Ger-
man immigration to this country went steadily on-
ward, and they who came here, and their sons and
grandsons, played an ever-increasing part in the
history of our people — a part that culminated in
the Civil War; for every lover of the Union must
ever bear in mind what was done in this common-
wealth as in the commonwealth of Missouri, by the
folk of German birth or origin who served so loy-
ally the flag that was theirs by inheritance or adop-
tion.
And here in this city I would be unwilling to let
an occasion Hke this pass without recalling the part
of incalculable importance played by the members
of the Turn Verein of Baltimore in saving Balti-
more to the Union. In congratulating every man
here to whom it was given to fight in the great
Civil War, in congratulating the men of Baltimore
who in these dark days followed the lead of Sigel,
Rapp, and Blumenberg in playing well and nobly
their part in upholding the hands of Abraham Lin-
coln, I congratulate them thrice over because it was
given to them to fight in a contest where the victors
and the vanquished alike have bequeathed to us as
452 Presidential Addresses
a heritage the memory of the valor and the loyalty
to the right as to each it was given to see the right,
shown alike by the men who wore the blue and the
men who wore the gray, in the great days of the
Civil War, Terrible though that contest was, in
which with blood and tears and sweat, with the suf-
fering of men and the sorrow of women, the gen-
eration of Lincoln and Grant purchased for us
peace and union, it paid for itself over and over
again by what it left to us — not merely a reunited
land, not merely a land in which freedom was a
fact instead of only a boast, but above all the right
as Americans to feel within us the lift toward lofty
things which must come to those who know that
their fathers and forefathers have in the supreme
crisis entirely shown themselves fit to rank among
the men of all time.
I want to say just one thing more. I feel that
the men of this Association and of kindred associa-
tions are not only adding to the common fund of
pleasure, but are doing genuine missionary work
of a needed kind when they hold such a festival
as this. I wish that everywhere in our country we
could see clubs and associations including all our
citizens, similar in character to that Society which
has furnished the reason for the assembling of this
great audience to-night. No greater contribution
to American social life could possibly be made than
by instilling into it the capacity for Gemiithlichkeit.
No greater good can come to our people than to
encourage in them a capacity for enjoyment which
And State Papers 453
shall discriminate sharply between what is vicious
and what is pleasant. Nothing can add more to
our capacity for healthy social enjoyment than, by
force of example no less than by precept, to en-
courage the formation of societies which by their
cultivation of music, vocal and instrumental, give
great lift to the artistic side, the aesthetic side of our
nature ; and especially is that true when we remem-
ber that no man is going to go very far wrong if
he belongs to a society where he can take his wife
with him to enjoy it.
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, CHAR-
LOTTESVILLE, VA., JUNE i6, 1903
Mr. Chairman; my F ellozv- Americans :
It is to me to-day a double pleasure to be with
you; in the first place, because the University of
Virginia is one among that limited number of in-
stitutions of learning to which because of its his-
toric association every American proud of his
country and his country's history must turn; and
in the next place, because I have just finished a
trip to and fro across this continent, which at al-
most every step has reminded me of some great
deed done by a Virginian or a descendant of a Vir-
ginian, in that wonderful formative period which
has occupied more than half of this Republic's Hfe ;
going across the Alleghanies in the path over the
mountains which men of Virginia first crossed to
found the commonwealth of Kentucky; beyond the
454 Presidential Addresses
Ohio, which was crossed by a miHtary force carry-
ing the American flag for the first time when a
son of Virginia, George Rogers Clark, led his little
band of backwoods riflemen to conquer what is now
the heart of this Republic, and that in the middle
of the Revolutionary War. Then I crossed the
Mississippi and went through that great region of
prairie, plain, and mountain, now dotted with cities,
each filled with the fruits of our material civ-
ilization, cities placed upon spots which were un-
known to any map maker but a century ago; thence
to the Pacific Ocean, I went through the regions
which mark the two greatest territorial expansions of
this Nation ; the greatest of which, by the fact of its
acquisition, is in itself a tribute most to that man
who founded this University — President Thomas
Jefferson — and which was explored by two Vir-
ginians born not far from this neighborhood —
Lewis and Clark. When I got south of the limits
of the old Louisiana Purchase I came into that region
acquired as the result of the Mexican War — the
region in territorial extent next to the Louisiana
Purchase ; and in that war the two foremost figures
were men likewise born in Virginia — Zachary Tay-
lor and Winfield Scott.
