The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-31
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tContinued from Page one) the United States were once for all set l tied, disposed of, put behind us, and in l the course of time have almost been for I gotten.
 It was singuarly complete work that was performed by the processes of blood
 and iron at the time of the civil war, and it Is singular how the settlement has ruled our spirits since it was made. see in this very audience men who | fought in the Confederate ranks. I see them taking part in these exercises in I the same spirit of sincere patriotism that moves those who fought on the side of l the union, and I reflect how singular and how handsome a thing it is that wounds such as then were opened should | be so completely healed and that the 1 spirit of America should so prevail over | the spirit of division. It is the all-pre- vailing and triumphant spirit of America, where by our common action and consent governments are set up and pulled down, where affairs are ruled by common coun- | sel, and where by the healing processes | of peace all men are united in a com
 mon enterprise of liberty and of peace. TASK NEVER FINISHED And yet, ladies and gentlemen, the very object for which we are met to- gether is to renew in our. hearts the
 
 | The union was saved by the processes of the civil war. That was crisis which could be handled. it seems in no other way, but need not tell you that the peculiarity of this singular and beloved country is that it's task, it's human task. is apparently never finished; that it is always making and to be made. And there is at present upon us a crisis which seems to threaten to be new crisis of division. We know that the war which 1 is to ensue will be a war of spirits and not of arms. We know that the spirit of America is invincible and that no man
 can abate it's power, but we know that that spirit must upon occasion be as- serted, and that this is one of the oc- casions. America is made up out of all the nations of the world. Look at the rosters of the civil war. You will see | names there drawn from almost every European stock. Not recently, but from the first, America has drawn her blood and her impulse from all the sources of energy that spring at the fountains of every race, and because she is thus com pounded out of the peoples of the world her problem is largely a problem of ! union all the time, a problem of com pounding out of many elements single triumphant force
 "The war in Europe has done very natural thing in America. It has stirred the memories of men drawn from many of the belligerent stocks It has re- newed in them a national feeling which had grown faint under the soothing influence of peace, but which now flares up when it looks as if na- tion had challenged nation to a final reckoning and they remember the na-
 tions from which they were sprung and know they are in this life and death grapple. It is not singular, my fellow citizens, that this should have occurred and up to certain point it is not
 just that we should criticize it. TO.THE HYPENATES .t
 We have no criticism for men who love the places of their birth and the sources of their origin. We do not wish
 men toeforget their mothers and their fathers, their forbears running back
 through long, laborious generations
 which have taken part in. the building
 up of the strength and spirit of other nations. No man quarrels with that
 From such springs of sentiment we all draw some of the handsomest inspira-
 tions of our lives. But all that we do criticize is that in some instances they are not very numerous-but in
 some instances men have allowed this
 old ardor of another nationality to
 overthrow their ardor for the national ity to which they have given their new and voluntary allegiance. And so the United States has again to work out
 by spiritual process new union when men shall not think of what divides them, but shall recall what unites them, when men shall not allow old loves to take the place of present allegiances; when men must, on the contrary, trans late that very ardor of love of coun- try of their birth into the ardor of love for the country of their adoption and the principles which it represents. n vi for the extremists in this thing which l have been trying in moderate words to describe, but I summon them and 1 summon them very solemnly. not to set their purpose against the purpose of America. America must come first in every purpose we entertain and ev- cry man must count upon being cast out of our confidence. cast out even Of our tolerance, who does not submit to that great ruling principle.
 But what are the purposes of America? Do you not see that there is another significance in the fact that we are made up out of all the peoples of the world? The significance of that fact is that we are not going to devote our nationality to the same mistaken aggressive purposes that some other nationalities have been de- voted to; that because we are made up, l and consciously made up, out of all thC Sl Sdt Adiilly OI IHdHklHu, we are l champions of the rights of mankind. We are not only ready to cooperate, but, we are ready to fight against any aggression whether from without or from within. But we must guard our selves against the sort of aggression which would be unworthy of America. We are ready to fight for our rights when those rights are coincident with the rights of man and humanity. It was to set those rights up, to vindicate them to offer home to every man who believed in them, that America was created and her government set up. We have kept our doors open be- cause we did not think we in conscience could close them against men who wanted to join their force with ours in vindicating the claim of mankind to liberty and justice. ' WANTS NO TERRITORY
 America does not want any additional territory. She does not want any selfish advantage over any other nation in the world, but she does wish every nation 1 in the world to understand what she stands for and to respect what she stands for: and I cannot conceive of any man of any blood or origin failing to feel an enthusiasm for the things that America stands for, or failing to see that they are indefinitely elevated above | any purpose of aggression or selfish | advantage.
 T said the other evening in another place that one of the principles which | America held dear was that small and