9t &$&+/* <&- / PRICE, ONE DOLLAR at National (Emtwttttmt 1904 NOMINATING FOR PRESIDENT FOR VICE-PRESIDENT 0n. QUjarira Harr^n flf Jln^tana COMPILED AND EDITED BY HENRY KANEGSBERG QIanal M fo 1004 Copyright, 1904, by Isaac H. Blanchard Co., New York. PREFACE This handsome volume, which has been care- fully compiled and revised, presents to the pub- lic a true exposition of the principles and pol- icies of the Republican party, as well as an insight into the life, character and public serv- ices of its candidates, Theodore Roosevelt, of New York, and Charles Warren Fairbanks, of Indiana. These addresses are replete with many rhetorical gems of historical fact and political wisdom, which entitle them to rank with the best efforts of our famous statesmen and orators of bygone days. The volume will prove an invaluable text- book in schools and colleges, and should be placed on file in every library, reading-room and political organization throughout the land. HENRY KANEGSBERG. C CONTENTS PAGE NATIONAL COMMITTEE 7-8 PLATFORM, CAMPAIGN OF 1904 . . . 9-18 PRAYERS REV. TIMOTHY P. FROST .... 25-28 REV. THOMAS E. Cox 29-30 REV. THADDEUS A. SNIVEL Y . . . 31-36 ADDRESSES ELIHU ROOT ........ 39-84 JOSEPH G. CANNON . . . ... 85-104 FRANK S. BLACK , 105-116 ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE 117-126 GEORGE A. KNIGHT 127-132 HARRY STILWELL EDWARDS . . . 133-142 WILLIAM O. BRADLEY 143-150 5 CONTENTS PAGE JOSEPH B. COTTON 151-156 HARRY S. CUMMINGS 157-162 JONATHAN P. DOLLIVER .... 163-170 CHATJNCEY M. DEPEW 171-180 JOSEPH B. FORAKER 181-184 SAMUEL W. PENNYPACKER . . . 185-186 THOMAS H. CARTER 187-188 CAREERS THEODORE ROOSEVELT 191-194 CHARLES WARREN FAIRBANKS . . 195-199 GEORGE B. CORTELYOU 200-201 NOTIFICATION BY SPEAKER CANNON . 202-210 ACCEPTANCE BY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT 211-224 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE GEORGE B. CORTELYOU, Chairman. ELMER DOVER, Secretary. CORNELIUS N. BLISS, Treasurer. WILLIAM F. STONE, Sergeant-at-Arms. Alabama Charles H. Scott. Arkansas Powell Clayton. California George A. Knight. Colorado A. M. Stevenson. Connecticut Charles F. Brooker. Delaware J. Edward Addicks. Florida J. N. Coombs. Georgia Judson W. Lyons. Idaho Welden B. Heyburn. Illinois Frank O. Lowden. Indiana Harry S. New. Iowa Ernest E. Hart. Kansas David W. Mulvane. Kentucky John W. Yerkes. Louisiana Vacant. Maine John F. Hill. Maryland Louis E. McComas. Massachusetts W. Murray Crane. Michigan John W. Blodgett. Minnesota Frank B. Kellogg. Mississippi L. B. Moseley. Missouri Thomas J. Aikens. Montana John B. Waite. Nebraska Charles H. Morrill. Nevada P. L. Flanigan. New Hampshire Frank T. Streeter. NATIONAL COMMITTEE New Jersey Franklin Murphy. New York William L. Ward. North Carolina E. C. Duncan. North Dakota Alexander McKenzie. Ohio Myron T. Herrick. Oregon Charles H. Carey. Pennsylvania Boies Penrose. Rhode Island Chas. R. Brayton. South Carolina John G. Capers. South Dakota J. M. Greene. Tennessee W. P. Brownlow. Texas Cecil A. Lyon. Utah C. E. Loose. Vermont James Brock. Virginia George E. Bowden. Washington Levi Ankeny. West Virginia N. B. Scott. Wisconsin Henry C. Payne. Wyoming George E. Pexton. Alaska John G. Heid. Arizona W. S. Sturgis. District of Columbia Robert Reyburn. Indian Territory P. L. Soper. New Mexico Solomon Luna. Oklahoma C. M. Cade. Philippines Henry B. McCoy. Porto Rico Robert H. Todd. Hawaii Alexander G. M. Robertson. THE PLATFORM. Fifty years ago the Republican Party came into existence dedicated, among other purposes, to the great task of arresting the extension of human slavery. In 1860 it elected its first President. During twenty-four of the forty-four years which have elapsed since the election of Lin- coln the Republican Party has held complete control of the government. For eighteen more of the forty-four years it has held partial con- trol through the possession of one or two branches of the government, while the Demo- cratic Party during the same period has had complete control for only two years. This long tenure of power by the Republican Party is not due to chance. It is a demonstra- tion that the Republican Party has commanded the confidence of the American people for nearly two generations to a degree never equaled in our history, and has displayed a high capacity for rule and government, which has been made even more conspicuous by the inca- pacity and infirmity of purpose shown by its opponents. 9 PLATFORM, CAMPAIGN OF 1904 The Republican Party entered upon its pres- ent period of complete supremacy in 1897. We have every right to congratulate ourselves upon the work since then accomplished, for it has added lustre even to the traditions of the party which carried the Government through the storms of civil war. We then found the country, after four years of Democratic rule, in evil plight, oppressed with misfortune and doubtful of the future. Public credit had been lowered, the revenues were declining, the debt was growing, the ad- ministration's attitude toward Spain was feeble and mortifying, the standard of values was threatened and uncertain, labor was unem- ployed, business was sunk in the depression which had succeeded the panic of 1893, hope was faint, and confidence was gone. We met these unhappy conditions vigor- ously, effectively, and at once. We replaced a Democratic tariff law based on free trade principles and garnished with sectional protection by a consistent protective tariff, and industry, freed from oppression and stimulated by the encouragement of wise laws, has expanded to a degree never before known, has conquered new markets, and has created a volume of exports, which has surpassed im- 10 PLATFORM, CAMPAIGN OF 1904 agination. Under the Dingley tariff labor has been fully employed, wages have risen, and all industries have revived and prospered. GOLD STANDARD ESTABLISHED. We firmly established the gold standard, which was then menaced with destruction. Con- fidence returned to business, and with confi- dence an unexampled prosperity. For deficient revenues supplemented by im- provident issues of bonds we gave the country an income which produced a large surplus and which enabled us only four years after the Spanish war had closed to remove over $100,- 000,000 of annual war taxes, reduce the public debt, and lower the interest charges of the Government. The public credit, which had been so low- ered that in time of peace a Democratic admin- istration made large loans at extravagant rates of interest in order to pay current expenditures, rose under Republican administration to its highest point, and enabled us to borrow at 2 per cent, even in time of war. We refused to palter longer with the miseries of Cuba. We fought a quick and victorious war with Spain. We set Cuba free, governed 11 PLATFORM, CAMPAIGN OF 1904 the island for three years, and then gave it to the Cuban people with order restored, with ample revenues, with education and public health established, free from debt and con- nected with the United States by wise pro- visions for our mutual interests. We have organized the government of Porto Rico, and its people now enjoy peace, freedom, order, and prosperity. In the Philippines we have suppressed insur- rection, established order, and given to life and property a security never known there before. We have organized civil government, made it effective and strong in administration, and have conferred upon the people of those islands the largest civil liberty they have ever enjoyed. By our possession of the Philippines we were enabled to take prompt and effective action in the relief of the legations at Peking and a de- cisive part in preventing the partition and pre- serving the integrity of China. CANAL WORK AT LAST BEGUN. The possession of a route for an Isthmian canal, so long the dream of American states- manship, is now an accomplished fact. The great work of connecting the Pacific and Atlan- 12 PLATFORM, CAMPAIGN OF 1904 tic by a canal is at last begun, and it is due to the Republican Party. We have passed laws which will bring the arid lands of the United States within the area of cultivation. We have reorganized the army and put it in the highest state of efficiency. We have passed laws for the improvement and support of the militia. We have pushed forward the building of the navy, the defense and protection of our honor and our interests. Our administration of the great departments of the Government has been honest and effi- cient, and wherever wrongdoing has been dis- covered the Republican administration has not hesitated to probe the evil and bring offenders to justice without regard to party or political ties. Laws enacted by the Republican Party, which the Democratic Party failed to enforce, and which were intended for the protection of the public against the unjust discrimination or the illegal encroachment of vast aggrega- tions of capital, have been fearlessly enforced by a Republican President, and new laws in- suring reasonable publicity as to the operations of great corporations and providing additional 13 PLATFORM, CAMPAIGN OF 1904 remedies for the prevention of discrimination in freight rates have been passed by a Republican Congress. TARIFF MUST BE LEFT TO ITS FRIENDS. In this record of achievement during the past eight years may be read the pledges which the Republican Party has fulfilled. We promise to continue these policies, and we declare our constant adherence to the following principles : Protection, which guards and develops our industries, is a cardinal policy of the Republi- can Party. The measure of protection should always at least equal the difference in the cost of production at home and abroad. We insist upon the maintenance of the prin- ciples of protection, and therefore rates of duty should be readjusted only when conditions have so changed that the public interest demands their alteration, but this work cannot safely be committed to any other hands than those of the Republican Party. To intrust it to the Democratic Party is to invite disaster. Whether, as in 1892, the Dem- ocratic Party declares the protective tariff un- constitutional, or whether it demands tariff re- form, or tariff revision, its real object is always the destruction of the protective system. 14 PLATFORM, CAMPAIGN OF 1904 However specious the name, the purpose is ever the same. A Democratic tariff has always been followed by business adversity ; a Repub- lican tariff by business prosperity. To a Republican Congress and a Republican President this great question can be safely in- trusted. When the only free-trade country among the great nations agitates a return to protection the chief protective country should not falter in maintaining it. We have extended widely our foreign mar- kets, and we believe in the adoption of all prac- ticable methods for their further extension, in- cluding commercial reciprocity wherever recip- rocal arrangements can be effected consistent with the principles of protection and without injury to American agriculture, American labor, or any American industry. SHIP SUBSIDY PLANK. We believe it to be the duty of the Republi- can Party to uphold the gold standard and the integrity and value of our national currency. The maintenance of the gold standard, estab- lished by the Republican Party, cannot safely be committed to the Democratic Party, who resisted its adoption and has never given any 15 PLATFORM, CAMPAIGN OF 1904 proof since that time of belief in it or fidelity to it. While every other industry has prospered under the fostering aid of Republican legisla- tion, American shipping, engaged in foreign trade in competition with the low cost of con- struction, low wages, and heavy subsidies of foreign governments, has not for many years received from the Government of the United States adequate encouragement of any kind. We therefore favor legislation which will en- courage and build up the American merchant marine, and we cordially approve the legisla- tion of the last Congress, which created the Merchant Marine Commission to investigate and report upon this subject. A navy powerful enough to defend the United States against any attack, to uphold the Monroe doctrine, and watch over our com- merce is essential to the safety and the welfare of the American people. To maintain such a navy is the fixed policy of the Republican Party. We cordially approve the attitude of Presi- dent Roosevelt and Congress in regard to the exclusion of Chinese labor and promise a con- tinuance of the Republican policy in that direc- tion. 16 PLATFORM, CAMPAIGN OF 1904 The civil service law was placed on the statute books by the Republican Party, which has always sustained it, and we renew our for- mer declarations that it shall be thoroughly and honestly enforced. We are always mindful of the country's debt to the soldiers and sailors of the United States and we believe in making ample provision for them and in the liberal administration of the pension laws. We favor the peaceful settlement of inter- national differences by arbitration. FOR FREEDOM OF TRAVEL ABROAD. We commend the vigorous efforts made by the administration to protect American citizens in foreign lands and pledge ourselves to insist upon the just and equal protection of all our citizens abroad. It is the unquestioned duty of the Government to procure for all our citizens, without distinction, the rights of travel and sojourn in friendly countries, and we declare ourselves in favor of all proper efforts tending to that end. Our great interests and our growing com- merce in the Orient render the condition of China of high importance to the United States. 17 PLATFORM, CAMPAIGN OF 1904 We cordially commend the policy pursued in that direction by the administrations of Pres- ident McKinley and President Roosevelt. We favor such Congressional action as shall determine whether by special discriminations the elective franchise in any State has been un- constitutionally limited, and, if such is the case, we demand that representation in Congress and in the Electoral Colleges shall be proportion- ally reduced as directed by the Constitution of the United States. Combinations of capital and of labor are the results of the economic movement of the age, but neither must be permitted to infringe upon the rights and interests of the people. Such combinations when lawfully formed for lawful purposes are alike entitled to the protection of the laws, but both are subject to the laws, and neither can be permitted to break them. The great statesman and patriotic Ameri- can, William McKinley, who was re-elected by the Republican Party to the Presidency four years ago, was assassinated just at the threshold of his second term. The entire nation mourned his untimely death and did that justice to his great qualities of mind and character which history will confirm and repeat. The American people were fortunate in his 18 PLATFORM, CAMPAIGN OF 1904 successor, to whom they turned with a trust and confidence which have been fully justified. President Roosevelt brought to the great re- sponsibilities thus sadly forced upon him a clear head, a brave heart, an earnest patriotism, and high ideals of public duty and public service. True to the principles of the Republican Party and to the policies which that party had declared, he has also shown himself ready for every emergency and has met new and vital questions with ability and with success. EULOGY OF THE PRESIDENT. The confidence of the people in his justice, inspired by his public career, enabled him to render personally an inestimable service to the country by bringing about a settlement of the coal strike, which threatened such disastrous results at the opening of winter in 1902. Our foreign policy under his administration has not only been able, vigorous and dignified, but in the highest degree successful. The com- plicated questions which arose in Venezuela were settled in such a way by President Roose- velt that the Monroe Doctrine was signally vin- dicated, and the cause of peace and arbitration greatly advanced. 19 PLATFORM, CAMPAIGN OF 1904 His prompt and vigorous action in Panama, which we commend in the highest terms, not only secured to us the canal route, but avoided all foreign complications, which might have been of a very serious character. He has continued the policy of President McKinley in the Orient, and our position in China, signalized by our recent commercial treaty with that empire, has never been so high. He secured the tribunal by which the vexed and perilous question of the Alaskan boundary was finally settled. Whenever crimes against humanity have been perpetrated which have shocked our peo- ple, his protest has been made, and our good offices have been tendered, but always with due regard to international obligations. Under his guidance we find ourselves at peace with all the world, and never were we more respected or our wishes more regarded by foreign nations. Pre-eminently successful in regard to our foreign relations, he has been equally fortunate in dealing with domestic questions. The coun- try has known that the public credit and the national currency were absolutely safe in the hands of his administration. In the enforce- ment of the laws he has shown not only cour- se PLATFORM, CAMPAIGN OF 1904 age, but the wisdom which understands that to permit laws to be violated or disregarded opens the door to anarchy, while the just enforcement of the law is the soundest conservatism. He has held firmly to the fundamental American doctrine that all men must obey the law, that there must be no distinction between rich and poor, between strong and weak, but that justice and equal protection under the law must be se- cured to every citizen without regard to race, creed, or condition. His administration has been throughout vig- orous and honorable, high-minded and patriotic. We commend it without reservation to the considerate judgment of the American people. PRAYERS Prayer by Rev. Timothy P. Frost, pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Evanston, III. Almighty God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, we thank Thee for Thy goodness to the people of this land! Our sins have been many, but Thy mercies have been great. Thou has poured out Thy gifts with- out measure. The opening years of a new cen- tury have been freighted with wealth for hand and mind and heart. Best of all, Thou art giving Thyself in a perpetual offering of Thy life for the life of man. We do not forget that in the hour of deep sorrow, when the heart of the nation was darkened by the murder of the nation's chief, there was no break in the march of Thy purpose, the orderly administra- tion of our government or the faith of the peo- ple in their God. Under the guidance of Thy Holy Spirit we have been brought by our na- tional woes nearer to Thee. Surely Thou wilt never forsake this people. May no dominance of greed, no riot of passion, no weakening of religious conviction or en- thronement of matter over spirit cause the peo- 25 REV. TIMOTHY P. FROST pie to forsake Thee. May the heritage of honor coming to us from the fathers in mem- ories of noble sacrifices and valiant deeds be at once our glad possession and our sacred trust. While we are grateful for the past, may we remember that to-day is better than yesterday, and so act that the morrow shall be greater than to-day. Wherever our country's flag floats as the symbol of government, even unto the isles of the sea, may we cleave unto the righteous- ness that exalteth a nation and cast out the sin that is a reproach to any people^ Save our nation, we beseech Thee, from all the evil things which defile the home, impair civil liberty, corrupt politics or undermine the integrity of commercial life. Bring to naught the schemes of men who would debauch or oppress human life for the gratification of lust or for personal enrichment or power. May exaltation come only to men who despise the gain of oppressions and shake the hands from holding of bribes. May all sections and races, all creeds and sentiments, all occupations and interests, become united through the Spirit of the Highest into a citizenship with a passion for righteousness, wherein each individual shall look up to God as the Father of all and on every man as a brother. We pray Thee to 26 REV. TIMOTHY P. FROST overrule the deliberations, conclusions and is- sues of this convention for the good of the American people and the welfare of mankind. Bless Thy servant, the Chief Magistrate of our nation. May he and all others clothed with authority by the sovereign people be protected by the powers of Thy kingdom, and contribute to its ultimate triumph and consummation in all the earth. All nations are Thy children. Guide and keep them by Thy gracious providence, and hasten the coming of the day when love shall have conquered hate and war shall have ceased and all peoples shall dwell together in unity. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. 27 Invocation delivered by the Rev. Thomas E. Cox, of the Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago. Our Father, who art in Heaven, we thank Thee for the opportunities of this day. In all humility we adore Thy sovereign majesty. To Thee we look for grace and guidance. In Thy hands are the destinies of nations, Thy provi- dence enters into the careers of man. There is no just power but from Thee. Thy will is the sole source of law and good government. Bless the deliberations of this convention. Give us wisdom and understanding. Let us not forget those who have bequeathed to us a glorious history. Drive far from us all self- seeking. Fill us with love of country, of peace, of forbearance and of justice. For "justice exalteth a nation, but when the wicked bear rule, peoples perish." "Thy Kingdom come." Hasten the day when it shall be said: "The Kingdom of this world is become our Lord's and His Christ's, and He shall reign forever and ever." Amen. 29 J Prayer by Rev. Thaddeus A. Snively, rector of St. Chrysostom's Church. Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, In- finite, Eternal: All-Wise and Ever Merciful, Creator and Preserver of all mankind, with profound reverence we acknowledge Thee as the Source of Life and Strength, the Great Invisible One Who speaks to us through this wonderful universe, of which man, so marvel- lous, is but one of Thy numberless works of wonder and power. We confess Thee as the Giver of life and light, and every good and perfect gift. Gathered here as children of this great and wonderful country, where man has drawn near to Thee, we beseech Thee to be with us in loving benediction and guide us in our thoughts and words and deeds. As citizens of this land of privilege and freedom to all, we pray for our country the dear land for which our fathers fought in the long strife for freedom for all. By Thy gracious help it is the land of the free and the home of the brave. We pray that Thou wilt guide us ever by Thy power and wisdom in such ways that our liberty may never 31 REV. THADDEUS A. SNIVELY degenerate into license, and that our people may be brave, not simply with brute courage that is ready to face force and violence, but with the higher moral power which makes us strong to battle for the truth and honor and noble principle. We beseech Thee to give to our whole nation the strong desire and purpose to uphold law and order and to seek noble character and true integrity as the most sublime achievements of the race, far greater and more precious than riches or mighty conquests. Grant, we pray Thee, that the benumbing touch of material possessions and the lust of power may never blind us to the true greatness and glory of moral advancement. Help us ever to remem- ber that the fathers of this land and government were patriots of never-dying fame, because they believed that poverty and defeat with un- sullied honor are far better than vast wealth and world-wide influence purchased at the cost of shame and dishonor. We beseech Thee, O Thou God of Love and Peace, to keep from us all those who would overthrow the old stand- ards of peace and harmony and brotherhood, and grant that the sense of true brotherly love and mutual respect may prevail among all classes and conditions of our people and that 32 REV. THADDEUS A. SNIVELY peace and justice may be our aim and ambition, both within and beyond our borders. May that feeling of love and oneness with all mankind grow stronger year by year. Help us to keep down selfishness and bitter- ness, and by Thy tender grace make stronger the sense of dependence upon Thee and of duty to all mankind. In this seedtime of the year, we pray Thee to bless the harvest. Send Thy blessing upon the multitudes who work upon the rich lands. May abundant crops be the reward of the husband- men whose labors make possible the feeding of the vast multitudes of Thy children, abundant increase of grain and fruits to keep in busy movement the mighty engines of commerce, and the looms and machines of human industry ; that thus hunger and idleness and want may be kept far away from our people and prosperity dwell within our country. Our Heavenly Father, Whose kingdom is everlasting and power infinite, we pray Thee to send Thy blessing upon all our country and all our people, and especially upon all those on whom authority and the execution of the laws rest, upon the President of the United States ; upon the Governors of all the commonwealths which make this a land of many States; upon S3 REV. THADDEUS A. gNIVELY the Congress of the nation, and upon the legis- latures of the different States, and upon all who occupy places of trust and responsibility, that they, knowing whose ministers they are, may above all things seek thy honor and glory. Wilt Thou grant them Thy grace that they may always incline to Thy will and walk in Thy way. And may all the people, duly considering that it is Thy authority that they bear, faith- fully and obediently honor them and aid them in guarding the highest standards of upright- ness and integrity and unselfish patriotism. Upon this great multitude here gathered, we ask Thy blessing. Keep before us, we pray Thee, high motive and lofty aim, and grant, in Thy infinite goodness, that this convention may have its part in holding aloft the highest ideals and most glorious standards of true citizenship. Wilt Thou so direct their deliberations that only high influences may have sway, and that the best results for our dear country may be advanced by their work ; that thus they may do their part in helping to the ordering and set- tling of all things upon the best and surest foundations that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be estab- lished among us for all generations. 