Denver labor bulletin., 1918-08-10
JULY 4TH SPEECH OF
PRESIDENT WILSON
d DELIV E r ED AT THE TOMB OF
GEORGE WASHINGTON
America Is Doing What Founders Would
Have Done in Fighting for Reign
of Law Based Upon Con-
sent of the Governed.

Speaking at the tomb OF George wash
ington, at Mount Vernon, on July 4, 1913
President Wilson said:
Gentlemen OF the Diplomatic Corps and
My Fellow Citizens: | am happy to draw
apart with you to this quiet place OF old
counsel in order to speak little OF the
meaning of this day of our nations inde-
pendence. The place seems very still and
remote. Ii is as serene and untouched by
the hurry of the world as it was in those
great days long ago when General Wash
ington was here and held leisurely confer
ence with the men who were TO be asso-
ciated with him in the creation OF a nation
From these gentle slopes they looked out
upon the world and saw il whole, saw II
with the light of the future upon it, saw
1t with modern eyes that turned away from
a past which men OF liberated spirits could
no longer endure. 1t is for that reason that
we cannot feel. even here, in the immediate
presence OF this sacred tomb, that this is
place OF death 1t was a place OF achieve
ment. A great promise that was meant Tor
all mankind was here given plan and real
ity. The associations by which we
here surrounded are the inspiring associa-
tons of that noble death which is only a
glorious consummation. From this green
hillside we also ought to be able to see with
about us and should conceive anew the pur-
poses that must set men free.
1T is significant. significant oil their own
character and purpose and OF the influences
they were setting afoot, that Washington
and his associates. like the barons of Runny
mede, spoke and acted. not for class, but
for people. II has been left for us to see
to il that it shall be understood that they
spoke and acted, not for single people
al l,,,,f for all ind l.
ing, not OF themselves and of the material
interests which centcrcd in the little groups
of landholders and merchants and men OF
affairs with whom they were accustomed
to act, in Virginia and the colonies to the
north and south of her, but OF people
which wished to be done with classes and
special interests and the authority OF men
whom they had not themselves chosen to
rule over them. They entertained no pri-
vate purpose desired no peculiar privilege.
They were consciously planning that men
OF every class should be free and America
a place to which men out OF every nation
might resort who wished to share with
them the rights and privileges of free men.
And we take our cue from them, do we
mott We intend what they intended. We
here in America believe our participation
in this present war to be only the fruitagc
of what they planted. Our case differs
from theirs only in this, that it is our ines
timablc privilege to concert with men out
of every nation what shall make not only
the liberties of America secure but the lib
critics of every other people as we'll We are
happy in the thought that we permitted
to do what they would have done had they
been in our place. There must now be set
tied once for all what was settled for Amer
lea in the great age upon whose inspiration
we draw today. This is surely fitting
place from which calmly to look out upon
our task, that we may fortify our spirits
for it's accomplishment. And this is the
appropriate place from which to avow alike
to the friends who look on and to the friends
with whom we have the happiness to be
associated in action. the faith and purpose
with which we act.
This. then, is our conception of the great
struggle in which we are engaged. The
plot is written plain upon every scene and
every act of the supreme tragedy. On the
one hand, stand the peoples Of the world
not only the peoples actually engaged, but
many others also who suffer under mas
terry but cannot act; peoples of many races
and in every part of the world-thc people
of stricken Russia still, among the rest, tho
they are for the moment unorganized and
helpless. Opposed to them, masters of
many armies, stand an isolated, friendless
group of governments who speak no COM
mon purpose, but only selfish ambitions of
their own by which none can profit but
themselves and whose peoples are fuel in
their hands, governments which fear their
people and yet are for the time their SOW
ercipn lords making every choice for then,