The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1918-10-03

and all the Wnlle we IN America, thi.
great republic of more than one hundred
millions of people, were growing richel
and richer. Our banks were filled will
the worlds gold, our great commercial
enterprises were everywhere prosperous
our manufacturing industries were every-
where on the increase, our agriculture
outlook was never so fine. The whole
nation was growing rich beyond the
dreams OF the roma ncer. and somehow
we entertained the idea that we might
avoid the war altogether, and, while other
nations were engaged in the contest we
would furnish them guns and munitions
and grain and meat and all the other
necessary things to carry on a great war
Then suddenly we were awakened to the
reallzatlon OF a great truth, namely, that
the contest was more than a contest be-
tween two nations or all the nations.
Suddenly our statesmen realized that it
was contest between ideals, contest
! that involved the life of ali nations, a
contest that involved all that had been
gained at Runnymede, all that had been
won on the battlefields of the Revolu-
tionary War, all that had been won at
Gettysburg, nay, more! All that had
been won on the long marches of civiliza-
ton We suddenly realized that this ma
tion could no longer remain simply a
protiteer while the world was dying; that
the issues involved our own national well
fare; that the outcome was fraught, not
with the destinies of Germany and Eng
land, and her allies, but with the destiny
of all nations forever.
Perhaps you will study his with me a
moment, for, after ALL | entertain the
doc hat
tion, or any nation, that is going to in
vest much money, and possibly human
life, on a venture, first of all needs to see
clearly and feel deeply the worth while
ness of the proposition involved in the
venture. l do not entertain the hope
that Belfast, or the State, or the nation,
will undertake any task, or continue long
in pursuit of any achievement, at the
cost of much money and human life, un
less with a realization that it is an i'm
portant issue, vital principle; and, un-
less you here tonight realize what is in
volved in this thing, your devotion will
be falterinE; you will hesitate; you will
not 60 on and on and on in your under
taking. Therefore, | risk discussing with
you just for few moments some of the
more commonplace fundamental things
connected with this matter.
There are four priceless documents
that go to make up what we understand
to be the foundation of our great ma
tional principle. The first was written
by jefferson, the second was given
to the world by President Monroe, the
third by Abraham Lincoln and the fourth
by President Wilson. The first docu-
ment is called the Declaration of In
dependence, and in that document we
venture to express the belief that III
the presence of the law all men are Gre
ated equal; that before the law there is
an equality among men. 1t was a great
and fundamental truth that had to do
with the fundamental thing we call de-
mocracy Later on President Monroe,
in his great doctrine, ventured the sug-
gestion that in this new nation, that in
America we would not look with favor
upon the effort of any European nation
that should interfere in our political life.
In this doctrine was the idea that America
was for Americans; that we would resent
and undertake to make impossible the
subiugation of any American nation on
the part of the people of Europe. In
Abraham Lincoln's immortal Gettysburg
speech he goes step further and suggests
the idea that democracy, that the Amerl-
can principles of government, are not
only for America but for all the world,
and he entertains the hope that they
may not perish from the EARTH In
President Wilson's speech before Con-
gress IN the spring of 1917, he goes step
beyond the other three documents, and
suggests in that speech that the princl-
pies of American democracy, that the
fundamental principles of American gov
har cIy,1
which you may build great national life
and where eliberty-loving people may have
the opportunity to live together and pros
per, and that these principles and this
nation is for Americans, but he suggests
that these principles are for all the world;
and then comes the amazing declaration
that the time has come when the Ameri-
can people shall thoroughly believe in
these principles, that they are offering
them to the world;-nay, more! Not
only do they offer them to the world, but
President Wilson suggests in that speech
that the hour has come when the Ameri-
can people have resolved to give these
principles to all the nations of the world,
even at the point of the sword. Great
applause) repeat it, ladies and gentle
men, it was an amazing declaration, and
the American people responded to that
declaration, and tonight we are engaged
IN that great task.
Now may call your attention to this
fact: that democracy, as we understand
it, is not the creation or the outgrowth of
American thought and ideals. Democ-
racy is thing that has come down to us
over all the centuries, born in the hearts
of poets and philosophers, cherished by
great statesmen, fought for by great
heroes in all nations. Nearly every ma
ton has contributed something to its de-
velopment. Long ago it had birth, pos
sibly in the Jordan Valley, possibly in
the mind of the great Jew, Moses. Lin
gering along under the genial skies of
Greece, it took to itself her intellectual
idealism. Lingering along on the Seven
Hills of Rome, it took to itself her great
principles of constitutional law. Cross
ing to America, it added to itself the
great principles and ideals of free speech,
of freedom of the press and freedom of
religious worship. These are contribu-
tions, but the thing called democracy is
the development of the centuries, the
contributions of the wise men of all ages.
1t has come to Towering time in our re-
public; it is the gift of all centuries to the
American people, and we have taken it,
grated our own ideas upon it, developed
it, until it has come to represent in our
minds the ideals of religious and political
liberty, the ideals of education, the ideals
of social and industrial life that make it