34 REV. THADDEUS A. &NIVELY Finally, we pray for all the people of this land, that Thou wouldst direct us, O Lord, in all our doings with Thy most gracious favor, and further us with Thy continual help, that in all our works begun, continued and ended in Thee, we may glorify Thy holy name, and, finally, by Thy mercy, obtain everlasting life through Him Who has taught us to say : "Our Father Who art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil : for Thine is the king- dom and the power and the glory, forever and ever." Amen. ADDRESSES Address by Temporary Chairman Elihu Root, of New York. The responsibility of government rests upon the Republican party. The complicated ma- chinery through which the 80,000,000 people of the United States govern themselves answers to no single will. The composite government devised by the f ramers of the Constitution to meet the conditions of national life more than a century ago requires the willing co-operation of many minds, the combination of many inde- pendent factors, in every forward step for the general welfare. The President at Washington with his Cabi- net, the ninety Senators representing forty-five sovereign States, the 386 Representatives in Congress- are required to reach concurrent ac- tion upon a multitude of questions involving varied and conflicting interests and requiring investigation, information, discussion and rec- onciliation of views. From all our vast terri- tory, with its varieties of climate and industry, from all our great population active in produc- tion and commerce and social progress and in- tellectual and moral life to a degree never be- 39 ELIHU ROOT fore attained by any people difficult problems press upon the national government. Within the past five years more than sixty- six thousand bills have been introduced in Con- gress. Some method of selection must be fol- lowed. There must be some preliminary proc- ess to ascertain the general tenor of public judgment upon the principles to be applied in government, and some organization and recog- nition of leadership which shall bring a legisla- tive majority and the Executive into accord in the practical application of those principles, or effective government becomes impossible. The practical governing instinct of our peo- ple has adapted the machinery devised in the eighteenth to the conditions of the twentieth century by the organization of national political parties. In them men join for the promotion of a few cardinal principles upon which they agree. For the sake of those principles they lay aside their differences upon less important questions. To represent those principles and to carry on the government in accordance with them, they present to the people candidates whose competency and loyalty they approve. The people by their choice of candidates indi- cate the principles and methods which they wish followed in the conduct of their govern- 40 ELIHU ROOT ment. They do not merely choose between men ; they choose between parties between the principles they profess, the methods they fol- low, the trustworthiness of their professions, the inferences to be drawn from the records of their past, the general weight of character of the body of men who will be brought into participation in government by their ascend- ancy. When the course of the next administration is but half done the Republican party will have completed the first half -century of its national life. Of the eleven administrations since the first election of Abraham Lincoln, nine cov- ering a period of thirty-six years have been under Republican presidents. For the greater part of that time the majority in each House of Congress has been Republican. History af- fords no parallel in any age or country for the growth in national greatness and power and honor, the wide diffusion of the comforts of life, the uplifting of the great mass of the peo- ple above the hard conditions of poverty, the common opportunity for education and indi- vidual advancement, the universal possession of civil and religious liberty, the protection of property and security for the rewards of in- dustry and enterprise, the cultivation of na- 41 ELIHU ROOT tional morality, respect for religion, sympathy with humanity and love of liberty and justice, which have marked the life of the American people during this long period of Republican control. With the platform and the candidates of this convention, we are about to ask a renewed ex- pression of popular confidence in the Republi- can party. We shall ask it because the principles to which we declare our adherence are right, and the best interests of our country require that they should be followed in its government. We shall ask it because the unbroken record of the Republican party in the past is an as- surance of the sincerity of our declarations and the fidelity with which we shall give them ef- fect. Because we have been constant in prin- ciple, loyal to our beliefs and faithful to our promises, we are entitled to be believed and trusted now. We shall ask it because the character of the party gives assurance of good government. A great political organization, competent to gov- ern, is not a chance collection of individuals brought together for the moment as the shift- ing sands are piled up by wind and sea, to be swept away, to be formed and reformed again. 42 ELIHU ROOT It is a growth. Traditions and sentiments reaching down through struggles of years gone, and the stress and heat of old conflicts and the influence of leaders passed away, and the ingrained habit of applying fixed rules of interpretation and of thought all give to a political party known and inalienable qualities from which must follow in its deliberate judg- ment and ultimate action like results for good or bad government. We do not deny that other parties have in their membership men of morality and patriotism; but we assert with confidence that, above all others, by the influ- ences which gave it birth and have maintained its life, by the causes for which it has striven, the ideals which it has followed, the Republican party as a party has acquired a character which makes its ascendancy the best guarantee of a government loyal to principle and effective in execution. Through it more than any other political organization the moral sentiment of America finds expression. It cannot depart from the direction of its tendencies. From what it has been may be known certainly what it must be. ISTot all of us rise to its standard ; not all of us are worthy of its glorious history ; but, as a whole, this great political organiza- tion the party of Lincoln and McKinley 43 ELIHU ROOT cannot fail to work in the spirit of its past and in loyalty to great ideals. We shall ask the continued confidence of the people because the candidates whom we present are of proved competency and patriotism, fitted to fill the offices for which they are nominated, to the credit and honor of our country. We shall ask it because the present policies of our government are beneficial, and ought not to be set aside; and the people's business is being well done, and ought not to be interfered with. Have not the American people reason for satisfaction and pride in the conduct of their government since the election of 1900, when they rendered their judgment of approval upon the first administration of President Mc- Kinley? Have we not had an honest govern- ment? Have not the men selected for office been men of good reputation who by their past lives had given evidence that they were honest and competent? Can any private business be pointed out in which lapses from honesty have been so few and so trifling, proportionately, as in the public service of the United States? And when they have occurred, have not the offend- ers been relentlessly prosecuted and sternly 44 ELIHU BOOT punished, without regard to political or per- sonal relations ? Have we not had an effective government? Have not the laws been enforced? Has not the slow process of legislative discussion upon many serious questions been brought to prac- tical conclusions embodied in beneficial stat- utes? and has not the Executive proceeded without vacillation or weakness to give these effect. Are not the laws of the United States obeyed at home? and does not our government command respect and honor throughout the world? Have we not had a safe and conservative government? Has not property been pro- tected? Are not the fruits of enterprise and industry secure ? What safeguard of the Con- stitution for vested right or individual freedom has not been scrupulously observed? When has any American administration ever dealt more considerately and wisely with questions which might have been the cause of conflict with for- eign powers? When have more just settle- ments been reached by peaceful means ? When has any administration wielded a more power- ful influence for peace? and when have we rested more secure in friendship with all man- kind? 45 ELIHU ROOT Four years ago the business of the country was loaded with burdensome internal taxes, im- posed during the war with Spain. By the acts of March 2, 1901, and April 12, 1902, the country has been wholly relieved of that annual burden of over $100,000,000, and the further accumulation of a surplus which was constantly withdrawing the money of the country from circulation has been prevented by the reduction of taxation. Between the 30th of June, 1900, and the 1st of June, 1904, our Treasury Department col- lected in revenues the enormous sum of $2,203,- 000,000 and expended $2,028,000,000, leaving us with a surplus of over $170,000,000 after paying the $50,000,000 for the Panama Canal and loaning $4,600,000 to the St. Louis Exposi- tion. Excluding those two extraordinary pay- ments, which are investments from past sur- plus and not expenditures of current income, the surplus for this year will be the reasonable amount of about $12,000,000. The vast and complicated transactions of the Treasuiy, which for the last fiscal year show actual cash receipts of $4,250,290,262 and dis- bursements of $4,113,199,414, have been con- ducted with perfect accuracy and fidelity and without the loss of a dollar. Under wise man- 46 ELIHU ROOT agement the financial act of March 14, 1900, which embodied the sound financial principles of the Republican party and provided for the maintenance of our currency on the stable basis of the gold standard, has wrought out benefi- cent results. On the 1st of November, 1899, the interest bearing debt of the United States was $1,046,049,020. On the 1st of May last the amount of that debt was $895,157,440, a reduction of $150,891,580. By refunding, the annual interest has been still more rapidly re- duced from $40,347,884 on the 1st of Novem- ber, 1899, to $24,176,745 on the 1st of June, 1904, an annual saving of over $16,000,000. When the financial act was passed the thinly settled portions of our country were suffering for lack of banking facilities because the banks were in the large towns, and none could be orga- nized with a capital of less than $50,000. Under the provisions of that act there were organized down to the 1st of May last 1,296 small banks of $25,000 capital, furnishing, under all the safeguards of the national banking system, fa- cilities to the small communities of the West and South. The facilities made possible by that act have increased the circulation of na- tional banks from $254,402,730 on the 14th of March, 1900, to $445,988,565 on the 1st of 47 ELIHU ROOT June, 1904. The money of the country in cir- culation has not only increased in amount with our growth in business, but it has steadily gained in the stability of the basis on which it rests. On the 1st of March, 1897, when the first administration of McKinley began, we had in the country, including bullion in the Treasury, $1,806,272,076. This was $23.14 per capita for our population, and of this 38.893 per cent, was gold. On the 1st of March, 1901, when the second administration of McKinley began, the money in the country was $2,467,295,228. This was $28.34 per cap- ita, and of this 45.273 per cent, was gold. On the 1st of May last the money in the country was $2,814,985,446, which was $31.02 per cap- ita, and of it 48.028 per cent, was gold. This great increase of currency has been arranged in such a way that the large government notes in circulation are gold certificates, while the silver certificates and greenbacks are of small denominations. As the large gold certificates represent gold actually on deposit, their presen- tation at the Treasury in exchange for gold can never infringe upon the gold reserve. As the small silver certificates and greenbacks are always in active circulation, no large amount of them can be accumulated for the purpose of 48 ELIHU ROOT drawing on the gold reserve; and thus, while every man can get a gold dollar for every dollar of the government's currency, the endless chain which we were once taught to fear so much has been effectively put out of business. The Sec- retary of the Treasury has shown himself mind- ful of the needs of business, and has so man- aged our finances as himself to expand and contract our currency as occasion has required. When in the fall of 1902 the demand for funds to move the crops caused extraordinary money stringency, the Secretary exercised his lawful right to accept State and municipal bonds as security for public deposits, thus liberating United States bonds, which were used for ad- ditional circulation. When the crops were moved and the stringency was over he called for a withdrawal of the State and municipal se- curities, and thus contracted the currency. Again, in 1903, under similar conditions he produced similar results. The payment of the $50,000,000 for the Panama Canal, made last month without causing the slightest disturb- ance in finance, showed good judgment and a careful consideration of the interests of busi- ness upon which our people may confidently rely. Four years ago the regulation by law of the 49 ELIHU ROOT great corporate combinations called "trusts" stood substantially where it was when the Sher- man Anti-Trust act of 1890 was passed. Pres- ident Cleveland in his last message of Decem- ber, 1896, had said: "Though Congress has attempted to deal with this matter by legislation, the laws passed for that purpose thus far have proved ineffec- tive, not because of any lack of disposition or attempt to enforce them, but simply because the laws themselves as interpreted by the courts do not reach the difficulty. If the insufficien- cies of existing laws can be remedied by fur- ther legislation, it should be done. The fact must be recognized, however, that all federal legislation on this subject may fall short of its purpose because of inherent obstacles, and also because of the complex character of our gov- ernmental system, which, while making federal authority supreme within its sphere, has care- fully limited that sphere by metes and bounds that cannot be transgressed." At every election the regulation of trusts had been the football of campaign oratory and the subject of many insincere declarations. Our Republican administration has taken up the subject in a practical, sensible way as a business rather than a political question, saying 50 ELIHU ROOT what it really meant, and doing what lay at its hands to be done to accomplish effective regu- lation. The principles upon which the govern- ment proceeded were stated by the President in his message of December, 1902. He said: "A fundamental base of civilization is the inviolability of property ; but this is in no wise inconsistent with the right of society to regulate the exercise of the artificial powers which it confers upon the owners of property, under the name of corporate franchises, in such a way as to prevent the misuse of these powers. . . . "We can do nothing of good in the way of regulating and supervising these corporations until we fix clearly in our minds that we are not attacking the corporations, but endeavoring to do away with any evil in them. We are not hostile to them ; we are merely determined that they shall be so handled as to subserve the pub- lic good. We draw the line against miscon- duct, not against wealth. . . . "In curbing and regulating the combinations of capital which are or may become injurious to the public we must be careful not to stop the great enterprises which have legitimately re- duced the cost of production, not to abandon the place which our country has won in the leadership of the international industrial 51 ELIHU BOOT world, not to strike down wealth, with the result of closing factories and mines, of turn- ing the wage-worker idle in the streets and leaving the farmer without a market for what he grows. . . . "I believe that monopolies, unjust discrim- inations, which prevent or cripple competition, fraudulent over-capitalization and other evils in trust organizations and practices which in- juriously affect interstate trade can be pre- vented under the power of the Congress to 'regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several states' through regulations and requirements operating directly upon such commerce, the instrumentalities thereof, and those engaged therein." After long consideration Congress passed three practical statutes. On the llth of Feb- ruary, 1903, an act to expedite hearings in suits in enforcement of the Anti-Trust act; on the 14th of February, 1903, the act creating a new Department of Commerce and Labor, with a Bureau of Corporations, having authority to secure systematic information regarding the organization and operation of corporations en- gaged in interstate commerce, and on the 19th of February, 1903, an act enlarging the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission and of 52 ELIHU ROOT the courts, to deal with secret rebates in trans- portation charges, which are the chief means by which the trusts crush out their smaller com- petitors. The Attorney-General has gone on in the same practical way, not to talk about the trusts, but to proceed against the trusts by law for their regulation. In separate suits fourteen of the great railroads of the country have been re- strained by injunction from giving illegal re- bates to the favored shippers, who by means of them were driving out the smaller shippers and monopolizing the grain and meat business of the country. The beef trust was put under in- junction. The officers of the railroads en- gaged in the cotton-carrying pool, affecting all that great industry of the South, were indicted and have abandoned their combination. The Northern Securities Company, which under- took by combining in one ownership the capital stocks of the Northern Pacific and the Great Northern Railroads to end traffic competition in the Northwest, has been destroyed by a vig- orous prosecution expedited and brought to a speedy and effective conclusion in the Supreme Court under the act of February 11, 1903. The Attorney-General says : "Here, then, are four phases of the attack 53 ELIHU ROOT on the combinations in restraint of trade and commerce the railroad injunction suits, the cotton pool cases, the beef trust cases, and the Northern Securities case. The first relates to the monopoly produced by secret and preferen- tial rates for railroad transportation; the sec- ond to railroad traffic pooling; the third to a combination of independent corporations to fix and maintain extortionate prices for meats, and the fourth to a corporation organized to merge into itself the control of parallel and competing lines of railroad and to eliminate competition in their rates of transportation." The right of the Interstate Commerce Com- mission to compel the production of books and papers has been established by the judgment of the Supreme Court in a suit against the coal carrying roads. Other suits have been brought and other indictments have been found and other trusts have been driven back within legal bounds. No investment in lawful business has been jeopardized, no fair and honest enterprise has been injured; but it is certain that wherever the constitutional power of the national govern- ment reaches, trusts are being practically regu- lated and curbed within lawful bounds as they never have been before, and the men of small capital are finding in the efficiency and skill of 54 ELIHU ROOT the national Department of Justice a protec- tion they never had before against the crush- ing effect of unlawful combinations. We have at last reached a point where the public wealth of farm land, which has seemed so inexhaustible, is nearly gone, and the prob- lem of utilizing the remainder for the building of new homes has become of vital importance. The present administration has dealt with this problem vigorously and effectively. Great areas had been unlawfully fenced in by men of large means, and the home builder had been excluded. Many of these unlawful aggressors have been compelled to relinquish their booty, and more than 2,000,000 acres of land have been restored to the public. Extensive frauds in procuring grants of land, not for home- steads, but for speculation, have been investi- gated and stopped, and the perpetrators have been indicted and are being actively prosecuted. A competent commission has been constituted to examine into the defective working of the existing laws and to suggest practical legisla- tion to prevent further abuse. That commis- sion has reported, and bills adequate to accom- plish the purpose have been framed and are before Congress. The further denudation of forest areas, producing alternate floods and 55 ELIHU ROOT dryness in our river valleys, has been checked by the extension of forest reserves, which have been brought to aggregate more than 63,000,- 000 acres of land. The reclamation by irriga- tion of the vast arid regions forming the chief part of our remaining public domain, has been provided for by the national Reclamation law of June 17, 1903. The execution of this law, without taxation and by the application of the proceeds of public land sales alone, through the construction of storage reservoirs for water, will make many millions of acres of fertile lands available for settlement. Over $20,000,- 000 from these sources has been already re- ceived to the credit of the reclamation fund. Over 33,000,000 acres of public lands in four- teen states and territories have been embraced in the sixty-seven projects which have been devised and are under examination, and on eight of these the work of actual construction has begun. The postal service has been extended and improved. Its revenues have increased from $76,000,000 in 1895 to $95,000,000 in 1899 and $144,000,000 in 1904. In dealing with these vast sums, a few cases of peculation, trifling in amount and by subordinate officers, have oc- curred there as they occur in every business. 56 ELIHU ROOT Neither fear nor favor, nor political or personal influence, has availed to protect the wrong- doers. Their acts have been detected, inves- tigated, laid bare; they have been dismissed from their places, prosecuted criminally, in- dicted, many of them tried, and many of them convicted. The abuses in the carriage of sec- ond-class mail matter have been remedied. The rural free delivery has been widely extended. It is wholly the creation of Republican admin- istration. The last Democratic Postmaster- General declared it impracticable. The first administration of McKinley proved the con- trary. At the beginning of the fiscal year 1899 there were about 200 routes in operation. There are now more than 25,000 routes, bring- ing a daily mail service to more than 12,000,000 of our people in rural communities, enlarging the circulation of the newspaper and the maga- zine, increasing communication, and relieving the isolation of life on the farm. The Department of Agriculture has been brought to a point of efficiency and practical benefit never before known. The Oleomargar- ine act of May 9, 1902, now sustained in the Supreme Court, and the act of July 1, 1902, to prevent the false branding of food and dairy products, protect farmers against fraudulent 57 ELIHU ROOT imitations. The act of February 2, 1903, en- ables the Secretary of Agriculture to prevent the spread of contagious and infectious dis- eases of live-stock. Rigid inspection has pro- tected our cattle against infection from abroad, and has established the highest credit for our meat products in the markets of the world. The earth has been searched for weapons with which to fight the enemies that destroy the growing crops. An insect brought from near the Great Wall of China has checked the San Jose scale, which was destroying our orchards ; a parasitic fly brought from South Africa is exterminating the black scale in the lemon and orange groves of California; and an ant from Guatemala is about offering battle to the boll weevil. Broad science has been brought to the aid of limited experience. Study of the rela- tions between plant life and climate and soil has been followed by the introduction of special crops suited to our varied conditions. The in- troduction of just the right kind of seed has enabled the Gulf States to increase our rice crop from 115,000,000 pounds in 1898 to 400,- 000,000 in 1903, and to supply the entire Amer- ican demand, with a surplus for export. The right kind of sugar beet has increased our an- nual production of beet sugar by over 200,000 58 ELIHU ROOT tons. Seed brought from countries of little rainfall is producing millions of bushels of grain on lands which a few years ago were deemed a hopeless part of the arid belt. The systematic collection and publication of information regarding the magnitude and con- ditions of our crops is mitigating the injury done by speculation to the farmer's market. To increase the profit of the farmer's toil, to protect the farmer's product and extend his market and to improve the conditions of the farmer's life ; to advance the time when Amer- ica shall raise within her own limits every prod- uct of the soil consumed by her people, as she makes within her own limits every necessary product of manufacture these have been car- dinal objects of Republican administration; and we show a record of practical things done toward the accomplishment of these objects never before approached. Four years ago we held the island of Cuba by military occupation. The opposition charged, and the people of Cuba believed, that we did not intend to keep the pledge of April 20, 1898, that when the pacification of Cuba was accom- plished we should leave the government and control of the island to its people. The new policy toward Cuba which should follow the 59 ELIHU ROOT fulfilment of that pledge was unformed. Dur- ing the four years it has been worked out in detail and has received effect. It was commu- nicated by executive order to the Military Gov- ernor. It was embodied in the act of Congress known as the Platt amendment. It was ac- cepted by the Cuban Constitutional Conven- tion on the 12th of October, 1901. It secured to Cuba her liberty and her independence, but it required her to maintain them. It forbade her ever to use the freedom we had earned for her by so great a sacrifice of blood and treasure to give the island to any other power; it re- quired her to maintain a government adequate for the protection of life and property and liberty, and, should she fail, it gave us the right to intervene for the maintenance of such a gov- ernment ; and it gave us the right to naval sta- tions on her coast, for the protection and de- fence alike of Cuba and the United States. On May 20, 1902, under a constitution which embodied these stipulations, the government and control of Cuba were surrendered to the President and Congress elected by her people, and the American army sailed away. The new republic began its existence with an ad- ministration of Cubans completely organized in all its branches and trained to effective ser- 60 ELJHU ROOT vice by American officers. The administration of President Palma has been wise and efficient. Peace and order have prevailed. The people of Cuba are prosperous and happy. Her finances have been honestly administered and her credit is high. The naval stations have been located and bounded at Guantanamo and Bahia Honda and are in the possession of our navy. The Platt amendment is the sheet-anchor of Cuban independence and of Cuban credit. No such revolutions as have afflicted Central and South America are possible there, because it is known to all men that an attempt to overturn the foun- dations of that government will be confronted by the overwhelming power of the United States. The treaty of reciprocity and the act of Congress of December 6, 1903, which con- firmed it, completed the expression of our pol- icy toward Cuba, which, with a far view to the future, aims to bind to us by ties of benefit and protection, of mutual interest and genuine friendship, that island which guards the Carib- bean and the highway to the isthmus, and must always be, if hostile, an outpost of attack, and, if friendly, an outpost of defence for the United States. Rich as we are, the American people have no more valuable possession than 61 ELIHU ROOT the sentiment expressed in the dispatch which I will now read : "HAVANA, May 20, 1902. "THEODORE ROOSEVELT, President, "Washington. "The government of the island having been just transferred, I, as Chief Magistrate of the Republic, faithfully interpreting the sentiment of the whole people of Cuba, have the honor to send you and the American people testimony of our profound gratitude and the assurance of an enduring friendship, with wishes and pray- ers to the Almighty for the welfare and pros- perity of the United States. "T. ESTRADA PALMA." When the last national convention met the Philippines also were under military rule. The insurrectos from the mountains spread terror among the peaceful people by midnight foray and secret assassination. Aguinaldo bided his time in a secret retreat. Over seventy thou- sand American soldiers from more than five hundred stations held a still vigorous enemy in check. The Philippine Commission had not yet begun its work. - The last vestige of insurrection has been swept away. With their work accomplished, 62 ELIHU ROOT over 55,000 American troops have been brought back across the Pacific. Civil government has been established throughout the archipelago. Peace and order and justice prevail. The Phil- lippine Commission, guided at first by execu- tive order and then by the wise legislation of Congress in the Philippine Government act of July 1, 1902, have established and conducted a government which has been a credit to their country and a blessing to the people of the islands. The body of laws which they have en- acted upon careful and intelligent study of the needs of the country challenges comparison with the statutes of any country. The personnel of civil government has been brought together under an advanced and comprehensive civil ser- vice law, which has been rigidly enforced. A complete census has been taken, designed to be there, as it was in Cuba, the basis for repre- sentative government; and the people of the islands will soon proceed, under provisions al- ready made by Congress, to the election of a representative assembly, in which for the first time in their history they may have a voice in the making of their own laws. In the mean- time, the local and provincial governments are in the hands of officers elected by the Filipinos ; and in the great central offices, in the commis- 63 ELIHU ROOT sion, on the bench, in the executive depart- ments, the most distinguished men of the Fili- pino race are taking their part in the govern- ment of their people. A free school system has been established, and hundreds of thou- sands of children are learning lessons which will help fit them for self-government. The seeds of religious strife existing in the bitter controversy between the people and the re- ligious orders have been deprived of potency for harm by the purchase of the friars' lands and their practical withdrawal. By the act of Congress of March 2, 1903, a gold standard has been established to take the place of the fluctuating silver currency. The unit of value is made exactly one-half the value of the Amer- ican gold dollar, so that American money is practically part of their currency system. To enable the Philippine government to issue this new currency, $6,000,000 was borrowed by it in 1903 in the city of New York, and it was borrowed at a net interest charge of If per cent, per annum. The trade of the islands has increased notwithstanding adverse conditions. During the last five years of peace under Span- ish rule, the average total trade of the islands was less than $36,000,000. