For she
has always been proud of her Navy and has always been addicted to the
principle that her citizenship must do the fighting on land. We are
working out American principle a little faster, because American pulses
are beating a little faster, because the world is in a whirl, because
there are incalculable elements of trouble abroad which we cannot
control or alter. I would be derelict to the duty which you have laid
upon me if I did not tell you that it was absolutely necessary to carry
out our principles in this matter now and at once.
And yet all the time, my fellow-citizens, I believe that in these things
we are merely interpreting the spirit of America. Who shall say what the
spirit of America is? I have many times heard orators apostrophize this
beautiful flag which is the emblem of the Nation. I have many times
heard orators and philosophers speak of the spirit which was resident in
America. I have always for my own part felt that it was an act of
audacity to attempt to characterize anything of that kind, and when I
have been outside of the country in foreign lands and have been asked if
this, that, or the other was true of America I have habitually said,
"Nothing stated in general terms is true of America, because it is the
most variegated and varied and multiform land under the sun.
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