Virginia has always rightly prided herself upon
the character of the men whom she has sent into
public life. No more wonderful example of govern-
mental ability, ability in statecraft and public admin-
istration, has ever been given than by the history of
Virginia's sons in public life. I feel that this Uni-
And State Papers 455
versity, which so pecuHarly embodies the ideal of
Virginia, is in no small degree accountable for the
happy keeping up of the spirit which sends into
public life men of whom their constituents exact
that they shall possess both courage and courtesy;
and that is the reason why — as I am glad to say
here in the presence of the two United States
Senators from Virginia, both of them graduates of
this University — whether one agrees or differs with
them it is so genuine a pleasure to be brought into
contact with them in handling public affairs.
In the very able address to which we have had
the honor of listening it is pointed out that in mere
years the history of this University is not long.
Years count differently at different places and at
different times. Fifty years of Europe are very much
longer than a cycle of Cathay ; and the period grows
longer still when you take it across into the Western
Hemisphere. To us of this Nation there must always
be the charm of old historic associations inseparably
connected with this institution, the birth of which
will always recall the names of three of our greatest
Presidents, and from which one can wellnigh see the
former abodes of all three of those Presidents —
Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe.
Let me acknowledge a piece of personal indebted-
ness to this institution. When last year we sought
at Washington to restore the White House, which
ought to be always kept as the historic building
of the Nation, to what it was planned to be by the
founders of the Republic, we came here to study
45^ Presidential Addresses
the building which represented in its existence the
reaHzation of the ideas of certain of those founders
of the RepubHc, and gained from our study of a
portion of this University an idea of the plan along
which the restoration of the White House was to
proceed.
The University is not old in years as years are
counted in an older world, but there are very few
institutions of learning in Europe which^ however
old, have such an honor roll of service to the State,
in the council chambers of the State, and of ser-
vice on the tented field, which have such an honor
roll of statesmen and soldiers, as the roll that can
be furnished by reading the list of the graduates
of this University of Virginia. The University has
been prolific of men who have gone into public life ;
but it is not only in public life that the record made
by the University is imperishable. The strangest,
in some ways the most brilliamt name to be found
in American letters, the name of the man who con-
tributed something purely individual in poetry and
in prose, not merely to the literature of this country,
not merely to the literature of our tongue, but to
the hterature of mankind — the name of Edgar Al-
lan Poe, is to be found upon your rolls. It is a
pleasure to one who earnestly hopes to see the liter-
ary habit in American life kept up and who hopes
to see a keeping up of productive scholarship and
literature, to be able to number among his friends
one of those younger literary men of whom it can
be safely asserted that they have added something
And State Papers 457
permanent to letters, in the person of one of your
graduates — my friend, Mr. Thomas Nelson Page.
I owe you for other things. When I wished to
choose the Surgeon-General of the Navy I had to
go to Virginia and to the University of Virginia
to find the man whom I esteem, not only because of
his ability as a public servant, but because of those
qualities which will render him ever one for whom
I and mine feel the warmest and liveliest personal
affection. Finally, when I had to choose an Ambas-
sador to represent us at the court of Russia, I
had to take another graduate of your University
— Mr. McCormick. You will pardon me one per-
sonal allusion ; I shall never forget as long as I live
certain of your graduates who served in my regi-
ment during the Cuban War.