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, the trade of the 64 ELIHU ROOT islands was over $66,000,000. There is but one point of disturbance, and that is in the country of the Mahometan Moros, where there is an occasional fitful savage outbreak against the enforcement of the law recently made to provide for adequate supervision and control to put an end to the practice of human slavery. When Governor Taft sailed from Manila in December last to fill the higher office where he will still guard the destinies of the people for whom he has done such great and noble service he was followed to the shore by a mighty throng, not of repressed and sullen subjects, but of free and peaceful people, whose tears and prayers of affectionate farewell showed that they had already begun to learn that "our flag has not lost its gift of benediction in its world -wide journey to their shores." None can foretell the future; but there seems no reasonable cause to doubt that, under the policy already effectively inaugurated, the institutions already implanted, and the pro- cesses already begun, in the Philippine Islands, if these be not repressed and interrupted, the Philippine people will follow in the footsteps of the people of Cuba; that more slowly, in- deed, because they are not as advanced, yet as surely, they will grow in capacity for self-gov- 65 ELIHTJ ROOT ernment, and receiving power as they grow in capacity, will come to bear substantially such relations to the people of the United States as do now the people of Cuba, differing in de- tails as conditions and needs differ, but the same in principle and the same in beneficent results. In 1900 the project of an isthmian canal stood where it was left by the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850. For half a century it had halted, with Great Britain resting upon a joint right of control, and the great undertaking of de Lesseps struggling against the doom of fail- ure imposed by extravagance and corruption. On the 18th of November, 1901, the Hay- Pauncef ote Treaty with Great Britain relieved the enterprise of the right of British control, and left that right exclusively in the United States. Then followed swiftly the negotia- tions and protocols with Nicaragua; the Isth- mian Canal act of June 28, 1902; the just agreement with the French Canal Company to pay them the value of the work they had done ; the negotiation and ratification of the treaty with Colombia; the rejection of that treaty by Colombia, in violation of our rights and the world's right to the .passage of the isthmus; the seizure by Panama of the opportunity to 66 ELIHU ROOT renew her oft-repeated effort to throw off the hateful and oppressive yoke of Colombia and resume the independence which once had been hers, and of which she had been deprived by fraud and force ; the success of the revolution ; our recognition of the new republic, followed by recognition from substantially all the civ- ilized powers of the world; the treaty with Panama recognizing and confirming our right to construct the canal; the ratification of the treaty by the Senate; confirmatory legislation by Congress; the payment of the $50,000,- 000 to the French company and to Panama; the appointment of the Canal Commission in accordance with law, and its organization to begin the work. The action of the United States at every step has been in accordance with the law of nations, consistent with the principles of justice and honor, in discharge of the trust to build the canal we long since assumed, by denying the right of every other power to build it, dictated by a high and unselfish purpose, for the com- mon benefit of all mankind. That action was wise, considerate, prompt, vigorous and effec- tive; and now the greatest of constructive na- tions stands ready and competent to begin and to accomplish the great enterprise which shall 67 ELIIIU ROOT realize the dreams of past ages, bind together our Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and open a new highway for that commerce of the Orient whose course has controlled the rise and fall of civ- ilizations. Success in that enterprise greatly concerns the credit and honor of the American people, and it is for them to say whether the building of the canal shall be in charge of the men who made its building possible, or of the weaklings whose incredulous objections would have postponed it for another generation. Throughout the world the diplomacy of the present administration has made for peace and justice among nations. Clear-sighted to per- ceive and prompt to maintain American inter- ests, it has been sagacious and simple and direct in its methods, and considerate of the rights and of the feelings of others. Within the month after the last national convention met Secretary Hay's circular note of July 3, 1900, to the great powers of Europe had declared the policy of the United States : "To seek a solution which may bring about permanent safety and peace to China, preserve China's territorial and administrative entity, protect all rights guaranteed to friendly pow- ers by treaty and international law, and safe- guard for the world the principle of equal and 68 ELIHU ROOT impartial trade with all parts of the Chinese Empire." The express adherence of the powers of Eu- rope to this declaration was secured. The open recognition of the rule of right conduct im- posed its limitations upon the conduct of the powers in the Orient. It was made the test of defensible action. Carefully guarded by the wise statesmen who had secured its accept- ance, it brought a moral force of recognized value to protect peaceful and helpless China from dismemberment and spoliation, and to preserve the open door in the Orient for the commerce of the world. Under the influence of this effective friendship, a new commercial treaty with China, proclaimed on the 8th of October last, has enlarged our opportunities for trade, opened new ports to our commerce, and abolished internal duties on goods in transit within the empire. There were indeed other nations which agreed with this policy of Amer- ican diplomacy, but no other nation was free from suspicion of selfish aims. None other had won confidence in the sincerity of its purpose, and none other but America could render the service which we have rendered to humanity in China during the past four years. High evi- dence of that enviable position of our country 69 ELIHU BOOT is furnished by the fact that when all Europe was in apprehension lest the field of war be- tween Russia and Japan should so spread as to involve China's ruin and a universal con- flict, it was to the American government that the able and far-sighted German Emperor ap- pealed, to take the lead again in bringing about an agreement for the limitation of the field of action, and the preservation of the adminis- trative entity of China outside of Manchuria; and that was accomplished. Upon our own continent a dispute with Can- ada over the boundary of Alaska had been growing more acute for thirty years. A multi- tude of miners swift to defend their own rights by force were locating mining claims under the laws of both countries in the disputed terri- tory. At any moment a fatal affray between Canadian and American miners was liable to begin a conflict in which all British Columbia would be arrayed on one side and all our Northwest upon the other. Agreement was impossible. But the Alaskan Boundary Treaty of January 24, 1903, provided a tribunal for the decision of the controversy ; and upon legal proofs and reasoned argument, an appeal has been had from prejudice and passion to judi- cial judgment; and under the lead of a great 70 ELIHU ROOT Chief Justice of England, who held the sacred obligations of his judicial office above all other considerations, the dispute has been settled for- ever and substantially in accordance with the American contention. In 1900 the first administration of McKinley had played a great part in establishing the Hague Tribunal for International Arbitration. The prevailing opinion of Europe was incredu- lous as to the practical utility of the provision, and anticipated a paper tribunal unsought by litigants. It was the example of the United States which set at naught this opinion. The first international case taken to the Hague Tribunal was under our protocol with Mexico of May 22, 1902, submitting our contention for the rights of the Roman Catholic Church in California to a share of the church moneys held by the Mexican government before the cession, and known as the Pious Fund; and the first decision of the Tribunal was an award in our favor upon that question. When in 1903 the failure of Venezuela to pay her just debts led England, Germany and Italy to warlike measures for the collection of their claims, an appeal by Venezuela to our government resulted in agreements upon arbi- tration in place of the war, and in a request 71 ELIHU ROOT that our president should act as arbitrator. Again he promoted the authority and prestige of the Hague Tribunal, and was able to lead all the powers to submit the crucial questions in controversy to the determination of that court. It is due greatly to support by the American government that this agency for peace has dis- appointed the expectations of its detractors, and by demonstrations of practical usefulness has begun a career fraught with possibilities of incalculable benefit to mankind. On April 11, 1903, was proclaimed another convention between all the great powers agree- ing upon more humane rules for the conduct of war, and these in substance incorporated and gave the sanction of the civilized world to the rules drafted by Francis Lieber and approved by Abraham Lincoln for the conduct of the armies of the United States in the field. All Americans who desire safe and conserva- tive administration which shall avoid cause of quarrel, all who abhor war, all who long for the perfect sway of the principles of that religion which we all profess, should rejoice that under this Republican administration their country has attained a potent leadership among the nations in the cause of peace and international justice. 72 ELIHU ROOT The respect and moral power thus gained have been exercised in the interests of human- ity, where the rules of diplomatic intercourse have made formal intervention impossible. When the Roumanian outrages and when the appalling massacre at KishineiF shocked civ- ilization and filled thousands of our own people with mourning, the protest of America was heard through the voice of its government, with full observance of diplomatic rules, but with moral power and effect. We have advanced the authority of the Mon- roe Doctrine. Our adherence to the convention which established the Hague Tribunal was ac- cepted by the other powers, with a formal dec- laration that nothing therein contained should be construed to imply the relinquishment by the United States of its traditional attitude to- ward purely American questions. The armed demonstration by the European powers against Venezuela was made the occasion for disclaim- ers to the United States of any intention to seize the territory of Venezuela, recognizing in the most unmistakable way the rights of the United States expressed in the declaration of that traditional policy. In the meantime, mindful that moral powers unsupported by physical strength do not al- 73 ELIHU ROOT ways avail against selfishness and aggression, we have been augmenting the forces which command respect. We have brought our navy to a high state of efficiency and have exercised both army and navy in the methods of seacoast defence. The joint army and navy board has been bringing the two services together in good understanding and the common study of the strategy, the preparation and the co-operation which will make them effective in time of need. Our ships have been exercised in fleet and squadron movements, have been improved in marksman- ship and mobility, and have been constantly tested by use. Since the last national conven- tion met we have completed and added to our navy five battleships, four cruisers, four mon- itors, thirty-four torpedo destroyers and tor- pedo boats, while we have put under construc- tion thirteen battleships and thirteen cruisers. Four years ago our army numbered over 100,000 men regulars and volunteers 75 per cent, of them in the Philippines and China. Under the operation of statutes limiting the period of service, it was about to lapse back into its old and insufficient number of 27,000, and its old and insufficient organization under the practical control of permanent staff depart- 74 ELIHU ROOT ments at Washington, with the same divisions of counsel and lack of co-ordinating and direct- ing power at the head that led to confusion and scandal in the war with Spain. During the past four years the lessons taught by that war have received practical effect. The teachings of Sherman and of Upton have been recalled and respected. Congress has fixed a maximum of the army at 100,000 and a minimum at 60,- 000, so that maintaining only the minimum in peace, as we now do, when war threatens the President may begin preparations by filling the ranks to the maximum, without waiting until after war has begun, as he had to wait in 1898. Permanent staff appointments have been changed to details from the line, with compul- sory returns at fixed intervals to service with troops, so that the requirements of the field and the camp rather than the requirements of the office desk shall control the departments of administration and supply. A corps organi- zation has been provided for our artillery, with a chief of artillery at the head, so that there may be intelligent use of our costly seacoast defences. Under the act of February 14, 1903, a General Staff has been established, organized to suit American conditions and requirements and adequate for the performance of the long 75 EL1HU ROOT neglected but all important duties of directing military education and training, and applying the most advanced principles of military science to that necessary preparation for war which is the surest safeguard of peace. The command of the army now rests where it is placed by the Constitution in the President. His power is exercised through a military chief of staff, pledged by the conditions and tenure of his office to confidence and loyalty to his com- mander. Thus civilian control of the military arm, upon which we must always insist, is rec- onciled with that military efficiency which can be obtained only under the direction of the trained military expert. Four years ago we were living under an obsolete militia law more than a century old, which Washington and Jefferson and Madison, and almost every President since their time, had declared to be worthless. We presented the curious spectacle of a people depending upon a citizen soldiery for protection against aggression, and making practically no provision whatever for training its citizens in the use of warlike weapons or in the elementary duties of the soldier. The mandate of the Constitution which required Congress to provide for orga- nizing, arming and disciplining the militia, had 76 ELIHU ROOT been left unexecuted. In default of national provisions, bodies of State troops, created for local purposes and supported at local expense, had grown up throughout the Union. Their feelings toward the regular army were rather of distrust and dislike than of comradeship. Their arms, equipment, discipline, organiza- tion and methods of obtaining and accounting for supplies were varied and inconsistent. They were unsuited to become a part of any homogeneous force, and their relations to the army of the United States were undefined and conjectural. By the Militia act of January 20, 1903, Congress performed its duty under the Constitution. Leaving these bodies still to perform their duties to the States, it made them the organized militia of the United States. It provided for their conformity in armament, organization and discipline to the army of the United States; it provided the ways in which, either strictly as militia or as volunteers, they should become an active part of the army when called upon; it provided for their training, in- struction and exercise conjointly with the reg- ular army; it imposed upon the regular army the duty of promoting their efficiency in many ways. In recognition of the service to the nation which these citizen soldiers would be ELIHU ROOT competent to render, the nation assumed its share of the burden of their armament, their supply and their training. The workings of this system have already demonstrated not only that we can have citizens outside of the regular army trained for duty in war, but that we can have a body of volunteer officers ready for serv- ice, between whom and the officers of the reg- ular army have been created by intimate asso- ciation and mutual helpfulness those relations of confidence and esteem without which no army can be effective. The first administration of McKinley fought and won the war with Spain, put down the in- surrection in the Philippines, annexed Hawaii, rescued the legations in Peking, brought Porto Rico into our commercial system, enacted a pro- tective tariff, and established our national cur- rency on the firm foundations of the gold stand- ard by the financial legislation of the LVIth Congress. The present administration has reduced tax- ation, reduced the public debt, reduced the an- nual interest charge, made effective progress in the regulation of trusts, fostered business, promoted agriculture, built up the navy, re- organized the army, resurrected the militia sys- tem, inaugurated a new policy for the preser- 78 ELIHU ROOT vation and reclamation of public lands, given civil government to the Philippines, established the republic of Cuba, bound it to us by ties of gratitude, of commercial interest and common defence, swung open the closed gateway of the isthmus, strengthened the Monroe Doctrine, ended the Alaskan boundary dispute, protected the integrity of China, opened wider its doors of trade, advanced the principle of arbitration, and promoted peace among the nations. We challenge judgment upon this record of effective performance in legislation, in execu- tion and in administration. The work is not fully done; policies are not completely wrought out; domestic questions still press continually for solution ; other trusts must be regulated; the tariff may presently receive revision, and, if so, should receive it at the hands of the friends and not the enemies of the protective system; the new Philippine government has only begun to develop its plans for the benefit of that long neglected country ; our flag floats on the isthmus, but the canal is yet to be built; peace does not yet reign on earth, and considerate firmness backed by strength is still needful in diplomacy. The American people have now to say whether policies shall be reversed, or committed 79 ELIHU ROOT to unfriendly guardians ; whether performance, which now proves itself for the benefit and honor of our country, shall be transferred to unknown and perchance to feeble hands. No dividing line can be drawn athwart the course of this successful administration. The fatal 14th of September, 1901, marked no change of policy, no lower level of achieve- ment. The bullet of the assassin robbed us of the friend we loved ; it took away from the peo- ple the President of their choice; it deprived civilization of a potent force making always for righteousness and for humanity. But the fabric of free institutions remained unshaken. The government of the people went on. The great party that William McKinley led wrought still in the spirit of his example. His true and loyal successor has been equal to the burden cast upon him. Widely different in temperament and methods, he has approved himself of the same elemental virtues the same fundamental beliefs. With faithful and revering memory he has executed the purposes and continued unbroken the policy of President McKinley for the peace, prosperity and honor of our beloved country. And he has met all new occasions with strength and resolution and far-sighted wisdom. 80 ELIHTJ ROOT As we gather in this convention our hearts go back to the friend, the never to be forgotten friend whom, when last we met, we acclaimed with one accord as our universal choice to bear a second time the highest honor in the nation's gift ; and back still memory goes through many a year of leadership and loyalty. How wise and how skilful he was! How modest and self-effacing! How deep his in- sight into the human heart! How swift the intuitions of his sympathy! How compelling the charm of his gracious presence! He was so unselfish, so thoughtful of the happiness of others, so genuine a lover of his country and his kind. And he was the kindest and tender- est friend who ever grasped another's hand. Alas ! that his virtues did plead in vain against cruel fate! Yet we may rejoice that while he lived he was crowned with honor; that the rancor of party strife had ceased ; that success in his great tasks, the restoration of peace, the approval of his countrymen, the affection of his friends, gave the last quiet months in his home at Can- ton repose and contentment. And with McKinley we remember Hanna with affection and sorrow his great lieuten- ant. They are together again. 81 ELIHU ROOT But we turn, as they would have us turn, to the duties of the hour, the hopes of the future ; we turn, as they would have us turn, to prepare ourselves for struggle under the same standard borne in other hands by right of true inherit- ance. Honor, truth, courage, purity of life, domestic virtue, love of country, loyalty to high ideals all these, combined with active intelli- gence, with learning, with experience in affairs, with the conclusive proof of competency af- forded by wise and conservative administra- tion, by great things already done and great results already achieved aD these we bring to the people with another candidate. Shall not these have honor in our land? Truth, sincerity, courage ! These underlie the fabric of our in- stitutions. Upon hypocrisy and sham, upon cunning and false pretence, upon weakness and cowardice, upon the arts of the demagogue and the devices of the mere politician, no govern- ment can stand. No system of popular gov- ernment can endure in which the people do not believe and trust. Our President has taken the whole people into his confidence. Incapable of deception, he has put aside concealment. Frankly and without reserve, he has told them what their government was doing, and the rea- sons. It is no campaign of appearances upon 82 ELIHU ROOT which we enter, for the people know the good and the bad, the success and failure, to be cred- ited and charged to our account. It is no cam- paign of sounding words and specious pre- tences, for our President has told the people with frankness what he believed and what he intended. He has meant every word he said, and the people have believed every word he said, and with him this convention agrees, be- cause every word has been sound Republican doctrine. No people can maintain free gov- ernment who do not in their hearts value the qualities which have made the present President of the United States conspicuous among the men of his time as a type of noble manhood. Come what may here, come what may in No- vember, God grant that those qualities of brave, true manhood shall have honor throughout America, shall be held for an example in every home, and that the youth of generations to come may grow up to feel that it is better than wealth, or office, or power to have the honesty, the purity and the courage of Theodore Roosevelt. 