The glory of Washington and the majesty of Marshall would have crumbled into meaningless dust if you and your comrades had not buttressed their work with your strength of steel, your courage of fire.

The Declaration of Independence would now sound like a windy platitude, the Constitution of the United States would ring as false as if drawn by the Abbé Sieyès in the days of the French Terror, if your stern valor had not proved the truth…

It was given to you, when the mighty days came, to do the mighty deeds for which the days called, and if your deeds had been left undone, all that had been already accomplished would have turned into apples of Sodom under our teeth.

If we do not rule wisely, and if our rule is not in the interest of the peoples who have come under our guardianship, then we had best never to have begun the effort at all.

The realization of the underlying brotherhood of our people, the feeling that there should be among them an essential unity of purpose and sympathy, must be kept close at heart if we are to do our work well here in our American life.

Our country has been populated by pioneers, and therefore it has in it more energy, more enterprise, more expansive power than any other in the wide world.

As regards internal affairs, it should teach us the prime need of remembering that, after all has been said and done, the chief factor in any man’s success or failure must be his own character—that is, the sum of his common-sense, his…

In our internal policy we can not afford to rest satisfied until all that the government can do has been done to secure fair dealing and equal justice as between man and man.

It is difficult to express the full measure of obligation under which this country is to the men who from ’61 to ’65 took up the most terrible and vitally necessary task which has ever fallen to the lot of any generation of men in the…

Other men have rendered great service to the country, but the service you rendered was not merely great—it was incalculable.

But you did more, for you saved us from annihilation.

In order to act wisely we must first see clearly.

Something for good can be done by law, and a bad law can do an infinity of mischief; but, after all, the best law can only prevent wrong and injustice, and give to the thrifty, the far-seeing, and the hard-working a chance to exercise to…

For the sake not only of ourselves but of our children and our children’s children we must see that this nation stands for strength and honesty both at home and abroad.

We can feel proud of what others did only because of what you did.

During the last century we have on the whole made long strides in the right direction, but we have very much yet to learn.

Besides each one of us working individually, all of us have got to work together.

From the major-general to the private in the ranks each came back to civil life with the proud consciousness of duty well done, and all with a feeling of community of interest which they could have gained in no other way.

Each came back with his own power for labor and endurance strengthened, and yet with his sympathy for others quickened.

Let us ever most vividly remember the falsity of the belief that any one of us is to be permanently benefited by the hurt of another.

But he carried within him memories of inestimable benefit to himself, and he bequeathed to us who come after him the priceless heritage of his example.

From that day to this the men who fought in the great war have inevitably had in them a spirit to which appeal for any lofty cause could be made with the confident knowledge that there would be immediate and eager response.

We can no more afford to lose social and civic decency and honesty than we can afford to lose the qualities of courage and strength.

Moreover, all these qualities of fine heroism and stubborn endurance were displayed in a spirit of devotion to a lofty ideal, and not for material gain.

When the end came his sole reward was to feel that the Union had been saved, and the flag which had been rent in sunder once more made whole.