Norwich bulletin., 1918-07-05
Speech in EuLi.

The presidents speech in full was as follows: Gentlemen of the Diplomatic Corps
 and my Fellow Citizens:
 T am happy to draw apart with you to this quiet place Of old cOun sel. in order to speak a little of the meaning of this day of our nations Independence. The place seems very still and remote. It is as serene and untouched by the hurry of the world as it was in those great days long ago when General Washington was here and held leisurely conference with the men who were to be associated with him in the creation of nation From these gentle slopes they looked out upon the world and saw it whole, saw it with the light of the future upon 1t. saw it with modern eyes that turn ed away from a past which men of liberated spirits could no longer en- dure. IL is for that reason that we cannot feel, even here in the imme- diate presence of this sacred tomb, that this is a place of death. It was place of achievement. A great prom ise that was meant for all mankind was here given plan and reality. The associations by which we are here sur rounded are the inspiriting associations of that noble death which is only glorious cOnsummation. From this green hillside we also ought to be able to see with experiencing eyes the world that lies around is and con- ceive anew the purpose that must set men free
 Tt is ignifcant-signif1ca of their own charac cter and purpose and of the influences they were setting afoot- that Washington and his associates, like the barons at Runnymede, spoke and acted. not for class, but for a people. It has been left for us to see to it that it shall be understood that they spoke and acted, not for a single people only, but for all man kind. They were thinking, not of | themselves and of the material inter- ests which centered in the little groups of landholders and merchants and ! men of affairs with whom they were accustomed to act in Virginia and the i colonies to the north and south of her. ! but of people which wished to be done with classes and special inter- i ests and the authority of men whom | they had not themselves chosen to rule
 over them. They entertained no pri- | vate purpose, desired no peculiar priv | llege They were consciously planning | that men of every class should be free
 and America 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 not | We intend what they intended. We here in America believe our partici-
 patton in this present war to be only
 the fruitage of what they planted Ou1 | case differs from theirs only in this
 that 1t is our inestimable privilege tC 1 concert with men out of every nation what shall make not only the liberties
 or America secure but the liberties ot every other people as we'll We are 1 happy in the thought that we are per. mltted to do what they would have
 done had they been in our place
 There must now be settled once for al
 what was settled for America in the
 great age upon whose inspiration wt
 draw today. This is surely fittins
 place from which calmly to look on
 upon our task, that we may fortify ou1
 spirits for its accomplishment. AnC
 this is the appropriate place iron
 which to avow, alike to the friends
 who look on and to the friends witt
 whom We have the happiness to be as
 sociated in action, the faith and DIT pose with which we act.
 This, then, is our conception of tn
 great struggle in which we are en gagged. The plot is written plain upoI every scene and every act of the su preme tragedy. On the one hand stan, the peoples of the world-not only th
 peoples actually engaged, but man
 others also who suffer under master f but cannot act; peoples of many race f and in every part of the world-th , people of stricken Russia still. anon I the rest. though they aae for the mo | ,Sry
 , posed to them, masters of many ar 7 mics, stand an isolated. friendles | group of governments who sneak n . common purpose but only selfish am
 bltions of their own by which non can profit but themselves. and who's
 people are fuel in their hands: gov ; ernments which fear their people an yet are for the time their sovereig
 lords, making every choice for tber and disposing of their lives and for
 tunes as they will, as well as of tn lives and fortunes of every people wh ; fall under their power-government clothed with the strange trapping 5 and the primitive authority of an 2 that is altogether alien and hostile our own. The past and the preser are in deadly grapple and the people :; of the world are being done to deat l between them.
 There can be but one issue. TT
 settlement must be final There ca f be no compromise No halfway dt , cision would be tolerable. No half : way decision is conceivable These al f the ends for which the associated pet r pies of the world are fighting ar f which must be conceded them befoI . there can be peace:
 g 1.-The destruction of every arb $ trary power anywhere that can SC, . arately, secretly, and sof it's sing f choice disturb the peace of the world r or, if it cannot be presently destro, n ed at the least it's reduction to vi 2 tuai importance.
 f "2-The settlement of every que t ton, whether of territory, or sove " eighty, of economic arrangement