83 Address by Joseph G. Cannon, of Illinois, Chairman of the Convention. Gentlemen of the Convention : For the first time in my life I have in black and white enough sentences to contain twenty-five hun- dred words to say to you. I have tried to mem- orize it (laughter) , but I cannot. I have given it out through the usual channels to the great audience, and now I must either beg to be ex- cused entirely or I must do like we do in the House of Representatives under the five-min- ute rule, and make a few feeble remarks. But that no man shall say I have not made a great speech, I will set that matter at rest by saying that from beginning to end I heartily endorse every statement of fact and every sentiment that was given you yesterday from the tem- porary presiding officer in the greatest speech ever delivered at a convention. (Applause.) Now let me go on and ramble. ( Laughter. ) And, first, they say that there is no enthusiasm in this convention. Gentlemen, the great river that has its thirty feet of water, rising in the mountains and growing in depth and breadth down to the ocean, bears upon its bosom the 85 JOSEPH G. CANNON commerce of that section of land that it drains, and bears it out to the world. It is a silent river, and yet the brawling river that is like to the River Platte out in Nebraska. (That is fourteen miles wide and four inches deep, makes more noise than the bigger rivers.) (Applause.) When we were young folks, twenty years ago (laughter), we went to see our best girls. We were awfully enthusiastic if she would give us a nod of the head or the trip away, catch-me-if-you-can (laughter), to enter upon the chase ; that was awfully strenu- ous and awfully enthusiastic. (Laughter.) But, when she said "Yes," the good relations were established, and we went on evenly throughout the balance of our lives. (Laugh- ter and applause. ) It is a contest that makes enthusiasm. In 1904, as in 1900, everybody has known for twelve months past who is to be our standard- bearer in this campaign. (Loud applause and cheering.) We are here for business. (Laugh- ter.) I wonder if our friends the enemy would not be glad of a little of our kind of enthusiasm. (Prolonged laughter and applause.) I might illustrate further ; I don't know that it is necessary. I see some of my former 86 JOSEPH G. CANNON friends before me my friend, Colonel Low- den, and various others. (Applause.) Now, there is not one of you that raises chickens, as I do, but understands that when the hen comes off the nest with one chicken she does more scratching and makes more noise than the motherly hen that is for- tunate with twenty-three. (Laughter.) Our friends, the enemy, will have the enthusiasm; we will take the votes in November. (Ap- plause. ) To be serious for a moment. The Republi- can party is a government through party and through organization oh, you find people once in a while who do not want any parties. As long as you have eighty millions of people competent for self-government they will orga- nize and will call the organization a party. The Republican party, born of the declaration that slavery is sectional and freedom national (ap- plause), achieved its first success in 1860, with Abraham Lincoln. (Applause.) Secession, the war for the Union you older men recollect it well. We have one of the sur- vivors here. I was glad to see the convention give him the courtesies of the convention. He helped to make it possible that we could hold this convention. (Applause.) Forty-four years 87 JOSEPH G. CANNON ago just about now 1904, what a contrast! A divided country, a bankrupt Treasury, no credit. The Republican party got power, and under its great leadership wrote revenue legis- lation upon the statute books and went back to the principles of Washington and Hamilton, and legislation that would produce revenue, while duties upon imports were so adjusted as to encourage every American citizen to take part in diversifying the industries and develop- ing the resources of the country. Will you bear with me for five minutes while I make the comparison of then, upon the one hand, with the conditions to-day ? In 1860 we had been substantially dom- inated for many years by the free trade party, insignificant in manufactures, great in agricul- ture. Under our policy, which has been fol- lowed, with the exception of four years, from that time to this, the United States remains first in agriculture, but, by leaps and bounds, has diversified her industries, until to-day we are the greatest manufacturing country on God's footstool. One-third of all the world's products that come from the factory are made in the United States, 'by the operation and co- operation of American capital and American labor and skill. 88 JOSEPH G. CANNON Let me make one other statement. Our product every year is greater than the entire combined manufactured product of Great Britain, of Germany and of France. Where do we get the market for it? Ninety- seven per cent, of this great product one-third of the world's product finds a market among ourselves in the United States. And yet, of this product, last year we sold to foreign coun- tries I am speaking now of the manufactured product over $400,000,00029 per cent, of our total exports, and our total exports made and make us the greatest exporting nation on earth. (Applause:) Made ? Made by labor ? Yes, made by labor that works less hours than any labor on earth. Made by labor that, conservatively stated, re- ceives $1.75 as against the average of the com- petitive labor in the world of $1. (Applause.) Oh, gentlemen, it is not a few rich men that make markets; nay, nay. It is the multiplied millions on the farm, in the mine, and in fac- tory, that work to-day and consume to-morrow, and, with steady employment and good wages, give us, with eighty millions of people, a mar- ket equal to the two hundred millions of con- suming people anywhere else on earth. The farmer buys the artisan's product. The artisan, 89 JOSEPH G. CANNON being employed, buys the farmer's product. The wheels go round. You cannot strike one great branch of labor in the Republic without the blow reacting on all producers. Well, are you satisfied with the comparison from the manufacturing standpoint? If not, let me give you another illustration that will perhaps go home to the minds of men more quickly than the illustration I have given. Take the Post-office Department, that reaches all of the people, and no man is com- pelled to pay one penny. It is voluntary tax- ation. For the fiscal year 1860-61, twelve months, the total revenue of the Post-office Department in all the United States was eight and a half million dollars. Keep that in your minds eight and a half million dollars. How much do you suppose it cost to run the department? Nineteen millions. It took all the revenue and as much more and one-quarter as much more from the Treasury to pay for that postal service. Why, gentlemen, the city post-office of Chicago last year collected more revenues by almost one million of dollars than was collected by the whole department in the United States in I860. (Applause.) How is it now? We have reduced postage over one-half since 1860, on the average. Last 90 JOSEPH G. CANNON year the postal revenues were $134,000,000, as against $8,500,000 in 1860. Keep that in your mind $134,000,000. And the whole service cost only $138,000,000. We had a deficit of $4,000,0003 per cent. and we would not have had that deficit had it not been that, under the lead of the Republican party, looking out for the welfare of all the people and conduct- ing the government from a business stand- point, under the lead of McKinley, followed by Roosevelt, there was established rural free de- livery that cost $10,000,000. (Applause. ) Great heavens ! The Republican party from 1860 until this moment moves on does what good common sense dictates, and the country grows to it. Well, now I will drop that de- partment. The Republican party is a national party, and believes in diversification of our industries and the protection of American capital and American labor as against the cheaper labor elsewhere on earth. ( Applause. ) What do the other people believe in? For sixty years from our antagonists went out the cry of free trade throughout the world, free ships upon the seas. On other questions a tariff for revenue only. The free trade party has always denounced the Republican policy of 91 JOSEPH G. CANNON protection as robbery, and, whenever clothed with power, whatever its pretences, it has thrust a dagger into the very heart of protection. Oh, well, aren't they going to change? Let us see. Just before the close of the last Con- gress, New York's eloquent son, Bourke Cock- ran, a member of the House of Representa- tives, got the floor, and he preached an old- fashioned Democratic sermon, free trade and all that kind of thing, and he did it well, and there came from the minority side of that House, without exception, such cheering and crying and hurrahing and applauding as I never witnessed before in that House of Repre- sentatives, because at last they had the pure Democratic faith delivered to them. They are trying to do what? Trying to convince the people that they ought to come into power under the lead of Gorman, of the Senate, and Williams, of the House. They have been trying to give the country Dovers powders . ( Laughter. ) "Oh," said the distinguished leader of the minority in the House, Mr. Williams, follow- ing the astute Senator Gorman, "if we come into power, while protection is robbery, we will say to you that we will journey in the direction of free trade, but we will not destroy your in- 92 JOSEPH G. CANNON dustries overnight." Great God! Think of it! They won't kill you outright, but they will starve you to death day by day. (Laughter and applause. ) They want to be put on guard to protect the people who are dwelling in peace and prosperity under a Republican policy. It reminds me of the fable of ^iEsop. You know he records in one of his fables that the wolves said to the sheep, "Discharge the dogs" who were their natural protectors "and em- ploy us, and we will take care of you." (Laugh- ter and applause.) Does the capital of this country and the labor of this country want to go under the care of wolf Gorman and wolf Williams and their fellows? I think not. What a country this is ! And, Republicans, we have got to outline the policy and lead the people in caring for it. Why, we are like the women we not only have to take care of our- selves, but, more, as one of our women said, we have to take care of the men. (Laughter and applause.) The Republican party not only has to care for itself, but has to care for the minority by a wise policy. How it has been doing it! We preserved the Union under the policy and leadership of this party. Do you recollect that the opposition party, on a demand for an armistice and negotiation and compro- 93 JOSEPH G. CANNON mise, nominated McClellan in 1864 and moved heaven and earth to defeat Lincoln? Do you recollect when the constitutional amendments were submitted they said nay, nay, and when, after they were adopted, the Democrats came into power temporarily in Indiana and Ohio, they passed acts taking hack the assent of the States. When the first battle was fought against greenback or fiat money, back in the 70's, out in the Middle West, whatever they were on the Atlantic Coast, they were fiatists in the West. From step to step through all these forty-four years, where, if you measure time by advance, we have lived two centuries as compared with any other period of the world's history, they have pulled back, pulled back, and when we accomplish and it is neces- sary to march forward and try to accomplish again they move into our old quarters and squat down there and make faces and say, "You are going to send the country to hell." (Loud cheering and applause.) But we do not mind it. We move on. (Ap- plause. ) Why, gentlemen, why multiply words about ancient or recent conditions? Take the country under the administration of Grover Cleveland, and compare it with the country under the administration of William McKinley JOSEPH G. CANNON and under Theodore Roosevelt. (Applause.) If a man will dwell on comparison for a moment, and make a fair comparison, if he would not in- dorse the policies of the Republican party he would not believe one though he were raised from the dead. (Laughter.) McKinley! Roosevelt ! The Dingley act, that restored us economic prosperity! The gold standard act, that settled for all time the matter of sound currency! The short, triumphant war with Spain ! The Philippines and Porto Rico com- ing under our flag, and freedom to Cuba, is a record that will stand in the future second only to the record made by George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. (Applause.) Imported anarchy struck down our great President when partisan strife had almost ceased. The world paused in wonder and in indignation, not in fear, because, as life went from our great leader and our great President, there was a young, active, honest, courageous man standing by the bedside, who, under the Constitution, was his successor, and he there said: "I am to be President, to carry out the policies of the Republican party, and I will journey in the footsteps of William McKinley and of Abraham Lincoln." (Applause.) To your coming President great things have 95 JOSEPH G. CANNON happened in the last three years. In the Old World a single great policy in a generation is the exception. We have more than that in our progressive country. I have given you the great achievements under McKinley. Under his worthy great successor we have had the con- summation of freedom to Cuba wrought out by superior statesmanship. Imperialism, talked about under McKinley, has disappeared with growing civil government and peace in the Philippines. Aye, it has disappeared from the face of the earth. Did I say from the face of the earth? I will stick to it, because the doc- trinaire here and the doctrinaire there, whether in New York or in Boston, draws his toga about him, saying: "I anl wiser than thou," and still, after this great question is settled by the conscience and the intelligence of all the people, cries "Wolf! wolf!" Well, under the Constitution of the United States he has a right to. ( Laughter. ) Let them ask what is going to become of the Philippines ! At last we have peace, at last we have growing civil government there, and, as our eighty millions in this twentieth century shall increase to two hundred and fifty millions, as we shall go on with production and com- merce, in the fulness of time, that territory will 96 JOSEPH G. CANNON be useful to the United States, whereas, in the meantime, we will be like a benediction to them. (Applause.) The United States is great in production and wealth. How great in wealth? In 1850 $300 in round numbers was the per capita wealth. In 1900, $1,235 was the per capita wealth. In 1860 the wealth was measured by $16,000,000,- 000; in 1900, $94,000,000,000; now $100,000,- 000,000. Great Britain has an aggregate wealth of only $60,000,000,000, and she has been living and gathering it for the last five hundred years; yet in a generation we sprang from $16,000,000,000 to $100,000,000,000. The world's wealth is $400,000,000,000. The United States has one-fourth of it. But our friends the enemy, some of them little politicians, vex the air, crying, "Trusts, trusts, trusts!" Oh, they come out strong with good lungs as trust busters. Since 1890 have they ever done any busting ? ( Laughter. ) Oh, no. There is no Jericho now, and, if there was, it would never happen again that people would march about the walls blowing rams' horns seven times until the walls fell down. That is what the Democrats are trying to do. "Trusts?" Yes. Great combinations of capital against public policy? Yes. But the 97 JOSEPH G. CANNON Republican party, always true to the people and its traditions, made haste to provide under the Constitution legislation that would prohibit these combinations. The "do something" party. It slept under Cleveland. McKinley had the war with Spain and the restoration of prosperity, but that young, enthusiastic, true man took an oath to see to it that the laws were executed, and has executed them, and in his opinion trusts are un- lawful and should be dissolved. That is the difference between the Democrats and Roose- velt. One bursts by wind, the other bursts by law. (Laughter and applause.) There is no country on earth that has so much wealth as ours. Why, interest rates are cheapening and cheapening until to-day the credit of the United States commands money at a premium at 2 per cent., which is 1 per cent, lower than any nation on earth can command it. Combinations? Yes. But all the while our own people desiring favorable investments month by month and year by year found additional industries. Take the census of 1900. The figures are correctly tabulated and made according to the facts, and the census of 1900 shows that from the establish- ments of the so-called trusts in the United States 98 JOSEPH G. CANNON only 14 per cent, of the factory product came, whereas 86 per cent, of the factory product came from their competitors, individuals and small ownerships. And it is bound to be that way, if you will stop and think. There are eighty millions of our people. If some man conceives the idea that when he dies wisdom will have departed, and that he can corner the air and the water and the sunlight, he will find eighty millions of peo- ple who make our civilization that will not only make a law and put it into force, but, by com- petition and enterprise, will swear that the ad- mitted declaration of the enemy is a false- hood. Can you prove it? Yes. Just a min- ute. In the last two years the wind and the water that came from overcapitalization in forming the so-called trusts have been squeezed out, and there are people who make "mouth bets" about the price of watered companies and companies that have gas on top of the water, made by the printing press certificates. Oh, they stand around and say : "Why, there is the most extraordinary shrinkage in values that was ever known." "How much?" "Oh, a good many hundreds of millions. 'The Wall Street Journal' says over a billion 99 JOSEPH G. CANNON six hundred million." (Laughter and ap- plause. ) And yet every dollar of property, every par- ticle of property that was represented by this overcapitalization two years ago is yet with us. (Laughter and applause.) Now, all the fools that bet it to go down and the fools that bet it to go up can fight it out. It don't make one particle of difference to the eighty millions of people who live in the sweat of their faces and do a legitimate business. (Applause.) Oh, gentlemen, the law, public opinion, pub- lic sentiment, the desire for good investments, dollar for dollar in the factory, where a dollar costs one hundred cents, goes into competition against the factory that cost one hundred cents and is burdened with another hundred cents water and another hundred cents gas and an- other hundred cents moonshine. Work it out. It is all right. ( Laughter and applause. ) Oh, but, says our enemy, "My goodness, look at the strikes you are having in this country." That is their strong suit, strikes, strikes. ( Laughter and applause. ) Now, what is a strike? The strike is an effort by the employer and the employee to agree how the profit should be divided. If the employee doesn't get as much as he thinks he ought to 100 JOSEPH G. CAXNOX get, after arbitration has been tried, he strikes. A quarrel about something the division of something. Well, then, it is absolutely neces- sary to have a strike that there should be a profit. Great God! How many strikes were there under Cleveland and when the Democrats had the running of things? (Laughter and applause.) When money became scarce the profits were scarce. There is the whole story. Oh, but outrageous things are done by the employer when he oppresses the laborer, and outrageous things are done by some laborers when they go on a strike. Yes, outrageous things are done in some of our best governed churches and among those who do not belong to any church. Once in a while a citizen com- mits larceny. Once in a while a man commits arson. Once in a while a man is guilty of homi- cide. Why, the law is made to protect society against the man who will not obey the law and who makes war on his neighbors. Yes, there is lawbreaking and disorder. Lawbreaking in the formation of trusts; lawbreaking at times in the organization of labor when it goes on strike. But the great body of the American people that own the wealth are not the trusts, and the great body of labor, honest men who live by the sweat of their faces, are not for 101 JOSEPH G. CANNON lawbreaking in the strikes. (Applause.) The law, the sheet-anchor of civilization, is strong enough to pull down the strongest, strong enough to curb the wicked and the vicious; strong enough, like the grace of God, to throw its arms about the weak and the poorest and bring him under its protection. (Applause. ) All must obey under Theodore Roosevelt as the national representative of the law. (Ap- plause. ) He is and will continue to be without favor or affection the representative of law, supreme and universal in our borders. A few words more and I will conclude. Our government is of the people. It is divided into co-ordinate branches the judges of the United States courts, who hold office for life or during good behavior; the Executive; the Congress, which consists of two co-ordinate branches, the House and the Senate great legislative bodies --they could not be otherwise, born as they are of 80,000,000 of people who are competent for self-government. (Applause.) In the Senate the tenure is for six years. The great popular body, near to the people, that reflects the senti- ment of the people, is chosen every two years. Now, then, you know under our form of gov- ernment the party in power is held responsible. The function of the minority is to put it on 102 JOSEPH G. CANNON good behavior by being ever ready to appeal to the people. Let me tell you something. If our government has a fault, it is when, after an election, one party is placed in power on only one leg. It may have the Senate. It may have the Presidency. It may have the House. It goes along on crutches. Yet you want to hold it responsible. If I had the power I would so change our Constitution that at every quadriennial election the party that received the popular approval should go fully into power, and let the public have a government ac- cording to the sentiment expressed at the ballot box. (Applause.) But we have not got it ar- ranged quite that way. What is the next best thing ? You like Theo- dore Roosevelt? Yes. Stronger than his party, he will be triumphantly elected. Do you like the Senate of the United States? Yes. Its condition cannot be changed in No- vember. It could be changed at the end of four years, electing a third every two years. You like the House of Representatives, 386 strong, coming with warrants of attorney from the people to cast their votes for them in legis- lation. You are shortsighted if you refuse a working majority in the House of Represen- 103 JOSEPH G. CANNON tatives, in harmony with the policy of the Re- publican party. I am done; I have already detained you longer than I expected. In conclusion, let me again say that we are proud of the present, we are courageous and hopeful of the future. The twentieth century is to bring more of good or evil to the human race than the nineteenth cen- tury brought. Under what party banner will you enlist? Under that of the reactionist? Under that of the people who sit still or tear down? Or will you take service with the party of Lincoln and Grant and Garfield and Harri- son and McKinley and Roosevelt (cheers and applause) and help us march on to victory? Speaking to the living in the presence of the dead, we have tears for them and admiration for the great things that they accomplished, but the glory of our race, of our civilization, is that each generation works out its own salva- tion and marches forward to success and the betterment of the condition of mankind, and, as they drop into the grave, their successors move on to the stage of action, holding fast all that the past has given and going in turn a generation's march further on for the benefit of the race and of civilization. (Prolonged applause.) 104 Address by Ex-Governor Frank S. Black, of New York,, placing Theodore Roosevelt in nomination. Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Con- vention : We are here to inaugurate a campaign which seems already to be nearly closed. So wisly have the people sowed and watched and tended, there seems little now to do but to mea- sure up the grain. They are ranging them- selves not for battle, but for harvest. In one column reaching from the Maine woods to the Puget Sound are those people and those States which have stood so long together that when great emergencies arise the nation turns in- stinctively to them. In this column, vast and solid, is a majority so overwhelming that the scattered squads in opposition can hardly raise another army. The enemy has neither guns nor ammunition, and if they had they would use them on each other. Destitute of the weapons of effective warfare, the only evidence of ap- proaching battle is in the tone and number of their bulletins. There is discord among the generals; discord among the soldiers. Each would fight in his own way, but before assault- 105 FRANK S. BLACK ing his Republican adversaries he would first destroy his own comrades in the adjoining tents. Each believes the weapons chosen by the other are not only wicked, but dangerous to the holder. That is true. This is the only war of modern times where the boomerang has been substituted for the gun. Whatever fatalities may occur, however, among the discordant hosts now moving on St. Louis, no harm will come this fall to the American people. There will be no opposition sufficient to raise a conflict. There will be hardly enough for practice. There are no Democratic plans for the conduct of the fall campaign. Their zeal is chiefly cen- tered in discussion as to what Thomas Jeffer- son would do if he were living. He is not liv- ing, and but few of his descendants are among the Democratic remnants of to-day. What- ever of patriotism or wisdom emanated from that distinguished man is now represented in this convention. It is a sad day for any party when its only means of solving living issues is by guessing at the possible attitude of a statesman who is dead. This condition leaves that party always a be- ginner and makes every question new. The Democratic party has seldom tried a problem on its own account, and when it has its blunders 106 FRANK S. BLACK have been its only monuments; its courage is remembered in regret. As long as these things are recalled that party may serve as bal- last, but it will never steer the ship. When all the people have forgotten will dawn a golden era for this new Democracy. But the country is not ready yet to place a party in the lead whose most expressive motto is the cheerless word "forget." That motto may express contrition, but it does not inspire hope. Neither confidence nor enthusiasm will ever be aroused by any party which enters each cam- paign uttering the language of the mourner. There is one fundamental plank, however, on which the two great parties are in full agree- ment. Both believe in the equality of men. The difference is that the Democratic party would make every man as low as the poorest, while the Republican party would make every man as high as the best. But the Democratic course will provoke no outside interference now, for the Republican motto is that of the great com- mander, "never interrupt the enemy while he is making a mistake." In politics as in other fields, the most im- pressive arguments spring from contrast. Never has there been a more striking example of unity than is now afforded by this assem- 107 FRANK S. BLACK blage. You are gathered here not as factions torn by discordant views, but moved by one de- sire and intent; you have come as the chosen representatives of the most enlightened party in the world. You meet not as strangers, for no men are strangers who hold the same beliefs and espouse the same cause. You may separ- ate two bodies of water for a thousand years, but when once the barrier is removed they mingle instantly and are one. The same tra- ditions inspire and the same purposes actuate us all. Never in our lives did these purposes stand with deeper root than now. At least two generations have passed away since the origin of that great movement from which sprang the spirit which has been the leading impulse in American politics for half a century. In that movement, which was both a creation and an example, were those great characters which en- dowed the Republican party at its birth with the attributes of justice, equality and progress, which have held it to this hour in line with the highest sentiments of mankind. From these men we have inherited the desire, and to their memory we owe the resolution, that those great schemes of government and humanity, inspired by their patriotism, and established by their blood, shall remain as the fixed and permanent 108 FRANK S. BLACK emblem of their labors, and the abiding signal of the liberty and progress of the race. There are many new names in these days, but the Republican party needs no new title. It stands now where it stood at the beginning. Memory alone is needed to tell the source from which the inspirations of the country flow. A drowsy memory would be as guilty now as a sleeping watchman when the enemy is astir. The name of the Republican party stands over every door where a righteous cause was born. Its members have gathered around every move- ment, no matter how weak, if inspired by high resolve. Its flag for more than fifty years has been the sign of hope on every spot where lib- erty was the word. That party needs no new name or platform to designate its purposes. It is now as it has been, equipped, militant and in motion. The problems of every age that age must solve. Great causes impose great de- mands, but never in any enterprise have the American people failed, and never in any crisis has the Republican party failed to express the conscience and intelligence of that people. The public mind is awake both to its oppor- tunities and its dangers. Nowhere in the world, in any era, did citizenship mean more than it means to-day in America. Men f courage and 109 FRANK S. BLACK sturdy character are ranging themselves to- gether with a unanimity seldom seen. There is no excuse for groping in the dark, for the light is plain to him who will but raise his eyes. The American people believe in a man or a party that has convictions and knows why. They be- lieve that what experience has proved it is idle to resist. A wise man is any fool about to die. But there is a wisdom which, with good fortune, may guide the living and the strong. That wis- dom springs from reason, observation and ex- perience. Guided by these this thing is plain, and young men may rely upon it, that the his- tory and purposes I have described, rising even to the essence and aspirations of patriotism, find their best concrete example in the career and doctrines of the Republican party. But not alone upon the principles of that party are its members in accord. With the same devotion which has marked their adherence to those principles, magnificent and enduring as they are, they have already singled out the man to bear their standard and to lead the way. No higher badge was ever yet conferred. But, great as the honor is, the circumstances which surround it make that honor even more pro- found. You have come from every State and Territory in this vast domain. The country 110 FRANK S. BLACK and the town have vied with each other in send- ing here their contributions to this splendid throng. Every highway in the land is leading here and crowded with the members of that great party which sees in this splendid city the symbol of its rise and power. Within this un- exampled multitude is every rank and condition of free men, every creed and occupation. But to-day a common purpose and desire have en- gaged us all, and from every nook and corner of the country rises but a single choice to fill the most exalted office in the world. He is no stranger waiting in the shade, to be called suddenly into public light. The Ameri- can people have seen him for many years, and always where the fight was thickest and the greatest need was felt. He has been alike con- spicuous in the pursuits of peace and in the arduous stress of war. No man now living will forget the spring of '98, when the American mind was so inflamed and American patriotism so aroused; when among all the eager citizens surging to the front as soldiers, the man whom this convention has already in its heart was among the first to hear the call and answer to his name. Preferring peace, but not afraid of war; faithful to every private obligation, yet first to volunteer at the sign of national peril ; a in FRANK S. BLACK leader in civil life, and yet so quick to compre- hend the arts of war that he grew almost in a day to meet the high exactions of command. There is nothing which so tests a man as great and unexpected danger. He may pass his life amid ordinary scenes, and what he is or does but few will ever know. But when the crash comes or the flames break out, a moment's time will single out the hero in the crowd. A flash of lightning in the night will reveal what years of daylight have not discovered to the eye. And so the flash of the Spanish War revealed that lofty courage and devotion which the American heart so loves, and which you have met again to decorate and recognize. His qualities do not need to be retold, for no man in that exalted place since Lincoln has been better known in every household in the land. He is not conservative, if conservatism means waiting till it is too late. He is not wise, if wisdom is to count a thing a hundred times when once will do. There is no regret so keen in man or country as that which follows an opportunity unembraced. Fortune soars with high and rapid wing, and whoever brings it down must shoot with accuracy and speed. Only the man with steady eye and nerve, and the courage to pull the trigger, brings the larg- 112 FRANK S. BLACK est opportunities to the ground. He does not always listen while all the sages speak, but every day at nightfall beholds some record which, if not complete, has been at least pur- sued with conscience and intrepid resolution. He is no slender flower swaying in the wind, but that heroic fibre which is best nurtured by the mountains and the snow. He spends little time in review, for that, he knows, can be done by the schools. A statesman grappling with the living problems of the hour, he gropes but little in the past. He believes in going ahead. He believes that in shaping the destinies of this great Republic hope is a higher impulse than regret. He believes that preparation for future triumphs is a more important duty than an inventory of past mistakes. A profound student of history, he is to-day the greatest his- tory-maker in the world. With the instincts of the scholar, he is yet forced from the scholar's pursuits by those superb qualities which fit him to the last degree for those great world cur- rents now rushing past with larger volume and more portentous aspect than for many years before. The fate of nations is still de- cided by their wars. You may talk of orderly tribunals and learned referees ; you may sing in your schools the gentle praises of the quiet life ; 113 FRANK S. BLACK you may strike from your books the last note of every martial anthem, and yet out in the smoke and thunder will always be the tramp of horses and the silent, rigid, upturned face. Men may prophesy and women pray, but peace will come here to abide forever on this earth only when the dreams of childhood are the accepted charts to guide the destinies of men. Events are numberless and mighty, and no man can tell which wire runs around the world. The nation basking to-day in the quiet of content- ment and repose may still be on the deadly cir- cuit and to-morrow writhing in the toils of war. This is the time when great figures must be kept in front. If the pressure is great, the material to resist it must be granite and iron. Whether we wish it or not, America is abroad in this world. Her interests are in every street, her name is on every tongue. Those interests, so sacred and stupendous, should be trusted only to the care of those whose power, skill and courage have been tested and approved. And in the man whom you will choose the highest sense of every nation in the world beholds a man who typifies as no other living American does, the spirit and the purposes of the twen- tieth century. He does not claim to be the Solomon of his time. There are many things 114 FRANK S. BLACK he may not know, but this is sure, that above all things else he stands for progress, courage and fair play, which are the synonyms of the American name. There are times when great fitness is hardly less than destiny, when the elements so come together that they select the agent they will use. Events sometimes select the strongest man, as lightning goes down the highest rod. And so it is with those events which for many months with unerring sight have led you to a single name which I am chosen only to pro- nounce: Gentlemen, I nominate for President of the United States the highest living type of the youth, the vigor and the promise of a great country and a great age, Theodore Roosevelt, of New York. 115 Address by Senator Albert J. Beveridge, of Indiana, seconding the nomination of Presi- dent Roosevelt. Gentlemen of the Convention: One differ- ence between the opposition and ourselves is this: They select their candidate for the peo- ple, and the people select our candidate for us. (Applause.) This was true four years ago, when we accepted the people's judgment and named William McKinley (cheers), whose perfect mingling of mind and heart, of wis- dom and of tenderness, won the trust and love of the nation then and makes almost holy his memory now. (Applause.) His power was in the people's favor, his shrine is in the people's hearts. It is true to-day when we again accept the people's judgment and name Theodore Roosevelt (great cheering), whose sympathies are as wide as the Republic, whose courage, honesty and vision meet all emergen- cies, and the sum of whose qualities make him the type of twentieth century Americanism. (Cheers.) And the twentieth century Ameri- can is nothing more than the man of '76 facing a new day with the old faith. (Great applause.) 117 ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE Theodore Roosevelt, like William McKin- ley, is the nominee of the American fireside. (Applause.) So were Washington and Jef- ferson in the early time ; so was Andrew Jack- son when he said, "The Union: It must be preserved"; so was Abraham Lincoln (cheers) when, the Republic saved, he bade us "bind up the nation's wounds"; and Grant when, from victory's very summit, his lofty words, "Let us have peace," voiced the spirit of the hour and the people's prayer. (Applause.) When nominated by parties, each of these great Presidents was, at the periods named, al- ready chosen by the public judgment. And so to-day, the Republican party, whose strength is in obedience to the will of the American peo- ple, merely executes again the decree which comes to it from the American home in naming Theodore Roosevelt as our candidate. ( Cheer- ing.) The people's thought is his thought ; Ameri- can ideals, his ideals. This is his only chart of statesmanship and no other is safe. ( Cheers. ) For the truest guide an American President can have is the collective intelligence and massed morality of the American people. And this ancient rule of the fathers is the rule of our leaders now. (Applause.) 118 ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE Theodore Roosevelt is a leader who leads (cheers), because he carries out the settled purposes of the people. (Applause.) Our President's plans, when achieved, are always found to be merely the nation's will accom- plished. (Applause.) And that is why the people will elect him. They will elect him because they know that if he is President we will get to work and keep at work on the canal. (Great applause.) After decades of delay when the people want a thing done they want it done. (Applause.) They know that while he is President the flag will "stay put" (cheer- ing), and no American advantage in the Pa- cific or the world be surrendered. (Cheers.) Americans never retreat. (Continued cheer- ing.) While he is President no wrongdoer in the service of the government will go unwhipped of justice. (Applause.) Americans demand honesty and honor, vigilant and fearless. (Ap- plause.) While he is President readjustment of tariff schedules will be made only in har- mony with the principles of protection. (Ap- plause.) Americans have memories. While he is President peace with every nation will be preserved at any cost, excepting only the sac- rifice of American rights, and the vigor with 119 ALBERT J. BEVEEIDGE which he maintained these will be itself a guarantee of peace. (Applause.) The Amer- ican people will elect him because, in a word, they know that he does things the people want done; does things, not merely discusses them does things only after discussing them but does things, and does only those things the people would have him do. (Applause.) This is characteristically American, for wher- ever he is the American is he who achieves. (Applause.) On every question all men know where he stands. Americans, frank themselves, demand frankness in their servants. No mystery was ever elected President of the United States, or ever will be. (Great cheering, renewed.) Un- certainty is the death of business. The people can always get along if they know where they are and whither they are going. (Cheers.) His past is his proof. Every great measure of his administration was so wise that, enthusi- astically sustained by his own party, it won votes even from the opposition. (Applause.) Do you name Cuban reciprocity? The opposi- tion resisted, and then opposition votes helped to ratify it. (Applause.) Do you name cor- porate legislation? The opposition resisted, and then opposition votes helped to enact 120 ALBERT J. BEVEEIDGE it. (Applause.) Do you name the canal that largest work of centuries, the eternal wed- ding of oceans, shrinking the circumference of the globe, making distant peoples neighbors, advancing forever civilization all around the world? This historic undertaking in the in- terest of all the race, planned by American statesmanship, to be wrought by American hands (applause), to stand through the ages protected by the American flag; this vast achievement which will endure when our day shall have become ancient, and which alone is enough to make the name of Theodore Roose- velt illustrious through all time (great ap- plause) this fulfillment of the Republic's dream accomplished by Republican effort, finally received votes even from an opposition that tried to thwart it. ( Cheers. ) Of what measure of Theodore Roosevelt's administration does the opposition dare even to propose the repeal? And when has the rec- ord of any President won greater approval? And so the people trust him as a statesman. Better than that, they love him as a man. (Contined applause.) He wins admiration in vain who wins not affection also. (Applause.) In the American home that temple of happiness and virtue, where dwell the wives and 121 ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE mothers of the Republic, cherishing the beauti- ful in life and guarding the morality of the nation in the American home the name of Theodore Roosevelt is not only honored, but beloved. (Cheers.) And that is a greater tri- umph than the victory of battlefields, greater credit than successful statesmanship, greater honor than the Presidency itself would be with- out it. (Applause.) Life holds no reward so noble as the confidence and love of the Ameri- can people. (Applause.) The American people ! The mightiest force for good the ages have evolved! (Applause.) They began as children of liberty. They be- lieved in God and His providence. They took truth and justice and tolerance as their eternal ideals and marched fearlessly forward. Wilder- nesses stretched before them they subdued them. Mountains rose they crossed them. Deserts obstructed they passed them. Their faith failed them not, and a continent was theirs. From ocean to ocean cities rose, fields blossomed, railroads ran; but everywhere church and school were permanent proof that the principles of their origin were the life of their maturity. (Applause.) American methods changed, but American character remained the same. They outlived 122 ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE the stage-coach but not the Bible. (Ap- plause.) They advanced, but forgot not their fathers. They delved in earth, but remem- bered the higher things. They made highways of the oceans, but distance and climate altered not their Americanism. (Applause.) They began as children of liberty, and children of liberty they remain. They began as servants of the Father of Light, and His servants they remain. And so into their hands is daily given more of power and opportunity that they may work even larger righteousness in the world and scatter over ever-widening fields the blessed seeds of human happiness. (Ap- plause. ) Wonderful beyond prophecy's forecast their progress ; noble beyond the vision of desire their future. In 1801, Jefferson said: "The United States (then) had room enough for our de- scendants to the thousandth and thousandth generation." Three generations behold the oceans our boundaries. (Applause.) Wash- ington never, never dreamed of railways. To- day electricity and steam make Maine and California household neighbors. (Applause.) This advance, which no seer could have fore- told, we made because we are Americans (ap- plause) because a free people with unfet- 123 ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE tered minds and unquestioning belief joy- fully faced the universe of human possibilities. These possibilities are not exhausted. We have hardly passed their boundaries. The American people are not exhausted; we have only tested our strength. (Continued applause.) God's work for us in the world is not finished; His future missions for the American people will be grander than any He has given us, nobler than we now can comprehend. ( Cheers. ) And these tasks as they come we will accept and ac- complish as our fathers accomplished theirs. (Applause.) And when our generation shall have passed and our children shall catch from our aging hands the standard we have borne, it will still be the old flag of Yorktown and Appo- matox and Manila Bay (great cheering) ; the music to which they in their turn will then move onward will still be the strains that cheered the dying Warren on Bunker Hill and inspired the men who answered Lincoln's call (continued cheering) ; and the ideals that will be in them triumphant as they are in us will still be the old ideals that have made the American people great and honored among the nations of the earth. (Cheers.) This is the Republican idea of the American people; this the thought we have when we nom- 124 ALBERT J. BEVEBIDGE inate to-day our candidate for the nation's chief; this the quality of Americanism a Re- publican standard-bearer must have. ( Cheers. ) And this is just the Americanism of Theodore Roosevelt. (Great applause and cries of "Roosevelt.") FuU of the old-time faith in the Republic and its destiny; charged with the energy of the Republic's full manhood; cher- ishing the ordinances of the Republic's fathers and having in his heart the fear of God; in- spired by the sure knowledge that the Repub- lic's splendid day is only in its dawn, Theodore Roosevelt will lead the American people in paths of safety to still greater welfare for themselves, still broader betterment of the race and to the added honor of the American name. Therefore, Indiana seconds the nomination of Theodore Roosevelt. (Demonstration.) 125 Address of George A. Knight, of California, seconding the nomination of President Roosevelt. Gentlemen of the Convention: Geography has but little to do with the sentiment and en- thusiasm that is to-day apparent in favor of the one who is to be given all the honors and duties of an elected President of the United States of America. However, the Pacific Slope and the islands (those ocean buoys of commerce moored in the drowsy tropical sea) send to this conven- tion words of confident greeting, with discreet assurance that your judgment will be indorsed by the American voter and our country con- tinue its wonderful progress under Republican rule. The time is ripe for brightening up Ameri- canism, to teach with renewed vigor the prin- ciples of individual liberty for which the Min- ute Men of the Revolution fought the Lin- coln liberty, an individual liberty for the man, not a black alone, any men, all men. The right to labor in the air of freedom unmolested, and be paid for his individual toil and with it build his cottage home. From the press, the pulpit, 127 GEOKGE A. KNIGHT the schoolhouse, the platform and the street let the true history of our country be known, that the young men and women of America, and many old ones, may know what a price has been paid for the liberty, peace and union they enjoy through the devoted patriotism of our silent he- roes of the past. Deprivation and sacrifice were endured for many years before the old bell in the State House was given the voice to speak the glorious sentiment of the age and proclaim Liberty throughout all the land, and they were made the instruments by which the principles productive of our national grandeur were set as jewels in our Republic's coronet. What we prayed for, fought for, bled for and died for we want cared for. Telegraph the world that the Republican party was the first organization that beckoned the laboring man to his feet and made him know the quality and equality of his true self. It showed him the possibilities of honest poverty, and has withheld nothing from his worthy ambition. It took a rail-splitter from the ground floor of a log cabin and set him with the stars. Protection to American labor and our nat- ural resources, climate, soil, agricultural and mineral wealth, navigable rivers and safe har- bors, wise laws and clean public men, have made 128 GEORGE A. KNIGHl us the greatest nation on earth to-day. In ter- ritory we have outgrown the continent ; we are peopling the isles of the sea. Thus said the Lord, a great eagle with great wings, long winged and full of feathers, which had divers color, came unto Lebanon and took the highest branch of the cedar. He cropped off the top of its young twigs and carried it into a land of traffic ; he set it in a city of merchants ; he took also of the seed of the land and planted it in a fruitful field; he placed it across great waters and set it as a willow tree. How like unto our emblem of freedom ! He has cropped off the young twigs of OUR "Cedar of Liberty" and carried them across the ocean to the land of traffic and set them in the city of merchants. The seed of our land is there among fruitful fields beside great waters and set as a willow tree. Our country is big and broad and grand ; we want a President typical of the country, one who will preserve her history, enforce her law, teach Americanism and fight the wrong. Theo- dore Roosevelt, thou art the man. Well may he be proud ; he is young, the pride of life is his and time is on his side ; he loves the whole coun- try and knows no favorite section; he has per- formed his sacred promise ; he has kept the faith 129 GEORGE A. KNIGHT with McKinley's memory, and now faces re- sponsibilities his own. He hypnotizes obstacles, looks them in the eye and overpowers with self- conscious honesty of purpose. Dishonesty, cowardice and duplicity are never impulsive ; Roosevelt is impulsive, so be it he is different. From a Democratic point of view, he is a weird magician of politics. They charged him with disrupting a government on the isthmus, creating a republic and unlawfully conniving at a canal. They awoke one fine morning to find the Republic of Panama an entity, its existence recognized by foreign na- tions and Congress paying out millions of dol- lars to ratify his strategic promptness. He wanted to give Uncle Sam a job, and he did it, and Uncle Sam wanted the job and he took it. He belongs to the Union. We see him stand- ing to-day with his foot upon the spade, his garments are made of his flag, his inventive Yankee whiskers are bushed, there is an Ameri- can smile on his face and his heart is gladdened as he looks at the golden sunrise of his commer- cial future. Barnacle bottomed ships of the great salt sea will greet the great Father of Waters and make every town on his banks a maritime city. The owner of the farm, factory and mine will become familiar with names they 130 GEORGE A. KNIGHT never knew and write strange addresses on the exports they send across the unharvested ocean. Australia, New Zealand, Yokohama, Hong Kong, Manila, Honolulu and Corea will be some of the new names the new South will be glad to know, and their children will bless the President that gave them their wonderful op- portunities of trade. The blessings of this great work cannot be told in words, and figures will get wabbly and unsteady with their load when you chalk them on the blackboard of time. We want this younger Lincoln The keeper of our great eagle we want him with his hands on the halyards of our flag ; we want him the de- fender of our Constitution and the executive of our law, and when we have used him and the best years of his young manhood for the good of the nation, he will still be holding our banner of liberty, with stars added to its azure field, its history sacred, its stripes untarnished, and by command of the majority hand it to the Ameri- can patriot standing next in line. 131 Address by Harry Stilwell Edwards, Post- master., of Macon, Ga., seconding President Roosevelt's nomination in behalf of the South: It is eminently fit and proper that a Geor- gian should on this occasion second the eloquent speaker from New York, that the voice of the motherland should blend with the voice of the fatherland to declare that the destinies of America shall for four years more be intrusted to the great son born of the union of the two Empire States. I do not belittle the influence of a father when I say that if the iron in a son's nature be derived from him the gold is coined from the heart of the mother whose lap has cradled him. And because I believe this, because the lesson at the mother's knee is the seed that sends a stalk toward heaven and opens far up its axil- lary blossom in the morning light, because the lofty ideals of manhood are rooted deeper than youth, because that which a man instinctively would be has been dreamed for him in advance by a mother, I claim for Georgia the larger share in the man you have chosen your leader. 