Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1924-03-06

| SUFFICIENT eQuCdIiOn anu luIeiuSeuCc
SO that you know what your rights
as American citizens are. and what
| your duties are, and can exercise
them intelligently.
Under our Constitution no man or
woman can be registered as voter
| unless he or she can read and write,
| SO that the question of education
comes UP at the very outset. And
third, the matter of character. You
| must be men and women who are
rouched for by respectable, depend
able citizens, as men and women of
character. Of good habits. fitted. to be
American citizens: men and women
that we want to be American citi-
zens, who will be an addition to the
citizenship of the Country and not
a subtraction from it.
Now the privileges that you are
asking for are two: First, the right
to take part in goyernment-that is,
by yoting-and that Is why you must
have the qualifications OF education,
because here the people rule through
their ballot, and you must act intelli-
gently in depositing those ballots be-
cause you will be making your own
rulers. And second. you ask the pro-
lection OF this American flag. You
are protected now in this country as
to your lives. your person, and your
property. If anything happens to
you illegally the Court Is open to re-
dress those wrongs. whether you are
a citizen of France, England or Am
erica. Every one Is protected in per-
son and property, but IL anything
happens to you abroad. away from
here. that American flag. If you are
citizen OF the United States, floats
over you and protects you. Those
are the privileges which you ask, and
the gifts which YOU come here to
seek.
What are your duties? What on
the other hand must you do in order
to perform your part of this initia-
ton? What obligations must you
take upon yourselves? Those that
are qualified will be admitted by oath
administered by the Clerk, and in
that oath you renounce the old gov
eminent and you pledge allegiance
to the new. and pledge to defend it
against all enemies, foreign and
domestic. 1t does not look as If
there would be any foreign enemies
for some time; 1 hope never: but
human nature does not change
through treaties and commissions,
at least not quickly. Domestic en-
emies may be here. Domestic en-
emieS are those who secretly and
quietly are undermining the Consti-
tuition and the laws of this Country
Those who break the laws are do
nestle enemies Of this Government,
and those who spread doctrines Of
anarchism, the red flag. and all those
things that go with it, to upset this
Government which our ancestors
Nd hn
years almost, are the seditious and
domestic enemies which must be
feared, and l hope 1 am looking into
the faces OF men none of whom will
have any sympathy with such a doc
trine. IL so, and l should know of it.
they never would obtain the right of
citizenship.
In the next place, loyalty; loyalty
to the country. loyalty to the flag in
war and in peace. You must be law
abiding citizens, obeying the laws
which the State makes and which
the nation makes. Be good citizens.
You must be Industrious; home max
ers, for the home Is the center of all
good things. Out of our New Eng
land homes have gone the influences
which have made New England
great; coupled with the church and
your own homes If you can. Live
that quiet. honest. simple life which
good American citizens love and
honor. Connect yourself with some
| care not what kind-Jew
or Gentle, Catholic or Protestant
but be connected with some church.
a Goddess country can never endure.
| read not long ago q creed which
the American Legion prepared as the
Americans creed. A creed is some-
thing which is adopted by organiza-
tons as the substance of their belief,
as the creed of the church or of q
society. This Is the creed of the
American Legion. the boys who went
across and fought for you and for
me. | will read 1t to you. 1t sums
up pretty well what l have said to
you:
Il believe in the United States OF
America as n government of the peo-
pie, by the people, for the people,"
Who said that? Abraham Lincoln
in his great speech at the dedication
OF tho National cemetery at Gettys-
burg; immortal words. whose Just
powers are derived from the consent
of the governed" Who said that?
The trainers of the Declaration of
independence way back in 1916. when
the American Revolution broke out.
"A democracy in Il republic" That
is. we govern ourselves in repre-
sentative form of government. The
laws must be made by representa-
tivcs, but the representatives elected
by all the qualified voters; by the de-
mocraCy. "a sovereign nation of many
sovereign states" The United States
one nation. Forty eight separate
states: As sovereign nations. "a per-
feet union one and inseparable." The
civil war was fought to establish
that. The South claimed that it was
simply confederation, a partnership.
and those sovereign states could
withdraw 1t if they wished to and
leave the rest of us in. the United
States; and the North said mo: we
are one nation. one and indissoluble,
one and inseparahle." and the four
years battle from 1851 to 1860 were
fought to settle that question. and
they did settle it then. as it is stated
here. that we are perfect union,
one and inseparable. established
upon those principles of freedom" |
That does not mean absolute free
dom. That does not mean unbridled |
license: but 1t means freedom as
by your neighbors' free |
dom also. We cannot trespass upon |
that. Equality" That does not |
mean that we are all equal in intel |
lect. in prosperity. or in station. but |
there is an equality OF opportunity |
for every boy and every girl in this |
great country of ours. Justice and !
for which American patri- |
OTIS sacrificed their lives and for !
tunes" Patriots in the war of the !
revolution. in the Spanish war. in !