The University of Virginia has stood for much
in our national life. It is something to stand merely
for such beauty as your buildings and campus rep-
resent here. It is a good thing for any nation to
have as beautiful an institution of learning as is
this University. It is a good thing for the taste
of a nation to have such an example of good taste
ever before it. You stand for the production of
scholarship; for the production of men who are to
do well for the State if ever the need of calling upon
them for their services may arise; but above all,
as has been so well said in the address to which
we have listened to-day, the University of Virginia
stands for the production of men; of men who are
to do each a man's duty in the world. A good
45^ Presidential Addresses
American never owes anything that he does not
seek to repay. The man who is content to go
through life owing his alma mater for an educa-
tion for which he has made no adequate return is
not true to the ideals of American citizenship. He
is in honor bound to make such return. He can
make it in but one way ; he can return what he owes
to his alma mater only by making his alma mater
proud of what he does in service rendered to his
fellow-men. That is the type of return we have
the right to expect of the University men in this
country.
TO THE HOLY NAME SOCIETY AT OYSTER
BAY, N. Y., AUGUST i6, 1903
Very Reverend Dean, Reverend Clergy, and you
of the Holy Name Society:
I count myself fortunate in having the chance
to say a word to you to-day; and at the outset let
me, Father Power, on behalf of my neighbors, your
congregation, welcome all your guests here to Oyster
Bay. I have a partial right to join in that welcome
myself, for it was my good fortune in the days of
Father Power's predecessor, Father Belford, to be
the first man to put down a small contribution for
the erection of your church here. I am particularly
glad to see such a society as this flourishing as your
society has flourished, because the future welfare
of our Nation depends upon the way in which we can
combine in our men — in our young men — decency
and strength. Just this morning when attending ser-
And State Papers 459
vice on the great battleship Kcarsarge I Hstened to
a sermon addressed to the officers and enHsted men
of the navy, in which the central thought was that
each American must be a good man or he could not
be a good citizen. And one of the things dwelt upon
in that sermon was the fact that a man must be
clean of mouth as well as clean of life — must show
by his words as well as by his actions his fealty to
the Almighty if he was to be what we have a right
to expect from men wearing the national uniform.
We have good Scriptural authority for the statement
that it is not what comes into a man's mouth but
what goes out of it that counts. I am not address-
ing weaklings, or I should not take the trouble to
come here. I am addressing strong, vigorous men,
who are engaged in the active hard work of life;
and life to be worth living must be a life of activity
and hard work. I am speaking to men engaged in
the hard, active work of life, and therefore to men
who will count for good or for evil. It is pe-
culiarly incumbent upon you who have strength to
set a right example to others. I ask you to remem-
ber that you can not retain your self-respect if you
are loose and foul of tongue, that a man who is to
lead a clean and honorable life must inevitably suffer
if his speech likewise is not clean and honorable.
Every man here knows the temptations that beset all
of us in this world. At times any man will slip.
I do not expect perfection, but I do expect genuine
and sincere effort toward being decent and cleanly
in thought, in word, and in deed. As I said at the
460 Presidential Addresses
outset, I hail the work of this society as typifying one
of those forces which tend to the betterment and
upHfting of our social system. Our whole effort
should be toward securing a combination of the
strong qualities with those qualities which we term
virtues. 1 expect you to be strong. I would not re-
spect you if you were not. I do not want to see
Christianity professed only by weaklings ; I want to
see it a moving spirit among men of strength. I
do not expect you to lose one particle of your
strength or courage by being decent. On the con-
trary, I should hope to see each man who is a mem-
ber of this society, from his membership in it be-
come all the fitter to do the rough work of the world ;
all the fitter to work in time of peace; and if, which
may Heaven forfend, war should come, all the fitter
to fight in time of war. I desire to see in this country
the decent men strong and the strong men decent, and
until we get that combination in pretty good shape
we are not going to be by any means as successful
as we should be. There is always a tendency among
very young men and among boys who are not quite
young men as yet to think that to be wicked is rather
smart; to think it shows that they are men. Oh,
how often you see some young fellow who boasts
that he is going to "see life," meaning by that that
he is going to see that part of life which it is a
thousandfold better should remain unseen! I ask
that every man here constitute himself his brother's
keeper by setting an example to that younger brother
which will prevent him from getting such a false
And State Papers 461
estimate of life. Example is the most potent of all
things. If any one of you in the presence of younger
boys, and especially the younger people of your own
family, misbehave yourself, if you use coarse and
blasphemous language before them, you can be sure
that these younger people will follow your ex-
ample and not your precept. It is no use to preach
to them if you do not act decently yourself. You
must feel that the most effective w^ay in which you
can preach is by your practice.
