The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-03-03

right conclusion, as I think for their
own good, it adds nothing to my salts
faction that any other man may be dis
appointed or panied by the result
This brief speech is typical of Lin
coin alike in its strong common sense
and fits lofty standard of morality. and
the Republican party today is a living
and organized good because it contin-
ued responsive to those thoughts and
purposes of its founders, which nave
given their highest expression in the
life of the great nartyred president.
In its essentials human nature has not
changed, or at least the change is slow.
I'm successive national trials, great
and small, which this country has had
to face. since the day half a century
ago, when the Republican party began
its career, the same qualities inevitably
have been displayed, qualities OF
strength and weakness, wisdom and
folly, and evil and good. In each of
these crises we have done we'll or i'll in
about the proportion as we have shown
qualities which made us do well or i'll
in others. Problems shift from genera
ton to generation, but, after all, IN
each case the danger is due fundamen-
tally to the same evil tendencies. In
each case success can come only by the
exercise of wisdom, courage, energy,
and highmindedness.
This is the reason why the history
of the Republican party in the past is
not merely of abiding interest to the
student but of present Importance to
every man who seeks in practical
fashion actually to apply the principles
of civic righteousness.
at is, of course, the merest truism
to say a party is of use only so far as
it serves the nation; that he serves his
party best who serves the nation best
In 1856 and 1860 the party was of use
because it stood against the extension
of slavery; in 1864, because it stood
against all slavery, as well as against
the destruction of this union; in 1868,
because it stood against those VINO
wished to undo the results of the war.
These now are dead issues but we
can learn how to face the live issues
of the present by studying in good
faith how men faced these dead is
sues of the past. We must act with
wisdom or else our adherence to right
will be mere sound without substance;
we must act high Tnindedly or else our
wisdom will in the long run prove to
be but folly in the eyes OF the just
and far sighted. Our policy must be
such as will secure material prosperity
to the nation: for exactly as man
cannot be a good citizen unless by his
work he is able to keep himself and
those dependent upon him from want,
so the nation can count for little until
it is a power which is based on phySi-
cal well being. Yet it is an evil thing
for q nation as for an individual if ma
terial well being is accepted as itself,
all sufficient; such well being is worth
less save as a foundation on which to
build higher life
ut is a good thing for a nation as
for a man to have a money making
capacity, but back of this and above it
must stand those qualities of intellect
and spirit, mind and soul which in their
sum make UP that high and fine type
of character which tells for true great
ness. Such character is shown in every
phase of the work of Lincoln.
There are few less desirable things
than to advance the history of what
has been well done in the past as an
excuse for failure to do well in the
present. and few more desirable than
to study such history with an earnest
desire to profit thereby in order to 70
better service in the time that now is.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
saxKr1,ita House Ian / 1901 p