133 HARRY STILWELL EDWARDS The childhood of the good woman who bore him was cast near where the Atlantic flows in over the marsh and the sand. There she first built her a home in the greatness of God. Womanhood found her within the uplifting view of the mountains in a land over which the Almighty inverts a sapphire cup by day and sets His brightest stars on guard by night. And there, fellow countrymen, the soul of your President was born. Those of us who know and love him catch in the easy flow of his utter- ance and feel in its largeness of thought and contempt of littleness the rhythm of the ocean on the Georgian sands and the spirit of the deep. In his lofty ideals and hopefulness, in his fixedness of purpose and unchanging, rock- ribbed honesty we hear the mountains calling. In his daring, his impulsive courage, his uncon- querable manhood, we see his great brother, the Georgia volunteer, in the hand-to-hand fights of the Wilderness, the impetuous rush up the heights of Gettysburg and the defiance of over- whelming odds from Chattanooga to Atlanta. We look on him as a Georgian abroad; and if, in the providence of God, it may be so we shall welcome him home some day not as a prodigal son who has wasted his manhood, but as one 134 HARRY STILWELL EDWARDS who on every field of endeavor has honored his mother and worn the victor's wreath. Coming into the position of the martyred McKinley, the youngest Chief Magistrate that has ever filled the Presidential chair, without the privilege and advantage of preliminary dis- cussion and consultation, he gave the country a pledge that he would carry out the policies of his predecessor. It was a master stroke of ge- nius, applauded alike North and South. His conception of the duties of his high office, as enunciated by him at Harvard, was "to serve all alike, well; to act in a spirit of fairness and justice to all men, and to give each man his rights." He has kept this pledge; he has lived up to this fine conception of his duty. This pledge involved a completion of the work be- gun in Cuba and an honorable discharge of the promises made to our struggling neighbor. The flag of an independent republic floats over Ha- vana to-day, and all men know that we have kept faith with the Cuban people. Leaving the details to engineers, he has cut as by a single stroke the Panama Canal through mountains of prejudice and centuries of ignorance. In the far Philippines our flag floats, a guarantee of redemption, pacification and development. His conception of duty has led him into difficult 135 HARRY STILWELL EDWARDS places in dealing with the internal affairs of our own country ; he has met every issue bravely and ably and demonstrated not only that prompt and decided action is often the highest expression of conservatism, but that it is safe to trust the impulse of a man who is essentially and instinctively honest. Fellow countrymen, after nearly four years of Theodore Roosevelt, we find the army and navy on a better footing, our trade expanded, the country at peace and prosperous and our flag respected in every quarter of the globe. The American people will not withhold from him the applause of manly hearts. I am proud that my State, the Empire State of the South, shares in the glory of his achievements, as it will share in their benefits. It is not pretended that the section from which I come to you is, as a section, in sympathy with your political party. But I am as sure as that I stand here that the great majority of in- telligent business men in the South are in sym- pathy with the controlling principles of your platform and opposed to those of your oppo- nents as last declared. And I am equally sure that they recognize - and respect the fearless honesty of your leader. Headlines are not his- tory, nor does the passionate partisan write the 136 final verdict of a great people. History, de- spite the venom of the small politician, will do him the justice to record that he has gone further than any man who has occupied the White House since the Civil War to further the vital interests of the South. The standard of appointments has been the same for Georgia as for New York. He has insisted on efficiency and integrity as the chief tests, North and South alike. Of the thousand or more original post-office appointments in Georgia under his administration, not one has within my knowl- edge been criticized by even the unfriendly and partisan press of the State. A Southern man, General Wright, by his appointment holds the honor of this country in trust in the far Philip- pines and on him your President relies for the advancement and development of the 7,000,000 people who are there working out their desti- nies. Two judges of first instance, one a Dem- ocrat and one a Republican, and both from Georgia, are there by his appointment to ad- minister the laws. In the army there and here, in the navy and in all the divisions of the civil government Southern men have felt the friend- ly touch of his hand. The character of these appointments and the whole policy give the lie to those designing knaves who charge him with 137 HARRY STILWELL EDWARDS stirring up strife between races and arraying section against section. "I am proud of your great deeds ; for you are my people." This was his greeting to a Southern audience, and no honest man doubts that he meant it. The South shares in the magnificent pros- perity which our great country has achieved under the Republican party. Especially has she felt the beneficial effect of your policies during the last eight years ; and the hardest fact your opponents have to contend with is the fact that your financial policy has been tested and found to be sound and efficient. They have sufficed for eight years at least, and the Demo- cratic partisan who has twice in that time been led captive behind the silver car of Bryan must be optimistic beyond expression if he believes that the country will suffer alarm over the pros- pect of four years more of prosperity. The South deals in cotton goods, cottonseed prod- ucts, coal, iron, oil and lumber, and business enterprises in connection with these and other industries have increased and multiplied. Trav- eling from Washington to Macon, one is never off a first-class railroad nor long out of sight of the smoke of a mill. The people who con- duct these and kindred enterprises, who are raising cotton at from 10 to 16 cents a pound, 138 HARRY STILWELL EDWARDS wheat at from 75 cents to $1 a bushel, whose coal, iron and lumber are in demand through- out the world, whose home market is assured, and whose lands are rapidly increasing in value, are not alarmed over the prospect of another Republican victory under Roosevelt. They are not alarmed over the digging of a canal at Pan- ama that will give them direct communication with five or six hundred millions of people who need the products of their fields and factories. Nor are they alarmed that increased railway and river transportation will be required to move these products to Southern ports, or that from these ports, under a Republican adminis- tration, yellow fever, the South's dread enemy, has been banished, millions saved annually to the taxpayer and the business year raised from nine months to twelve. The prosperity of the South is wrapped up in the policies of the Republican party, and the Southern people are beginning to realize it. Southern business sentiment indicates an in- creasing distrust of the policies of the Demo- cratic party. In 1896 Georgia, accustomed to enormous Democratic majorities, gave 94,000 votes for Bryan and 60,000 for McKinley. North Carolina cast 174,000 votes for Bryan and 155,000 for McKinley. Virginia gave 139 HARRY STILWELL EDWARDS 154,000 votes for Bryan and 135,000 for Mc- Kinley. And this was according to Demo- cratic counts. Maryland and West Virginia cast Republican majorities in both 1896 and 1900. In Virginia, Georgia and North Caro- lina in 1900 12 to 15 per cent, of the people who had voted in 1896 stayed away from the polls and sacrificed their last opportunity to worship the "popular idol." An analysis of election returns shows that the distrust of Dem- ocracy was most pronounced and conspicuous in centres of trade, manufactures and com- merce. Fellow countrymen, we of the South believe in Roosevelt and in his ability to meet every is- sue at home and abroad triumphantly. We believe that he is animated by a spirit of pa- triotism as broad and as bright as has ever streamed from the White House over our be- loved country ; and we believe that when he has fulfilled his mission, he, the son of the North and South, will carry with him the conscious- ness that Fatherland and Motherland, once di- vorced in sadness, through him and because of him, have been drawn together again in the bonds of the old affection. And we believe that when he goes, at length, into the retirement of private life he will go beloved of all patriotic 140 HARRY STILWELL EDWARDS Americans, from Canada to the Gulf, and from ocean to ocean. Mr. Chairman, in behalf of the Motherland, I second the nomination of Theodore Roosevelt. 14.1 Address by Ex-Gov. William O. Bradley, of Kentucky, in seconding President Roose- velt's nomination: The Republican party has made no mistakes, therefore it has no apologies to off er. It has broken no promises, therefore it enters no plea of confession and avoidance. It offers no guar- antee for the future save the record of its past. It points to an enormously increased com- merce, at home and abroad. To free homes given to free people. To a protective tariff which has multiplied manufactories, furnished employment for millions of freemen and given us an unequalled market at home and abroad. To the best system of finance known to man. To a war waged to drive the tyrant from Cuba, and a promise, faithfully kept, to give to the people of the island a stable form of govern- ment. To an improved army and navy whose deeds of valor have added imperishable glory to American arms. To the erection of churches and schoolhouses and the inauguration of civil government in the Philippines. To the uni- versal prosperity now prevailing throughout the Republic. To a generous system of pen- sions, provided for those who fought, and the 143 WILLIAM O. BRADLEY families of those who died, that the Union might be preserved. To the most gigantic re- bellion of all time courageously met and com- pletely subdued. To the shackles of bondmen melted in the red flames of war, and to stars preserved, and yet others fixed, in the firma- ment of freedom. We cannot stand at the base of Bunker Hill Monument, as prophesied by Toombs, and call the roll of our slaves, but we can stand on any spot of the earth and call the long roll of Re- publican statesmen aand soldiers, the most dis- tinguished and illustrious that the nation has produced, who rendered impossible the fulfill- ment of that prediction. For nearly half a century the record of the Republican party has been so interwoven with the country's history that each is a part of the other, and neither can be written without in- cluding the other. Indeed, during that time the Republican party has been the country. In diplomacy, in progress, in the arts and sciences, in prosperity and adversity, in peace and war, at home and abroad, on land arid sea, the Re- publican party has been true to every trust, equal to every emergency, has continually ele- vated and advanced the standard of American honor and glory, and now proclaims to the 144 WILLIAM O. BRADLEY world that in the lexicon of patriotic endeavor and achievement there is no such word as "fail." And during all these eventful years the Democratic party has resisted every step of ad- vancement and progress. It has been a stupid objector, a miserable malcontent and a common scold. For two Presidential terms it adminis- tered public affairs, and during each crippled commerce, unsettled and decreased values, par- alyzed industries, closed manufactories and made it necessary for public charity to provide food for the starving unemployed. It has ex- changed its time-honored principles for dan- gerous heresies, and betrayed its leaders until it is without a leader and in anxious search of a platform. It has abandoned its Moses, and is unable to discover a Joshua. It does not cer- tainly know what it wants, and if it did, would not know where to find it. It does not know what it is for, and if it did, would not know how to express it. It does not know what to do, and if it did, would not know how to do it. Men of the North, we come from the battle- field consecrated to freedom with the blood of your brave sons. We are the custodians of your patriot dead, and each year commemorate their deeds and decorate their graves with flowers. In their names, and by their memories, the dis- 145 WILLIAM O. BRADLEY franchisee! South appeals to you for justice. Shall it be said that your sons marched and fought and died in vain? Shall it be said that a nation can exist part slave and part free? Are people free who are forced to bear the burden, and yet denied the highest privilege of citizen- ship? If it be true that warrant may not be found in the Constitution to prevent disfran- chisement, then we beg that you no longer per- mit the disfranchised and oppressed to be esti- mated for the purpose of increasing the elec- toral strength of their oppressors. Though the grape is crushed, and the grain is ground, they produce neither wine nor bread for the perse- cuted men of the South. Surrounded by difficulties, striving in vain to be free, they instinctively turn to the brave, true man who has said that he would not close the door of hope on a struggling race. The Southern Republicans are devoted to him, and will follow him with all the affection and en- thusiasm with which the "Old Guard" followed Napoleon. They have unshaken faith in his superb courage, even-handed justice and un- sullied honor. We have not forgotten how, when the war clouds hung dark in the nation's horizon, he sacrificed office, and left a happy home and a 146 WILLIAM O. BRADLEY beloved wife and children, to bare his bosom in the storm of battle. The same patriotism and courage that inspired him then have animated him throughout his administration. When others stood appalled in the presence of the great strike, he cheerfully, and with alacrity, assumed a responsibility not officially incum- bent upon him, and, bravely springing into the breach, succeeded in procuring a settlement that brought tranquility to the representatives of capital and smiles and sunshine into the faces and homes of the humble laborers. He unhesi- tatingly measured swords with the giant cor- poration which threatened the people with wrong and oppression, and brought it into sub- jection. He knows how and when to plan, and, better still, how and when to execute. Alert of mind, he has quickly seized every opportunity. In the procurement of concessions for the Pan- ama Canal he accomplished more in a few hours than his predecessors accomplished in more than a hundred years. He did not attempt to unloose, he cut the Gordian knot. His enemies say that he cannot be trusted; but the people know that one who always does the right thing at the right time and in the right way is entitled to their implicit confidence. His enemies say that he is unsafe. His record proves 147 WILLIAM O. BRADLEY that he is unsafe only to the lawless, the trick- ster, the "grafter" and those who deny equal protection of the law to any class of American citizens. But in the discharge of the great trusts devolved upon him he has proved a harbor of safety. His enemies predicted that he would involve the nation in war; but all his victories have been those of diplomacy and peace, and to-day he enjoys the respect and friendship of every foreign power. He has not been the pliable instrument of any man of set of men. He is the creator, not the creature, of public sentiment. He is not controlled by popular clamor, but hews to the line, let the chips fall where they may. He is not a laggard, a time server or an idle dreamer. He loses no opportunity on account of timid doubt or annoying hesitation. He is not a fol- lower, but every inch a leader. He is not an imitator, but thoroughly original, guided alone by a clear conception of right and the genius of common sense. He boldly and fearlessly ad- vances; he never sounds the retreat. Imbued with never-failing courage, combined with sound and conservative judgment; brilliant as a meteor, yet steady and certain as the sun in its course ; gifted with broad and intelligent states- manship; fixed in lofty purpose, he is the em- 148 WILLIAM O. BRADLEY bodiment of American ideas, American vigor and the most exalted type of American man- hood. He was born to fulfil a mission. That mission, in part accomplished, will be completed in coming years, and his name shall go ringing down the centuries with those of the immortal few "who were not born to die." In Kentucky we have "contended against principalities and powers and the rulers of dark- ness." We have, in truth, fought with all man- ner of beasts, not at Ephesus but at Frank- fort. We are nerving ourselves for the coming conflict, and in November next hope to break the chains which partisan legislation has thrown around us, and restore freedom to the State which gave birth to Abraham Lincoln and holds within its bosom the ashes of Henry Clay. U9 Address by Joseph B. Cotton, of Minnesota, in seconding President Roosevelt's nomina- tion: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Con- vention : Responsive to the swelling chorus of millions of voices from all over the Republic, we are here to name as our standard bearer the gifted son of the Empire State, who has in his makeup all the resolute spirit and vigor of the imperial West and in whose veins courses the rich, warm blood of the dauntless Southland. Nominating and seconding speeches here are of no moment, for his nomination has already been made by the American people themselves. We have only to select his running mate, proclaim the doctrines of our faith, and go forth and overwhelm once more the cohorts of a dis- tracted, distempered and dismembered Democ- racy. Our Democratic friends in this year of grace are destined to be mere idle dreamers and only seers of visions. Dissentious, they lack faith and have no issue. Why, just now they are trying to let go of the "Orator of the Platte" and his fustian "cross of gold." They now say 151 JOSEPH B. COTTON that "free silver" is dead because the Almighty put too much gold in the lap of old Mother Earth. Concealing their real purpose, they no longer openly champion free trade. They clamor only for a Republican revision of the Dingley tariff. Has it come to this that, with Chamberlain of England, they are at last openly become Protectionists? Overwhelmed by the rebuke of the people, they now profess to be really anxious to keep the American flag where it is, regardless and unmindful of whether the Constitution follows the flag or the flag follows the Constitution. Truly, can any good thing come out of this Democratic chaos and reluctant acquiescence in the triumph of Republican policies? In fifty history-making, creative years what policies, domestic or for- eign, fiscal or industrial, expansive or construc- tive, has the Democratic party embodied into the national thought or woven into the fabric of the Republic? An obstructionist always, it has been a participant, in spite of itself, in a national glory and a greatness to which it has long since ceased to contribute. Our virile young nation presses on with undying energy. Its footprints are everywhere. It impresses its character upon every land. It is unthinkable that at the very threshold of our world-work the 152 JOSEPH B. COTTON American citizen will again experiment and im- peril our all by turning over the reins of gov- ernment to an inconstant, incapable and inert Democracy. To fulfil the Republic's mighty destiny, the guiding, shaping, controlling spirit must and will be the Republican party. The Republican party has had, and ever will have, a glorious mission. It has always been a party of action. Its promises have always been crystallized into exact performance. For fifty years it has labored to advance the substantial progress of all the American people. It is mak- ing of America the dominant world power. It has written into law the promises of fifty years in respect of an isthmian canal. It has built up and firmly established, by protective poli- cies, a nation which must eventually secure, for the surplus products and industry of her peo- ple, the markets of all the earth. Its thought is along constructive lines and for the expan- sion requisite to meet the nation's industrial needs rather than for Democratic isolation. It has built up American industries, protected American labor and safeguarded the American home. It has permanently secured the nation upon the gold standard, the standard of stabil- ity and enlightened civilization. In the olden day the Crusader, armor-clad, rode valiantly 153 JOSEPH B. COTTON away to rescue the Holy Land from ruthless devastation. So, in this our day, the Repub- lican party is carrying forward the Stars and Stripes for the uplifting of mankind and the supremacy of a civilization which finds its high- est type in our glorious American Republic. Mr. Chairman: The great Northwest, whence I hail, teems with hundreds of thou- sands of enthusiastic Republicans. You know their worth and their fealty. On their behalf I am commissioned to second the nomination of their choice for President of these United States. We need and demand to-day a wise and dauntless mariner to take our soundings and shape our course. In this history-making hour, at the dawn of a century big with the po- tentialities of individual and national life, when the Republic advances full speed upon a future we cannot know, in all the excitement of the in- dividual struggle for wealth and self-aggran- dizement, in the midst of tendencies toward mu- nicipal and governmental corruption, and when keenest minds seem largely bent upon profit without recompense, all born of an inherent weakness which cannot be ignored but must be met, we have only to name our choice for President for all the world to know that his name is a synonym for courage, for 154 JOSEPH B. COTTON untiring energy, for loyalty to principle, for uprightness, for rugged honesty. No words of any man are needed to tell you that he is pre- eminently qualified to be our inspiring leader. We are proud of his distinguished career and of his great service to the nation. We indorse his unswerving devotion to the highest ideals of government and his stalwart Americanism. We support him for his lofty character, for his mani f est genius, for his splendid personality, and for his superb moral courage. Four years ago the Republican party placed him beside the im- mortal McKinley, and with such standard bear- ers, with such a cause, we marched to a glorious victory. When the assassin's ignoble work was accomplished, and, amidst the nation's tears, showered with the nation's love, the gentle Mc- Kinley passed to the ages and was crowned with the wreath of immortal fame, the intrepid and aggressive Roosevelt faced and was equal to the grave responsibilities of the Presidency. He has kept the faith. By force of his charac- ter and his works he has extended, at home and abroad, the influence and greatness of the Re- public. His name has come to be a symbol everywhere of American manhood, American valor, American honesty and American su- premacy. 155 JOSEPH B. COTTON Obeying a mandate both pleasing and su- preme, on behalf of the great State of Minne- sota and the mighty empire of the Northwest, whose growth and prosperity will ever keep full pace with the giant tread of the nation itself, I desire to second the nomination of that intrepid leader, that potent statesman, that master work- man upon the greater Republic, that tried, trusted and incomparable public servant the President now, the President again to be Theodore Roosevelt. 156 Address by Harry S. Cummin gs (colored), of Maryland,, in seconding President Roose- velt's nomination: Mr. Chairman, Fellow Delegates of the Re- publican National Convention, Ladies and Gentlemen: For the distinguished honor of seconding the nomination of that grand type of the American citizen, Theodore Roosevelt, I am profoundly grateful. Fortunate indeed is it for this government that it has had, during the eight years just passed, a political organization such as ours, to meet face to face with undaunted courage and determination the many perplexing questions which have arisen during that period. Equally fortunate has been our party to have had within its ranks during this crucial period such men as our able, wise and patriotic Mc- Kinley, of beloved memory, and our capable, courageous and aggressive Roosevelt, upon whose youthful though ample shoulders the mantle of the great McKinley fell. Whether the questions affected our internal or external relations, they have been boldly met and wisely solved. We have carried to the Fili- 157 HARRY S. CUMMINGS pino, the Porto Rican and the Cuban the torch of light and intelligence, relieved them from the burdens and oppression of despotic rule, established civil government among them, and are teaching them the blessings of liberty and independence. The Panama Canal, "The Key to the Universe," the construction of which has for centuries been the dream and fancy of more than one government, has, under the prompt and decisive action of this administra- tion, been taken from the realm of cloudland and dreamland, and its completion in the near future has become a certain and fixed fact. The wise leadership of our party has kept so well adjusted our tariff and currency legisla- tion that prosperity abounds in the land, labor is plentiful, the laborer is well paid and con- tented, capital multiplies and seeks additional outlets for new investments and enterprises. In a word, we have given a full and complete re- port of the stewardship committed to our care during the last four years. It becomes the duty of this convention to name a general who we hope and believe will lead the great Republican host to victory in the coming election, a man who will in every way measure up to the respon- sibility of the high office of President of this country. Such a one in the person of our Chief 158 HARRY S. CUMMINGS Executive has been ably and eloquently placed before you, and heartily do we all indorse what has been said. "By their fruits ye shall know them." Theo- dore Roosevelt brings to his party and the na- tion at the close of his administration the prec- ious fruits of three years' able and faithful service. The solemn promise made by him when gloom and distress overshadowed the nation, when stout hearts grew faint, when fears and misgivings were abroad in the land, when the nation bowed in tears for her fallen hero that promise, made at a most trying time in our country's life, has been kept to the letter, and he brings as an evidence of such the plans and purposes of his martyred predecessor fully de- veloped and completed. He is above all things a true, honest, earnest, patriotic American citi- zen. He is a leader of unflinching courage a man of wisdom a man of action. He is open and frank, free from intrigue or concealment. In his life and walk and conduct he stands un- approached and unapproachable. He is a broad man, broad in intellect, broad in sympa- thies, broad in soul ; he lends a listening ear to the cry of the downtrodden and oppressed, and with strong and ready arm encircling the weak and helpless he bids them rise and hope and live. 159 HARRY S. CUMMINGS He is a just man, and believes that a man should be judged by merit, and merit alone, and that the just rewards of faithful and pa- triotic service should be withheld from no one, for any cause whatever. With a vision un- clouded by bias or prejudice he sees through the outer clay, clad in different hues, the man with- in, and there beholds the image of the divine Master indicating the Fatherhood of Good and the Brotherhood of Man. Criticism bitter, severe, unreasonable has only served to make him the more devoted to his country's welfare. He believes that cor- ruption and dishonesty in private life and in public office should be unearthed, exposed and punished, no matter who the guilty party may be or how high in official life he may stand. He believes that respect for and obedience to law are the foundation upon which this government must rest, and that the violation of the oath of office is little less than treason. He believes that the Constitution of the United States and every amendment thereof should be rigidly en- forced, and that its violation by whatever sub- terfuges or evasiveness of expression should be condemned and remedied. He is, for these good and sufficient reasons, the man whom the 160 HARRY S. CUMMINGS people of every section and in every walk of life want for this high office. First of all, the powerful Christian and moral sentiment of the nation demands his nomination, and every Christian and moral agency will be exercised for his election. The laboring interest demands him. The farmer, as with happy heart he gathers in his bounteous harvest, stands ready to do battle for his re- turn. The miner, who in contentment digs away in the bowels of the earth, sees in him his salvation from oppression and encroachment. The business man the capitalist to whom this administration has brought abundant suc- cess eagerly await his nomination. So surely as he is nominated by this convention to-day so surely will he be elected by the people in November. With his nomination and election, what an inspiring prospect opens up before the party and the nation! With it will come new efforts to promote a greater prosperity and a larger measure of happiness to all who dwell within our borders. With it will come that calm and peaceful assurance that, while prosperous, happy and contented at home, a wise, safe and skillful diplomacy guards and protects our every interest throughout the civilized world. 