Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-02-23

| Doctor or letters: Thomas bdlle! Hiu
| rich.
Doctor of science: Robert Simpson
Woodward, president of the Carnegie
| Institute.
At the conclusion OF the ceremonies
Provost Harrison made brief introduc-
tory remarks and President Roosevelt
delivered his grafton. He said:
AS nation we have had our flu!
snare of great hen. but the two men
Of preeminent greatness who. as the
centuries go on. will surely loom above
all others are Washington and Lincoln;
and il is peculiarly fitting that their
birthdays should be celebrated every
wear and the meaning of their lives
brought home close to US.
No other rity in the country is so
closely iden,iii ID With Washington s
career as Philadelphia. II" served here
in 49, in the Continental Congress.
He was here IS commander Of tn"
Army at the time of the battles Of
Brandywine and GerGahtOwn: and it
vas near here that with that army he
faced the losolate winter at Valley
Forge. the winter which ma rked the
turning point If the Revolutionary war
Here NJ tstlllf t'l lll'
convention which framed the COnstitu-
ton. and then az Pre- s;dent of tn
United States. and finally as Lieuten-
ant-General Of the Army after he had
retired from the Presidency.
one hundred and eight years ago.
iust before ne left the L. esidency, he
ISSUED his farewell address. and in 1t
Re laid down certain principles which
he believed should guide the citizens
of thus Republic for all time to come.
mis- own words being. which appear to
me all-important to he rermanency Of
your felicity as a people"
Washington. Though in some ways an
even greater man than Lincoln did not
have Lilcoln's Wonderful gift of eX-
preSSion-that Gift which makes certain
speeches of the r1i'-spitter from
Illinois read like the inspired utter
ances of the great Hebrew seers AMI
| prophets. But he had all of LincolnS
| sound common sense. -siShtedneSS,
and devotion to a lofty ideal. Like
| Lincoln he sought after the MODEST
| objects, and like Lincoln he sought
after them by thoroughly practical
| methods. These two greatest Amerl-
| cans can fairly be called the best
| @mOng the great men OF the world ana
| greatest among the good men of the
world Each showed in actual practice
his capacity to secure unCer our SyS-
ten the priceless dnion OF ldlvldual
| liberty with governmental strength.
| Each was as free from the vices of the
| tyrant as from the vices of the dema-
cogue. To "acn the empty futility Of
| the mere doctrInare was as alien as
| the baScnesS of the merely sclf-seeking
politician. Earn was incar:.hle alike OF
| the wickedness which 81 ekS by force of
arms to wrong others and of the no less
| criminal weakness which fails to pro-
| vide effectively against being wronged
by others.
Among WashinStons maxms which
he beiueIthed to his cOuntrymen We're
the two following: "Observe good faith
and Justice toward all nations. and
ITO be prepared for war is the most
| efts ctINe means to promote peace"
| These two principles taken together
should form the basis of our whole
foreign policy. Neither is sufficient
taken by itself. 1t is not merely all
idle 1lcam. but a most mischicyous
dream. to believe that mere refraininG
from wrongdoing will insure us against
being wronged. Yet. on the Other
| hand. Il nation prepared for war is Il
menace to mankind unless the national
purpose is to treat other nations with
good faith and justice. In any COM
| munity it is neither the conscientious
| man who is a craven at heart, nor yet
the bold and strong man without the
moral sense, who is of real use to the
community: it is the man who to
strength ana courage adds a realizing
sense of the moral obligation resting
| upon him, the man who has not only
| the desire but the power to do his full
duty by his neiGhhor and by the state.
50. in the world at large. the nation
| which is of use in the progress of man
kind is that nation which combines
| strength of character force Of charac-
| ter and inSistence upon its own rights,
| with II fun acknowledgment Of it's own
duties toward others. Just at pres
ent the best way in which We can show
that our loyalty to the teachings of
| Washington is a loyalty of the heart
and not of the lips only is to see to it
| that the work of building up our Navy
| goes Steadlly on. ana tnat at the same
time our stand for international right
eousness is clear and emphatic.
Never since the beginning of oul
country's history has the Navy bee!
used in an unjust war. Never mas il
failed to render great and sometimes
vital service to the republic. 1t has
not been too strong for our good
though often not strong enough to dc
all the good it should have dine. Oul
possession of the Philippines. our in
tereStS i'm the trade of the Orient, Oul
building the Isthmian Canal, our in
sistence upon the Monroe Doctrine, al
demand that our Navy shall be of aie-
p,iate size and for its size of unsur-
: passed efficiency. If it is strong
enough believe it will minimize the
I chance of our being drawn into foreign
| war. If we let it run down it is as
| certain as the day that sooner or later
we shall have to choose between
l probably disastrous foreign war or {
l peace kept on terms that imply ma.
| tional humiliation. our Navy is thu
SureSt guaranty of peace and th1
cheapest insurance against war, ant
( those who in whatever capacity. have
helped to build it up during the pas