Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1905-03-10

the future will bring, should cause in us
no feeling of vainglory, but rather a deep
and abiding realization of all which life
has offered u.s. a full acknowledgment of
the responsibility which is ours, and a
fixed determination to show that under
free government a mighty people can
thrive best alike regards the things
of the body and the things of the soul.
Much has been given to us, and much
will rightfully be expected from us. We
have duties to others and duties to our
selves. and we can shrk neither. We
have become a great nation, forced by
the fact of its greatness into relations
with the other nations of the earth. and
we must behave as beseems people with
such responsibilities Toward all other
nations. large and small, our attitude
must he one of cordial and sincere friend
ship We must show not only in our
words but in our deeds that we are
earnestly DESTROYS of securing their good
will by acting toward them in a spirit
of just and generous recognition of all
their rights. But justice and generosity
in a nation, as in an individual, count
most when shown not by the weak but
by the strong. While ever careful to re-
! frain from wronging Others we must be
no less nsistent that we are not wronged
ourselves We wish peace. but we wish
the peace of justice. the peace of right
4 eouSneSS. We wish 1t because we think
= it is right, and not because we are afraid.
! No weak nation that acts rightly and
| justly should ever have cause to fear us.
! and no strong power should ever be able
/ to single us out as a subject for insolent
; aggression.
Our relations with the other powers of
the world are important. but still more inn
portant are our relations among our
! selves. Such growth in wealth. i'm popu-
lation and in power as this nation has
| seen during the century and a quarter
! panied by like growth in the problems
which are ever before every nation that
rises to greatness Power invariably
means both responsibility and danger.
! Our forefathers faced certain perils which
we have outgrown We now face other
perils, the very existence Of which it was
impossible that they should foresee.
Modern life is both complex and intense,
and the tremendous changes wrought by
the extraordinary industrial development
of the half century are felt in every fibre
| of our social and political being. Never
before have men tried vast and for
! midable an experiment as that of admin
istering the affairs of continent under
the forms of democratic republic. The
conditions which have told for our
marvellous material well being, which
have developed to a very high degree our
energy, self-reliance and individual in
itiatiVe, also have brought the care and
anxiety inseparable from the accumula-
ton of great wealth in industrial centres.
Upon the success of our experiment much
depends, not only as regards our own
welfare, but as regards the welfare of
mankind. If fail. the cause of free
Self-goVernment throughout the world Will
rock to its foundations, and therefore our
responsibility is heavy, to ourselves, to
the world 1t is to-day and to the gem
eratiOns yet unborn. There is no good
reason why we should fear the future,
but there is every reason why we should
face ii seriously, neither hiding from
ourselves the gravity of the problems be-
fore us nor fearing to approach these
problems with the unbending, unhinch-
ing purpose to solve them Alright.
Yet after all, though the problems are
new, though the tasks set before us
differ from the tasks set before our
fathers who founded and preserved this
Republic, the spirit in which these tasks
must be undertaken and these problems
faced, If our duty is to be well done. re-
mains essentially unchanged. We know
that self government is difficult. We
| know that no people needs such high
traits of character as that people which
seeks to govern its affairs Alright through
the freely expressed will of the free men
who compose it, But we have faith that
we shall not prove false to the memories
of the men of the mighty past. They did
their work. They left us the splendid
heritage we now enjoy. We in our turn
have an assured confidence that we shall
be able to leave this heritage unwasted
and enlarged to our children and our chill
dren's children.
TO do so we must show, not merely in
great crises but in the everyday affairs
Of life, the qualities of practical intelli-
/ gence, of courage, of hardhood and en-
DURANGO and, above all, the power Of
devotion to a lofty ideal, which made
great the men who founded this Re
! public in the days of Washington, which
= hmade great the men who preserved this
Republic in the days of Abraham Lin
? coin.