And so the trouble makers have shot their
bolt, and it has been ineffectual. Some of them have been vociferous;
all of them have been exceedingly irresponsible. Talk was cheap, and
that was all it cost them. They did not have to do anything. But you
will know without my telling you that the man whom for the time being
you have charged with the duties of President of the United States must
talk with a deep sense of responsibility, and he must remember, above
all things else, the fine traditions of his office which some men seem
to have forgotten. There is no precedent in American history for any
action of aggression on the part of the United States or for any action
which might mean that America is seeking to connect herself with the
controversies on the other side of the water. Men who seek to provoke us
to such action have forgotten the traditions of the United States, but
it behooves those with whom you have entrusted office to remember the
traditions of the United States and to see to it that the actions of the
Government are made to square with those traditions.
But there are other dangers, my fellow-citizens, which are not past and
which have not been overcome, and they are dangers which we cannot
control.
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