161 HARRY S. CUMMINGS And, finally, with it will come an advanced step toward the fulfilment of the great mission of the Republican party. And that mission will not be performed until every section of our Constitution and every amendment thereof shall be respected and made effective, and un- til every citizen of every section, of every race and of every religion shall proclaim in one grand chorus of that Constitution, "Thou art my shield and buckler." God grant that in our party's struggle to reach that time it may ever have a man to place before the American people for their suffrage who has the ability, courage, honesty and ag- gressiveness of Theodore Roosevelt. 162 X / u Address by Senator Jonathan P. Dolliver, of Iowa, in nominating Charles Warren Fair- banks for Vice-President. Gentlemen of the Convention : The Repub- lican National Convention, now nearly ready to adjourn, has presented to the world a moral spectacle of extraordinary interest and signifi- cance. It is a fine thing to see thousands of men, representing millions of people, fighting in the political arena for their favorite candi- dates, and contending valiantly for the success of contradictory principles and conflicting doc- trines. Out of such a contest, with its noise and declamations, its flying banners, its thunder of the captains and the shouting, the truth often secures a vindication, and the right man comes out victorious. Sometimes, however, wisdom is lost in the confusion, and more than once we have seen the claims of leadership swallowed up in contention and strife. We have the honor to belong to a convention whose constituency in every State and Terri- tory and in the islands of the sea has done its thinking by quiet firesides, undisturbed by clamor of any^ sort, and ihas simplified our re- J63 JONATHAN P. DOLLIVEB sponsibilities by the unmistakable terms of the credentials which we hold at their hands. At intervals of four years I followed the banner of James G. Blaine through the streets of our convention cities, from Cincinnati to Minneapolis, and did my full share to see that nobody got any more applause than the great popular leader who had captured my enthusi- asm long before I was old enough to vote. Not even his defeat served to diminish the hold which our champion had upon the hearts of those who followed him, and it has required a good deal of experience to enable them to un- derstand the lesson of his defeat. Other con- ventions have met to settle the fate of rival chieftains; we meet to record the judgment of the Republican millions of the United States. They have based their opinion upon the facts of the case. They have not concluded that we have the greatest President of the United States since Washington. They know how to measure the height and depth of things better even than Professor Bryce, when he deals with superlatives which find their way into all well- regulated banquets after midnight. They have not forgotten the grave of Lincoln, which has become a shrine for the pilgrimage of the hu- man race. They remember still the day when 164 JONATHAN P. DOLLIVER the Canon of Westminster opened the doors of that venerable monument to admit the name of the silent American soldier into the household of English-spoken fame. They have passed no vainglorious judgment upon the career of Theodore Roosevelt. They have studied it with sympathetic interest from his boyhood, as he has risen from one station of public usefulness to another, until at length, before the age of forty-five, he stands upon the highest civic eminence known among men. Their tears fell with his as he stood in the shadow of poor McKinley's death, and as a part of his oath of office asked the trusted coun- sellors who stood by the side of the fallen Presi- dent to help him carry forward the work which he had left unfinished, and, while his adminis- tration deserves the tribute which it received in this convention from the eloquent lips of our temporary chairman, it is because he has exe- cuted in a manly way the purpose of the Re- publican party and interpreted aright the as- pirations of the American people. Nor can there be a doubt that if, in the years to come, he shall walk steadfastly in the same path, he will be numbered among the great leaders of the people who have given dignity and influ- ence to their highest office. 165 JONATHAN P. DOLLIVER But the judgment of the Republican party is not only united upon its candidate it is unanimous also upon the fundamental princi- ples for which it stands. I think the conven- tion has been fortunate in harmonizing the minor differences which unavoidably arise in a country like ours, where speech is free and where printing is free. We stand together on the proposition that the industrial system of the United States must not be undermined by a hostile partisan agitation, and that whatever changes are necessary in our laws ought to be made by the friends, or at least the acquaint- ances, of the protective tariff system. The things upon which we are agreed are so great and the things about which we differ are so small that we are able, without sacrificing sin- cere Republican convictions anywhere, to unite as one man in defence of our common faith. The rollcall of this convention is a reminder not without its melancholy suggestion that the veterans of Republican leadership are trans- ferring the responsibilities which they have borne to the generation born since 1850. The children of the men who laid the foundations of the Republican party are here to begin the celebration of its fiftieth anniversary. A heavy hand has been laid since we met at Philadel- 166 JONATHAN P. DOLLIVER phia upon the men who guided the counsels of the party. Nelson Dingley, whose name is as- sociated in immortal reputation with the indus- trial and commercial miracles which opened the new century, is gone, and within the borders of the same State lies all that is mortal of Thomas B. Reed, who put an end to anarchy in the American House of Representatives. Dear old "Uncle Mark" Hanna, whose face has looked down with the benediction of an old friend upon our deliberations, we shall see no more. Within the last few days we buried Matthew Stanley Quay in the bosom of the common- wealth which he loved, and which, in spite of the malice and calumny which pursued him while he lived, never failed in its affectionate confidence in him, while over the whole four years has hung the shadow of the national af- fliction which left the American people in sack- cloth and ashes. We stand at the beginning of the new era, and, while the Republican party leans upon the counsel of its old leaders, it has not hesitated to summon to the responsibilities of public life the young men who have been trained under their guidance to take up the burdens which they are ready to lay down and finish the work which comes to them as an inheritance of patriotism 167 JONATHAN P. DOLLIVER and duty. That is the significance of the nomi- nation of Theodore Roosevelt, and that is the explanation of the call which has been made by the Republican party without a dissenting voice upon Charles W. Fairbanks, to stand by the side of the President in the guidance and lead- ership of the Republican party. While he has not sought to constrain the judgment of the convention, directly or indi- rectly, he has kept himself free from the affec- tation which undervalues the dignity of the second office in the gift of the American peo- ple, and I do not doubt that his heart has been touched by the voluntary expression of univer- sal good will which has already chosen him as one of the standard bearers of the Republican party of the United States. The office has sought the man, and he will bring to the office the commanding personality of a statesman equal to any of the great responsibilities which belong to our public affairs. A leader of the Senate, the champion of all the great policies which constitute the invincible record of the Republican party during the last ten years, his name will become a tower of strength to our cause, not only in his own State, but every- where throughout the country. A man of af- fairs, the whole business community shares the 168 JONATHAN P. DOLLIVER confidence which his political associates have re- posed in him from the beginning of his public life. The quiet, undemonstrative, popular opinion, which has given the Republican party a platform upon which all Republicans can stand, with no dissenting voice, here or any- where, has long since anticipated the action of this convention in adding to the national Re- publican ticket the name of Senator Fairbanks, of Indiana. I take pleasure in presenting this name, honored everywhere throughout the United States, as our candidate for Vice- President. 169 Address by Senator Chauncey M. Depew, of New York, seconding Senator Fairbanks for Vice-President: My friend wants tolmow if I have had my dinner, but what I am about to say is in be- half of dinners for the American people. (Laughter and cries of "Good!") I cannot help thinking, in listening to the eloquence with which we have been entertained this morning, what will be the difference when our Democratic friends meet on July 6 to go through with their duty of nominating candi- dates and adopting a platform. We here have been unanimous upon our candidates, all agreed upon our principles, all recognizing and applauding our great statesmen, living and dead, and agreeing with them, while, on the other hand, in that convention, there will be the only two living exponents of Democratic prin- ciples. On the one side will be their only President rising and saying, "Be sane," while on the other side, in opposition, will come their last candi- date for President, saying, "Be Democrats!" 171 CHAUXCEY M. DEPEW The two are incompatible. ( Laughter and ap- plause. ) I present two thoughts which it seems to me in the flood of oratory have been passed by. There has been criticism of this convention that it was without enthusiasm and per- functory, and would occupy little place in his- tory. But this convention is an epoch-making convention, because it marks the close of fifty years of the life of the Republican party. That fifty years, if we should divide recorded time into periods of half a century, the fifty years from 1854 to 1904 would concentrate more that has been done in this world for the uplifting of humanity than all the half cen- turies which have preceded. While this half century has done so much in electricity, so much in steam, so much in in- ventions, so much in medicine, so much in sur- gery and in science, its one distinguishing char- acteristic will be that it was the half century of emancipation emancipation all over the world, led mainly by the American thought and the success of the American experiment. But when for our purpose we look back over the accomplishment of this half century we find that the best part of it, that which has made most for the welfare of the country, most for 172 CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW emancipation, has been done by the Republican party. Just one word to throw the picture on the wall. In 1854 the Missouri Compromise was repealed, and the territory whose purchase is now being celebrated at St. Louis was dedi- cated to slavery, and in 1863 Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. (Applause.) In 1854 James Buchanan, at Ostend, issued the manifesto to buy or conquer Cuba for slav- ery, and in 1900 William McKinley set up Cuba as an independent republic. (Applause.) In 1854 the first cable flashed under the At- lantic Ocean, and the use of this tremendous discovery came from a Republican President, w r ho was the only President since the formation of the country who had presided over the des- tinies of a free people, with freedom in the Constitution, and the Declaration of Indepen- dence no longer a living lie. So it is also in diplomacy. Fifty years ago those of our people who were located among the semi-civilized nations of Asia and Africa placed themselves under the protection of the consuls of Great Britain or the European government most influential in that territoiy. To-day an American fleet appears in the harbor of Tan- gier, and the Secretary of State sends the thrill- 173 CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW ing message, "We want Perdicaris alive or Rai- suli dead." (Cheers.) Now, it was only sixty years ago, ten years preceding the birth of the Republican party, when that great wit and great writer, Sydney Smith, asked, In the four quarters of the globe who reads an American book or goes to an American play or looks at an American picture or statue? What does the world yet owe to American physicians and surgeons? What new substances have their chemists discovered or what old ones have they analyzed? What new constellations have been discovered by the telescopes of Americans? What have they done in mathematics? Who drinks out of American glasses or eats from American plates or wears American coats or gowns or sleeps in American blankets? The answer is that from the figures coming yesterday from the Department of Commerce and Labor we discovered that this year $450,- 000,000 of manufactured articles from Ameri- can looms and factories go into European mar- kets to compete with the highly-organized in- dustrial nations of the world in their own mar- ket places. (Applause.) An American can start and go around the world and not leave his country. He can cross 174 CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW the Pacific to Yokohama in a Northern Pa- cific steamer. He rides through Japan and China on American electrical appliances. He goes six thousand miles across the Siberian Railway in American cars, drawn by American locomotives. In Spain, alongside of their or- ange groves, he finds California and Florida oranges. In France he drinks wine, labelled French, which has come from San Francisco. ( Laughter and applause. ) He crosses the Nile upon a bridge made in Pittsburg. (Applause. ) In an English hotel he goes to his room near the roof in an elevator manufactured in New York. His feet are on carpets made in Yonkers. On the banks of the Ganges he reads his cables by an electric light run by an American and made in America. He goes under old London in tun- nels dug and run by American machinery and American genius, and then he goes to New- castle and finds that the impossible has been profitably accomplished, and coals American coals are carried to Newcastle. (Laughter and applause.) Now, my friends, while we present the posi- tive, the convention, which meets on the 6th of July represents that element unknown hereto- fore in American politics, the opportunist. It is waiting for bankruptcy, waiting for panic, 175 CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW waiting for industrial depression, waiting for financial distress. There was an old farmer upon the Maine coast who owned a farm with a rocky ledge running out into the ocean and called Hurricane Point. On it ships were wrecked, and he gath- ered his harvest from the wreckage, and in his will he wrote : "I divide my farm equally among my children, but Hurricane Point shall be kept for all of you forever, for while the winds blow and the waves roll the Lord will provide." (Great laughter.) But we have put a light- house on Hurricane Point, a lighthouse of pro- tection, with a revolving light, shedding golden beams over the ocean, and American commerce in going and coming is absolutely safe. (Ap- plause.) Time eliminates reputations. One or two men represent a period. There are very few statesmen who are remembered by succeeding generations. The heroes of the civil war on both sides are reduced in popular recollection to two names. Issues and events, which make history, bring out qualities of greatness in those specially gifted for statesmanship and gov- ernment. The constructive genius of the coun- try was first in the Federal, then in the Demo- cratic, then in the Whig and for the past half- 176 CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW century in the Republican Party. This is the result : In our first era the leaders were Wash- ington, Hamilton and Adams, Federalists; in the second era, Jefferson and Jackson, Demo- crats; in the third era, Webster and Clay, Whigs; in the fourth and most productive era of all that makes life worth living and citizen- ship valuable, Lincoln, Grant and McKinley, all Republicans. ( Applause. ) We love Roosevelt because of his "indiscre- tions." When everybody else thought it fool- ish his foresight provided powder and ball for Dewey. When the financial world said it was folly to enforce the laws the Supreme Court of the United States justified the wisdom of the President. Who calls him rash, impetuous and tumultuous? It is the statesmen who enacted the Wilson bill, with its attendant distress, bankruptcy and ruin ; the statesmen who would have given us silver at 16 to 1, with the inevi- table collapse of our home industries and our foreign markets ; it is the statesmen who would give up the Philippines and would have lost the opportunity to build the isthmian canal while discussing questions of international law and constitutional prerogatives. ( Applause. ) To Roosevelt's "impulsiveness," "rashness" and "indiscretions" we owe the settlement of 177 CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW the coal strike, which, if continued, would have produced among a freezing people in the great cities and among millions thrown out of em- ployment, because of manufactories shut down, suffering, riot and revolution. We owe to Roosevelt's "indiscretions," "rashness" and "impetuosity" the removal of the fear and the perils of gigantic trusts by proving that they are the creatures of and within the power of the law. We owe to Roosevelt's "indiscretions," "rashness" and "impetuosity" the solution of the problem of 400 years, the realization of the hope of the statesmen of this country for more than a half of a century, the fruition of the dream of Columbus and the welding of the East and the West and gaining of the Pacific Ocean and the Orient for our commerce, in the concession of the right and the beginning of the work of the construction of the isthmian canal. If, as our opponents say, the campaign is Roosevelt, we follow the fortunes of our young leader, confident of victory. (Applause.) And now, gentlemen, it seems to me we have not attached enough importance to the office of Vice-President of the United States. (Ap- plause.) It was not so among the fathers. Then of the two highest potential presidential possibilities, one took the Presidency, the other 178 CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW the Vice-Presidency. But in the last forty years ridicule and caricature have placed the office almost in contempt. Let us remember that Thomas Jefferson; let us remember that old John Adams ; let us remember that John C. Calhoun, and George Clinton, and Martin Van Buren were Vice-Presidents of the United States. Eighty millions of people want for Vice- President a presidential figure of full size. He presides over the Senate, but he does more than that. He is the confidant of the Senators. He is the silent member of every committee. He is influential in that legislation which originates and which is shaped in the Senate, and now that we have become a world power, now that treaties make for either our prosperity, our open door or closed harbors, he is necessarily an important factor in the machinery of the government. By the tragic death of McKin- ley the Vice-President was elevated to the Pres- idency, and to-day for the first time we have renominated the Vice-President who thus came to be the President. (Applause.) All that has been said here about Theodore Roosevelt is true ; but the highest tribute to him is that the American people for the first time unanimously demand that a Vice-President 179 CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW shall be the elect of their choice for the Presi- dency of the United States. Now, gentlemen, it is my privilege in looking for Vice-Presidential possibilities to announce what you all know, that we have found a Vice- Presidential candidate of full Presidential size. (Applause.) Everybody knows that if the towering figure of Theodore Roosevelt had been out of this canvass one of the promising candidates before this convention for President of the United States would have been Charles W. Fairbanks. (Applause.) And New York, appreciating his great ability as a lawyer, ap- preciating the national name he has made for himself as a Senator, appreciating his dignity, his character and his genius for public affairs, seconds the nomination of Charles W. Fair- banks for Vice-President of the United States. ( Prolonged applause and cheering. ) 180 Address by Senator Joseph B. Foraker, of Ohio,, seconding the nomination of Senator Fairbanks. Gentlemen of the Convention: We have come here to do three things make a platform, name the next President of the United States, and also name the next Vice-President of the United States. We have done two of these things, and are about to do the third. And we have done both of the things we have done well. The platform we adopted yesterday has already met the favorable judgment of the American people. It is accounted one of the best the Republican party has ever adopted, and if you would know how high is that tribute recall the fact now of which every Republican may justly feel proud that, of all the many platforms we have made in the fifty years of our party life, we would not to-day strike one of them from our record if we could. Further than that, there is not a plank, or a declaration, or a thought, or an idea, in one of them that we would erase if we had the power. From the platform of 1856 down to that one adopted yesterday all are as sound as a gold 181 JOSEPH B. FORAKER dollar. If you would know what a tribute is here to Republican patriotism, wisdom and statesmanship, recall the great questions with which the Republican party has dealt in making these platforms. They are all imperishable contributions to the political literature of our day. If you would have another measure of our success, read also of the lamentable failure our Democratic friends have met with in mak- ing their platforms. While we are to-day proud of the success of ours, our Democratic friends cannot find one platform they have made in all this period that does not have some features at least of which they are now ashamed. Not all of them, perhaps, because there are some Demo- crats who cannot apparently be ashamed of anything. On the platform made yesterday we have placed our candidate who is to head the ticket. It was not as easy in some of the conven- tions that have gone before to name a Re- publican candidate for the Presidency as it was for us to name our candidate here to-day. In former years, when we have been called upon to choose between such great leaders as Conk- ling and Morton and Blaine, and Garfield, and Sherman and Harrison, and McKinley, they have weighed so evenly, their claims for merit 182 JOSEPH B. FORAKER were so equal, that it was a harder task. But this time one man stood head and shoulders above all others of our Republican leaders, that he was already nominated, as has been well said from this platform, before we took our seats in this convention. On the ticket with him, as his associate, for the Vice-Presidency, we want to place a man who represents in his personality, in his beliefs, in his public service, in his high character, all the splendid record the Republican party has made; all the great declarations of the former platforms, and a man who will typify, as the leader of our ticket will, the highest ambition and the noblest purposes of the Republican party of the United States. (Applause.) I will not detain you with a eulogy of Sen- ator Fairbanks, beyond simply saying that, to all who know him personally as those of us do who have been closely associated with him in the public service, he meets all the requirements so eloquently stated by Senator Depew. He is of Presidential calibre. He has all of the qualifi- cations for the high office for which he has been named, and, by all of these potent considera- tions, in the name of the forty-six delegates of Ohio, I second the nomination of Senator Fair- banks. (Cheers.) Address by Gov. Samuel W. Penny packer, of Pennsylvania, in seconding Senator Fair- banks for Vice-President. The Republican party held its first conven- tion in that city of western Pennsylvania which, in energy, enterprise and wealth, rivals the great mart upon the inland lakes wherein, after the lapse of nearly half a century, we meet to-day. Pennsylvania may well claim to be the leader among Republican States. The principles which are embodied in the platform of the party as we have adopted it are the result of the teachings of her scholars and statesmen. Her majorities for the nominees of that party are greater and more certain than those of any other State. She alone, of all the States since the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, has never given an electoral vote against a candi- date of the Republican party for the Presi- dency. She is unselfish in her devotion. Dur- ing the period of half a century that has gone no son of hers has been either President or Vice- President. She has been satisfied, like the Earl of Warwick, to be the maker of kings. She has been content that you should have regard to 185 SAMUEL W. PENNYPACKER the success of the party and the welfare of the country rather than to the personal interests of her citizens. The waters of the Ohio, rising in the moun- tains of Pennsylvania, roll westward, bearing fertility and men to the prairie lands of In- diana. The thought of Pennsylvania turns with kindred feeling toward the State which has produced Oliver P. Morton, Benjamin Harri- son and the brave Hoosiers who fought along- side of Reynolds on the Oak Ridge at Gettys- burg. She well remembers that when her own Senator, he who did so much for the Republican party, and whose wise counsels, alas! are miss- ing to-day, bore a commission to Washington, he had no more sincere supporter than the able and distinguished statesman who then, as he does now, represented Indiana in the United States Senate. Pennsylvania, with the approval of her judg- ment and with glad anticipation of victory in her heart, following a leader, who, like the Che- valier of France, is without fear and without reproach, seconds the nomination for the Vice- Presidency of Charles W. Fairbanks, of Indiana. 