As I was driving up here a friend who was with
us said that in his experience the boy who went out
into life with a foul tongue was apt so to go because
his kinsfolk, at least his intimate associates, them-
selves had foul tongues. The father, the elder broth-
ers, the friends, can do much toward seeing that the
boys as they become men become clean and honor-
able men.
I have told you that I wanted you not only to be
decent, but to be strong. These boys will not ad-
mire virtue of a merely anaemic type. They believe
in courage, in manliness. They admire those who
have the quality of being brave, the quality of fac-
ing life as life should be faced, the quality that must
stand at the root of good citizenship in peace or in
war. If you are to be effective as good Christians
you must possess strength and courage, or your
example will count for little with the young, who
admire strength and courage. I want to see you, the
men of the Holy Name Society, you who embody
the qualities which the younger people admire, by
462 Presidential Addresses
your example give those young people the tendency,
the trend, in the right direction ; and remember that
this example counts in many other ways besides
cleanliness of speech. I want to see every man able
to hold his own with the strong, and also ashamed
to oppress the weak. I want to see each young fel-
low able to do a man's work in the world, and of
a type which will not permit imposition to be prac-
ticed upon him. I want to see him too strong of
spirit to submit to wrong, and, on the other hand,
ashamed to do wrong to others. I want to see each
man able to hold his own in the rough work of ac-
tual life outside, and also, when he is at home, a good
man, unselfish in dealing with wife, or mother, or
children. Remember that the preaching does not
count if it is not backed up by practice. There is no
good in your preaching to your boys to be brave, if
you run away. There is no good in your preaching
to them to tell the truth if you do not. There is no
good in your preaching to them to be unselfish if
they see you selfish with your wife, disregardful of
others. We have a right to expect that you will
come together in meetings like this ; that you will
march in processions ; that you will join in building
up such a great and useful association as this ; and,
even more, we have a right to expect that in your
own homes and among your own associates you will
prove by your deeds that yours is not a lip loyalty
merely; that you show in actual practice the faith
that is in you.
And State Papers 463
ON BOARD THE KEARSARGE, DURING THE
REVIEW OF THE FLEET, AUGUST 17, 1903
Officers and Enlisted Men:
I wish to say a word of thanks to you on behalf
of the people of the United States. There are many
public servants whom I hold in high esteem, but
there are no others whom as a class I hold in quite
the esteem I do the officers and enlisted men of the
navy and the army of the United States.
In doing your work here it should all be done with
an eye toward the day when upon every man, from
the admiral to the lowest in rank, may rest the re-
sponsibility as to whether or not a new page of
honor in American history shall be turned. As I
passed the Olympia I remembered her victory of
May I, 1898, which made her name forever one of
renown in our history. But all aboard her had been
equipped for the work by days and months, usually
by years, of what must have often been irksome
duty. In speaking to all of you I want a chance to
say a word of special recognition to the gun pointers.
The shots that hit are the shots that tell. They are
what make the navy prove itself equal to any need.
I am happy to say that the American seamen have
never been found deficient in the fighting edge — ^the
first requisite of the fighting man. I do not praise
you for being brave ; that is expected. The coward
464 Presidential Addresses
is to be condemned rather than the brave man to be
praised. I expect every one to show a perfect will-
ingness to die rather than to see the slightest stain
put upon the American flag. But in addition you
must know how to use to the utmost advantage the
gear and the weapons. You must know how to fight
as well as know how to die; only thus can you be-
come the most efficient fighting force in the world.
I again thank you for what you are. A peculiar re-
sponsibility attaches to each and every one of you.
It has been a pleasure to see the ship and the guns,
but, above all, the men behind the giuis.