If I did not
believe that the moral judgment would be the last judgment, the final
judgment, in the minds of men as well as the tribunal of God, I could
not believe in popular government. But I do believe these things, and,
therefore, I earnestly believe in the democracy not only of America but
of every awakened people that wishes and intends to govern and control
its own affairs.
It is very inspiring, my friends, to come to this that may be called the
original fountain of independence and liberty in American and here drink
draughts of patriotic feeling which seem to renew the very blood in
one's veins. Down in Washington sometimes when the days are hot and the
business presses intolerably and there are so many things to do that it
does not seem possible to do anything in the way it ought to be done, it
is always possible to lift one's thought above the task of the moment
and, as it were, to realize that great thing of which we are all parts,
the great body of American feeling and American principle. No man could
do the work that has to be done in Washington if he allowed himself to
be separated from that body of principle.
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