The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1905-02-22
Washington Was Subject of Presi-
dent Roosevelt's Address Be-
fore Pennsylvania.
A Great Tribute Paid the Man
Who Did so Much for the
Country.

Roosevelt came to Philadelphia today
to deliver public address. The oc-
casion of his present visit was the
Washington birthday exercises of the
University of Pennsylvania. The pres
ident reached the city at 1890 and was
escorted by the First City Troop to
the Academy OF Music, where the exer-
cises were held The arrival of the
president was signal for a great well
coming demonstration from the hun
dreds Of students and other persons
filing the big theatre.
DR.. S. Weir Mitchell, public ora
tor" in the annual conferring OF hon
orary degrees, introduced each candi-
date to Provost Harrison, who confer
red the honors and on each candidate
placed the hood or gown peculiar to
the degree. After comforting of de-
grees President Roosevelt, who was
the orator Of the day, delivered his ad-
dress. At the close of the exercises
the president and other distinguished
visitors took lunch with the First City
Troop at their armory.
The president spoke as follows:
LAS lldtloil VIC navy hau oNl tbii
share of great men, but the two men of
preeminent greatness who, as the CEN
turies go on, will surely loom above all
others are Washington and Lincoln and
it is perculiarly fitting that their birth
days should be celebrated every year
and the meaning of their lives brought
home close to us.
No other city in the country is so
closely identified with Washngton's ca
reer as Philadelphia. He served here
in I775 in the continental congress. He
was here as commander of the army
at the time of the battles of Brandy
wine and Germantown; and it was near
here that with that army he faced the
desolate winter at Valley Forge, the
winter which marked the turning point
of the Revolutionary War. Here he
came again as president of the conven-
ton which framed the constitution, and
then as president of the United States,
and finally. as, heutenant7general of the
army after he. had retired from the
presidency. 49,. n
One hundred and eight years ago,
Just. before he left the presidency, he
issued his farewell address. and in it
he laid down certain principles which
he believed should guide the citizens
of this republic for all time to come,
his own words being, (which appear
to me all-important to the permanency
of your felicity as people !
Washington, though in some ways an
even greater man than Lincoln, did not
have Lincoln's wonderful gift of express
sion--that gift which makes certain
speeches of the rail-sDlitter from iii
nois read like the inspired utterances of
the great Hebrew seers and prophets.
But he had all of Lincoln's sound COM
mon sense, far-sightedness, and devo-
ton to lofty ideal. Like Lincoln he
sought after the noblest- objects, and
like Lincoln he sought after them by
thoroughly practical methods. These
two greatest Americans can fairly be
called the best among the great men of
the world. and greatest among the good
men of the world. Each showed in
actual practice, his capacity to secure
under DIR system the priceless union Of
individual liberty with governmental
strength. Each was as free from the
vices of the tyrant as from the vices of
the demagogue., To each the empty flu
tility of the mere doctrinaire was as
alien as the baseness of the merely self
seeking politician. Each was incapable
alike of the wickedness which seeks by
force of arms to wrong others and of
the no less criminal weakness which
fails to provide effectively against be-
ing wronged by others 81
Among Washington's rnaxims which
he bequeathed to his countrymen were
the two following: ''Observe good
faith and justice toward all nations 1
and @To be prepared for war is the most
effective means to promote peace. "
should form the basis of our whole for
eign policy. Neither is sufficient taken
by itself. 1t is not merely an idle Dream.
but most mischievous dream, to be-
lieye that mere refraining from wrong
doing will insure us against being
wronged. Yet, on the other hand, a.
nation prepared for war is menace
to mankind unless the national purpose
is to treat other nations with good faith
and justice. In any community 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 I;
it is the man who to strength and cour-
age adds realizing sense of the moral
obligation resting upon him.. the man
who has NOT only the desire but the
power to. do his fill duty BY his neigh
Dor and by the state. So. in the world
at large, the nation which is of use in
the progress Of mankind is that nation
which combines strength of character,
force of character, and insistence upon
its own rights, with full acknowlcdg-
ment Of its own duties toward others.
Just at present the best way in which We
can show that our LOYALTY to the teach
ings 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 steadily on, and that at the