Arizona republican., 1912-08-07

represent them badly. My actual ex-
 perience in office l have found that. as
 rule. l could secure the triumph of the causes in which I most believed, not from the politicians and the men who claim an exceptional right to speak in business and government. but
 by going over their heads and appeal ing directly to the people themselves. I am not under the slightest delusion
 as to any power that during my po- 1 litical career I have at any time DOS sesSed. Whatever of power I at any time hal, I obtained from the people.
 could exercise it only so long as. and to the extent that. the people not mere iy believed in me, but heartily backed me up. Whatever I did as president I was able to do only because I had the ! backing of the people When on any point did not have that backing when
 on any point I differed from the peo- ple. it mattered not whether I was right or whether I was wrong my power vanished. tried my best to lead the people. to advise them, to tell them [ what I thought was right: if necessary. l never esitated to tell them what I i thought they ought to hear, even though l thought it would be unpleasant for i them to hear it; but I recognized that my task was to try to lead them and not to drive them. to take them into my confluence, to try to show them that l was right, and then Loyalty and In good faith to accept their decision. l will 10 anything for the people ex- cept what my conscience tells me is
 wrong, and that I can do for no man
 and no set of men; I hold that a man cannot serve the people well unless he serves his conscience; but I hold also that where his conscience bids him refuse to do what the people desire he should not try to continue in office against their will. Our government system should be so shaped that the
 public servant, when he cannot con- l scientiously carry out the wishes of the people, shall at their desire leave his office and not misrepresent them in office; and I hold that the public servant can by so doing better than in any other way, serve both them and his conscience.
 Surely there never was a fight bet ter worth making than the one in which we are engaged It little matters what l befalls any one of us who for the time l being stand in the forefront of the l battle. ! hope we shall win and I be- 1 lieve that if we can wake the people 1 to what the fight really means we shall l win. But win or lose. we shah not ! falter. Whatever fate may at the mo- l ment overtake any of us, the move ment itself will not stop. Our cause l is based on the eternal principles of l righteousness: and even though we who now lead may for the time fail in
 the end the cause itself shall triumph.
 Six weeks ago, here in Chicago. I spoke
 ! to the honest representatives of a con-
 honest men; convention wherein
 sat, alas! a majority of men who, with
 sneerny indifference to every prin
 ciple of right. so acted as to bring tO
 T shameful end party which had been
 founded over half a century ago by
 men in whose souls burned the fire of
 lofty endeavor Now to you men who,
 in your turn, have come together to
 spend and be spent in the endless cru , sade against wrong, to you who face the future resolute and confident, to l you who strive in a spirit of brother
 hood for the betterment of our nation. to you who gird yourselves for this | great new fight in the neverending warfare for the good of humankind. l say in closing what in that speech said in closing: We stand at Armaged- l don, and we battle for the Lord"