Let
there be no misconception. The country has been misinformed. We have not
been negligent of national defense. We are not unmindful of the great
responsibility resting upon us. We shall learn and profit by the lesson
of every experience and every new circumstance; and what is needed will
be adequately done.
I close, as I began, by reminding you of the great tasks and duties of
peace which challenge our best powers and invite us to build what will
last, the tasks to which we can address ourselves now and at all times
with free-hearted zest and with all the finest gifts of constructive
wisdom we possess. To develop our life and our resources; to supply our
own people, and the people of the world as their need arises, from the
abundant plenty of our fields and our marts of trade; to enrich the
commerce of our own States and of the world with the products of our
mines, our farms, and our factories, with the creations of our thought
and the fruits of our character,--this is what will hold our attention
and our enthusiasm steadily, now and in the years to come, as we strive
to show in our life as a nation what liberty and the inspirations of an
emancipated spirit may do for men and for societies, for individuals,
for states, and for mankind.
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