Adlai Stevenson

What page in our history tells of deeds so fraught with blessings to the generations of men as the discovery of America?

Is it too much to say of this man that among the world's benefactors a greater than he hath not appeared?

They are the enduring heritage of all people.

The name and fame of Columbus belong exclusively to no age or country.

And may our fathers' God, 'from out of whose hand the centuries fall like grains of sand,' continue to the American people, throughout all the ages, the prosperity and blessings which He has given to us in the past.

It were idle to doubt that problems yet lie in our pathway as a nation, as difficult of solution as any that in times past have tried the courage or tested the wisdom of our fathers.

In no part of our mechanism of government was the wisdom of our fathers more strikingly displayed than in the division of power into the three great departments--legislative, executive, and judicial.

In the presence of this wondrous fulfillment of predicted greatness, prophecy looks out upon the future and stands dumb.

It is a proud reflection to-day that time has proved the true arbiter, and that the capacity of a free and intelligent people to govern themselves by written constitution and laws, of their own making, is no longer an experiment.

When the foundation-stone of this Capitol was laid, our Republic was in its infancy, and self-government yet an untried experiment.

May we not confidently abide in the hope that brighter days are in waiting for the beautiful island and her gallant people?

Irishmen, in common with liberty-loving men everywhere, looked with abhorrence upon the attempt of a great European power to establish monarchy upon the ruins of republics.