So, while we are profoundly sorrowful, and while there goes out of our
hearts a very deep and affectionate sympathy for the friends and
relatives of these lads who for the rest of their lives shall mourn
them, though with a touch of pride, we know why we do not go away from
this occasion cast down, but with our heads lifted and our eyes on the
future of this country, with absolute confidence of how it will be
worked out. Not only upon the mere vague future of this country, but
upon the immediate future. We have gone down to Mexico to serve mankind
if we can find out the way. We do not want to fight the Mexicans. We
want to serve the Mexicans if we can, because we know how we would like
to be free, and how we would like to be served if there were friends
standing by in such case ready to serve us. A war of aggression is not a
war in which it is a proud thing to die, but a war of service is a thing
in which it is a proud thing to die.
Notice how truly these men were of our blood. I mean of our American
blood, which is not drawn from any one country, which is not drawn from
any one stock, which is not drawn from any one language of the modern
world; but free men everywhere have sent their sons and their brothers
and their daughters to this country in order to make that great
compounded Nation which consists of all the sturdy elements and of all
the best elements of the whole globe.
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