I like to read the quaint old accounts such as Mr. Day has read to us
this afternoon. Strangers came then to America to see what the young
people that had sprung up here were like, and they found men in counsel
who knew how to construct governments. They found men deliberating here
who had none of the appearance of novices, none of the hesitation of men
who did not know whether the work they were doing was going to last or
not; men who addressed themselves to a problem of construction as
familiarly as we attempt to carry out the traditions of a Government
established these 137 years.
I feel to-day the compulsion of these men, the compulsion of examples
which were set up in this place. And of what do their examples remind
us? They remind us not merely of public service but of public service
shot through with principle and honor. They were not histrionic men.
They did not say--
Look upon us as upon those who shall hereafter be illustrious.
They said:
Look upon us who are doing the first free work of constitutional
liberty in the world, and who must do it in soberness and truth, or
it will not last.
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