186 Address by ex- Senator Thomas H. Carter, of Montana, in seconding Senator Fairbanks for Vice-President. Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Con- vention: It will at once be consoling and re- assuring to you for me to announce that I do not rise to make a speech, but to make a pleas- ing announcement. (Applause.) You will all remember how, eight years ago, the intermoun- tain country, theretofore solidly Republican, became tempest-tossed and disconcerted. It will be remembered with regret that since 1892 Republican electoral votes in the Rocky Moun- tain region have been few and far between. I am here to-day to say to you that from the Canadian line to the south line of the Colorado, and from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, each and every vote will be cost for Theodore Roosevelt in the electoral college next November. The manner in which this happy result has been brought about is well worthy of momentary consideration. Under the kind, considerate and wise management of William McKinley as President, aided and assisted by the venerated Mark Hanna, of Ohio, our wan- 187 THOMAS H. CARTER dering brothers were invited to return without humiliating conditions. (Loud applause.) Of all those who have been sympathetic, through good and evil report, while standing inflexibly by the cardinal principles of the party, one of the strongest and most comforting has been Charles W. Fairbanks, of Indiana, whose nomination I cheerfully second. With Roose- velt and Fairbanks the States west of the Mis- souri will, without exception, return to their Republican allegiance. I thank you. (Loud applause.) 188 CAREERS PUBLIC CAREER OF PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT. The public career of Theodore Roosevelt began before he was twenty-four years of age. He is now forty-five. In the intervening period he has been almost continually before the public. He was nominated in 1881 for Member of Assembly in the Twenty-first New York District. Tammany, Irving Hall, and the County Democracy united on W. Strew to run against Roosevelt, but the latter beat him by a vote of 3,490 to 1,989. It was the next year that Grover Cleveland administered the most tremendous defeat to the Republicans known in New York State politics up to that time. Mr. Roosevelt was again put up in the Twenty-first New York, and, despite the Republican slump, defeated T. F. Neville, nominated by all three Democratic organiza- tions, by a vote of 4,357 to 2,026. Roosevelt was re-elected in 1883 and served his last term in the House in 1884. During his career as Member of Assembly Mr. Roosevelt headed an investigating com- mittee which came to New York and probed the 191 THEODORE ROOSEVELT City Government. With the capital accruing from that investigation, the Republicans were induced to think of him as a likely candidate for Mayor, and in 1886 they nominated him. Abram S. Hewitt was picked up by Tammany Hall, and made a winning fight. Mr. Roose- velt ran third. He next came before the public as a mem- ber of President Harrison's Civil Service Com- mission. This office he held into Cleveland's second administration. He first entered national politics in 1884, when, with George William Curtis and two colleagues, he went to the Republican National Convention as a delegate at large, enthusiastic for the nomination of George F. Edmunds, of Vermont. The time between his unsuccessful candidacy for Mayor and his acceptance of Harrison's appointment was passed in the West on a ranch. Mr. Roosevelt apparently could have re- mained in the Cleveland Civil Service Board as long as he wished, but Mayor Strong's offer to him to become President of the New York Police Commission was pleasing, and he ac- cepted it. His record as head of the Police Board, with Frank Moss, A. D. Parker, and A. D. Andrews, is well known. "The Roose- 192 THEODORE ROOSEVELT velt Board" is still a phrase in the records of the Police Department. Before Strong's term expired President Mc- Kinley offered Roosevelt the position of Assistant Secretary of the Navy under John D. Long. Roosevelt accepted, and was holding that office when the Spanish-American war broke out in 1898. He was commissioned a Lieutenant-Colonel in the First Volunteer Cavalry (the Rough Riders) , became Colonel of the regiment, and was in command when the Republicans of New York State were casting about for a candidate for Governor in 1898. Mr. Roosevelt was nominated, and after a whirlwind campaign throughout the State was elected over Augus- tus C. Van Wyck by a plurality of 17,786. On June 21, in Philadelphia, four years ago, Mr. Roosevelt was nominated for Vice-Presi- dent. Mr. Roosevelt served out the year 1900 as Governor, and then went to Washington to prepare for the new duties of Vice-President. In September, 1901, he went on a trip to Vermont, where he was when President Mc- Kinley was shot in Buffalo on September 6. President McKinley died at 2 :25 a.m., Sep- tember 14, 1901, and Vice-President Roosevelt was sworn in as his successor in Buffalo at 193 THEODORE ROOSEVELT the residnce of Ansley Wilcox, a personal friend. Mr. Roosevelt is the first President who, coming into his office through having been Vice- President at the time of the death of the Ex- ecutive, has succeeded in getting his party to nominate him for the full term to succeed him- self. He also is the first native New Yorker to be nominated for President by the Republi- can party, and is the third native New Yorker to hold the office of President. The others were Van Buren and Fillmore. Mr. Roose- velt came to the Presidency younger than any who ever held the office. CAREER OF SENATOR FAIRBANKS. A son of Ohio, of Puritan ancestry, Charles Warren Fairbanks early attained prominence as a lawyer in Indianapolis, and has been a United States Senator since 1897. He secured his education by his own exertions, and had decided on the law as a profession before he entered college. Senator Fairbanks was born near Unionville Centre, Union County, Ohio, May 11, 1852. He is descended in the eighth generation from Jonathan Fayerbanks, who settled in Dedliam, Mass., in 1636. From the old Bay State the ancestors of Senator Fair- banks went to Vermont, and it was from that State that his father went to Ohio in 1836 and settled on a farm and also worked at wagon- making. As he advanced in boyhood he was taught that what his hand found to do he must do with his might. His parents were earnest Methodists, and encouraged his ambition to secure an education. He diligently attended the district school, and in the summer he worked on the farm. At the age of fifteen he left his home and, with $41, which he had saved from what his father had paid him, in the pockets 195 CHARLES WARREN FAIRBANKS of his only suit of clothes, he went to Dela- ware, Ohio, and entered the Ohio Wesleyan University. There he and his roommate boarded themselves, and young Fairbanks found employment with a carpenter on Sat- urdays by reason of his familiarity with the use of tools. In the summer vacations he worked in the harvest field at his home. In his senior year he was one of the editors of the college newspaper, "The Western Collegian." He was graduated with the degree of A.B. in 1872, and went to Pittsburg, where he began the study of law, at the same time supporting him- self by doing newspaper work for the Asso- ciated Press. A year later he entered a law school in Cleveland, and did similar work. It was in 1874 that he was admitted to the bar at Columbus, Ohio. While in college he had met Miss Cornelia Cole, who was a co-editor with him on the col- lege paper. In the same year that he was ad- mitted to the bar they were married, and went to Indianapolis to make their permanent home. The young lawyer was aided in securing a prac- tice by his uncle, William Henry Smith, who was interested in railroads, and he soon became one of the most successful railroad lawyers in the State. With increased income he became a 196 CHARLES WARREN FAIRBANKS resident of the most fashionable part of the city, North Meridian Street. Senator Fairbanks always has been an earn- est Republican. In 1888 he was the manager of the candidacy of Walter Q. Gresham for the nomination for President at the Chi- cago convention, but when the nomination of Harrison became evident the support of Gresham, with his consent, was transferred to Harrison. Mr. Fairbanks made speeches for Harrison and Morton throughout Indiana. He was chairman of the Indiana State Conven- tion in 1892, and again in 1898. In 1893 he was chosen by the Republican caucus in the State Legislature as candidate for United States Senator, but the Democrats had a ma- jority on joint ballot and elected Senator Tur- pie. In 1896 he was delegate-at-large from Indiana to the St. Louis Republican Conven- tion, and served as temporary chairman. In 1897 he was the candidate for United States Senator, to succeed Daniel W. Voorhees (Dem.), the "Tall Sycamore of the Wabash," and was elected by a majority of 21. In 1898 he was appointed a member of the United States and British Joint High Commission to settle the differences with Canada, and he was chairman of the United States commissioners. 197 CHARLES WARREN FAIRBANKS As a Senator he has always been strict in his at- tendance on the duties of his office, and has made a most thorough study of all public ques- tions. He is a forcible and practical speaker, and has been persistent in securing legislation in which he is interested. He was re-elected a Senator last year for the term ending March 3, 1909. Senator Fairbanks was an Indiana delegate- at-large to the Republican convention at Phila- delphia in 1900, and as chairman of the com- mittee on resolutions reported the platform. He was strongly talked of as candidate for Vice-President before the choice of Theodore Roosevelt was decided on. He was a close friend of President McKinley, and it was thought he might be his successor. Senator Fairbanks is an active Methodist, and is a leading member and trustee of the Meridian Street Church, in Indianapolis. Since 1885 he has been a trustee of the Ohio Wesleyan University, whose president, Dr. Bashford, has just been elected a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In personal appearance the Senator is over six feet in height and extremely dignified in manner. He is most highly thought of by his friends, and by 198 CHARLES WARREN FAIRBANKS his opponents is regarded as a man who fights fair. Mrs. Fairbanks is the president-general of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Their home in Massachusetts Avenue, Wash- ington, is the center of generous hospitality. Senator and Mrs. Fairbanks have five children, one daughter, married to Ensign John W. Timmons, of the battleship Kearsarge, and four sons, one in business and three completing their education, one being an undergraduate at Yale. 199 POLITICAL RECORD OF HON. GEORGE B. CORTELYOU. Secretary Cortelyou's father and grand- father were Republicans of the stanchest kind. His grandfather, Peter Crolius Cortelyou, Sr., was the intimate friend and associate of Horace Greeley, Thurlow Weed and other great lead- ers of the party's early history. Both his brothers are Republicans, and the members of his family have been known as Republicans since the foundation of the party. All the teachings of his early years were in that politi- cal faith, and when he took up the study of public questions on his own account he became a firm believer in Republican doctrines. His first vote was cast for a Republican candidate, and from that day to this he has voted the Republican ticket. Mr. Cortelyou was one of the founders of the Young Men's Republican Club, of Hemp- stead, N. Y. He was an active member of the Plumed Knights, and did hard and effective service in the Blaine campaign. He was the secretary of the Harrison managers at the Min- neapolis convention. Upon the advent of the 200 GEORGE B. COETELYOU Democratic administration in 1885 he tendered his resignation and left the federal service. Again, in 1893, upon the advent of Mr. Cleve- land's second administration, he tendered his resignation and remained only at the earnest request of his new superior. He has gone reg- ularly each year to his home and voted for Re- publican candidates, and while he loyally served a Democratic President, he accepted the posi- tion then tendered him only after a frank state- ment of his political beliefs. He has been sec- retary to two Republican Presidents and has been a Cabinet officer in a Republican admin- istration. That is his record. It speaks for itself. 201 Notification Speech of Hon. Joseph G. Cannon. Mr. President: The people of the United States, by blood, heredity, education and prac- tice, are a self-governing people. We have sometimes been subject to prejudice and em- barrassment from harmful conditions, but we have outgrown prejudice and overcome con- ditions as rapidly as possible, having due regard to law and the rights of individuals. We have sometimes made mistakes from a false sense of security or from a desire to change policies instead of letting well enough alone, merely to see what would happen ; but we have always paid the penalty of unwise action at the ballot box and endured the suffering until under the law, through the ballot box, we have returned to correct policies. Tested by experi- ence, no nation has so successfully solved all problems and chosen proper policies as our na- tion. Under the lead of the Republican party for over forty years, the United States, from being a third-classr power among the nations, has become in every respect first. The people rule. The people ruling, it is necessary that 202 NOTIFICATION BY SPEAKER CANNON they should be competent to rule. Competency requires not only patriotism, but material well- being, education and statecraft. The people, under the lead of the Republican party, write upon the statute books revenue laws, levying taxes upon the products of for- eign countries seeking our markets, which re- plenished our Treasury, but were so adjusted as to encourage our people in developing, diver- sifying and maintaining our industries, at the same time protecting our citizens laboring in production against the competition of foreign labor. Under this policy, our manufactured product to-day is one-third of the product of the civilized world, and our people receive al- most double the pay for their labor that sim- ilar labor receives elsewhere in the world, thereby enabling us to bear the burdens of cit- izenship. Liberal compensation for labor makes lib- eral customers for our products. Under this policy of protection, our home market affords all our people a better market than has any other people on earth, and this, too, even if we did not sell any of our products abroad. In addition to this, we have come to be the great- est exporting nation in the world. For the year ending June 30, 1904, our exports to for- 203 KOTIPICATION BY SPEAKER CANNON eign countries were valued at $1,460,000,000, of which $450,000,000 were products of the factory. The world fell in our debt last year $470,000,000, an increase of $75,000,000 over the preceding year. This policy of protection has always been op- posed by the opponents of the Republican party, and is opposed by them to-day. In their last national platform, adopted at St. Louis, they denounce protection as robbery. They never have been given power but they proceeded by word and act to destroy the policy of protection. Their platform is as silent as the grave touch- ing the gold standard and our currency system. Their chosen leader, after his nomination hav- ing been as silent as the Sphinx to that time sent his telegram saying, in substance, that the gold standard is established, and that he will govern himself accordingly if he should be elected. I congratulate him. It is better to be right late than never. It is better to be right in one thing than wrong in all things. I wonder if it ever occurred to him that if his vote and sup- port for his party's candidate in 1896 and 1900 had been decisive we would now have the silver standard? I wonder what made him send that 204 NOTIFICATION BY SPEAKER CANNON telegram after he was nominated, and why he did not send it before? When did he have a change of heart and judgment? And does he at heart believe in the gold standard and our currency system, or does he try now to reap where he has not sown? If, perchance, he should be elected by forcing together discord- ant elements, I submit that, with a Democratic House of Representatives or House and Sen- ate, there would be no harmonious action in legislation or administration that would benefit the people, but that doubt and discontent would everywhere distress production and labor. Con- sumption would be curtailed. In short, we would have an experience similar to that from 1893 to 1897. If this chosen leader and his friends are converts to Republican policies, should not they "bring forth fruits meet for re- pentance" before they ask to be placed in the highest positions to affect the well-being of all? or, if they profess all things to all men, then they are not worthy the confidence of any man. If clothed with power, will they follow in the paths of legislation according to their loves and votes as manifested by their action always here- tofore, or will they stand by, protect and de- fend the gold standard and our currency sys- 205 NOTIFICATION BY SPEAKER CANNON tern that have been created under the lead of the Republican party ? Correct revenue laws, protection or free trade, the gold standard and our currency sys- tem, all depend upon the sentiment of the ma- jority of our people as voiced at the ballot box. A majority may change our revenue laws; a majority may change our currency laws; a majority may destroy the gold standard and establish the silver standard, or, in lieu of either or both, make the Treasury note, non-interest bearing and irredeemable, the sole standard of value. Sir, let us turn from the region of doubt and double dealing, the debatable land, to the re- gion of assured certainty. The Republican party stands for Protection. It stands for the gold standard and our currency system. All these dwell in legislation enacted under the lead of the Republican party and against the most determined opposition of the Democratic party, including its leader and candidate. These be- ing our policies, and having been most useful to the country, we have confidence in and love them. If it be necessary from time to time that they should be strengthened here and con- trolled there, the Republican party stands ready with loving, competent hands, to apply the 206 NOTIFICATION BY SPEAKER CANNON proper remedy. I say "remedy." Being our policies, we will not willingly subject them to their enemies for slow starvation on the one hand or to sudden destruction on the other. Since the Republican party was restored to power in 1897, under the lead of McKinley, our country has prospered in production and in commerce as it has never prospered before. In wealth we stand first among all the nations. Under the lead of William McKinley the war with Spain was speedily brought to a success- ful conclusion. Under the treaty of peace and our action Cuba is free, and under guarantees written in her constitution and our legislation it is assured that she will ever remain free. We also acquired Porto Rico, Guam and the Philippines by a treaty the ratification of which was only possible by the votes of Democratic Senators. Civil government has been estab- lished in Porto Rico, and we are journeying toward civil government in the Philippines as rapidly as the people of the archipelago are able to receive it ; and this, too, notwithstanding the false cry of "imperialism" raised by the Democratic party and still insisted upon, which led to insurrection in the Philippines and tends to lead to further insurrection there. The rec- ord of the Republican party under the lead of 207 NOTIFICATION BY SPEAKER CANNON William McKinley has passed into history. Who dares assail it? In the history of the Republic in time of peace no Executive has had greater questions to deal with than yourself, and none have brought greater courage, wisdom and patriot- ism to their solution. You have enforced the law against the mighty and the lowly without fear, favor or partiality. Under the Constitu- tion you have recommended legislation to Con- gress from time to time, as it was your duty to do, and when it was passed by Congress have approved it. You have, under the Constitu- tion, led in making a treaty which was ratified by the Senate and is approved by the people, which not only assures, but, under the law and appropriations made by Congress, pro- ceeds with, the construction of the Panama Canal. The Republican party, under your leadership, keeps its record from the beginning under Lin- coln of doing things, the right thing at the right time and in the right way, notwithstand- ing the opposition of those who oppose the right policies from the selfish or partisan stand- point. They dare not tell the truth about your official action or the record of the party, and then condemn it. They can, for selfish or parti- 208 san reasons, abuse you personally and misrepre- sent the party which you lead. It is true, however, that so far their abuse of your action and their alleged fear of your personality is insignificant as compared with the personal and partisan carpings against Lincoln, Grant and McKinley when they were clothed with power by the people. Those whose only grievance is that you have enforced the law and those who carp for mere partisan capital will not, in my judgment, reap the harvest of success. The Republican party for you and under your lead- ership appeals to the great body of the people who live in the sweat of their faces, make the civilization, control the Republic, fight its bat- tles and determine its policies, for approval and continuance in power. The office of President of the United States is the greatest on earth, and many competent men in the Republican party are ambitious to hold it, yet the Republican Convention met at Chicago in June last and unanimously, with one accord, nominated you as the candidate of the party for President. I am sure all Repub- licans and a multitude of good citizens who do not call themselves Republicans said "Amen." In pursuance of the usual custom, the con- vention appointed a committee, of which it 209 NOTIFICATION BY SPEAKER CANNON honored me with the chairmanship, to wait upon you and inform you of its action, which duty, speaking for the committee, I now cheerfully perform, with the hope and the confident expec- tation that a majority of the people of the Republic will in November next approve the action of the convention by choosing electors who will assure your election to the Presidency as your own successor. 210 Acceptance Speech of Hon. Theodore Roosevelt. Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the Notifica- tion Committee: I am deeply sensible of the high honor conferred upon me by the repre- sentatives of the Republican party assembled in convention, and I accept the nomination for the Presidency with solemn realization of the obligations I assume. I heartily approve the declaration of principles which the Republican National Convention has adopted, and at some future day I shall communicate to you, Mr. Chairman, more at length and in detail a for- mal written acceptance of the nomination. Three years ago I became President because of the death of my lamented predecessor. I then stated that it was my purpose to carry out his principles and policies for the honor and the interest of the country. To the best of my ability I have kept the promise thus made. If next November my countrymen confirm at the polls the action of the convention you represent, I shall, under Providence, continue to work with an eye single to the welfare of all our people. A party is of worth only in so far as it 211 ACCEPTANCE BY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT promotes the national interest, and every offi- cial, high or low, can serve his party best by rendering to the people the best service of which he is capable. Effective government comes only as the result of the loyal co-opera- tion of many different persons. The members of a legislative majority, the officers in the various departments of the Administra- tion, and the legislative and executive branches as toward each other, must work together with subordination of self to the com- mon end of successful government. We who have been intrusted with power as public serv- ants during the last seven years of administra- tion and legislation now come before the people content to be judged by our record of achieve- ment. In the years that have gone by we have made the deed square with the word ; and if we are continued in power we shall unswervingly follow out the great lines of public policy which the Republican party has already laid down ; a public policy to which we are giving, and shall give, a united, and therefore an efficient, sup- port. In all of this we are more fortunate than our opponents, who now appeal for confidence on the ground, which some express and some seek to have confidentially understood, that if tri- 212 ACCEPTANCE BY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT umphant they may be trusted to prove false to every principle which in the last eight years they have laid down as vital, and to leave un- disturbed those very acts of the Administration because of which they ask that the Administra- tion itself be driven from power. Seemingly their present attitude as to their past record is that some of them were mistaken and others in- sincere. We make our appeal in a wholly dif- ferent spirit. We are not constrained to keep silent on any vital question; we are divided on no vital question; our policy is con- tinuous, and is the same for all sections and localities. There is nothing experimental about the government we ask the people to continue in power, for our performance in the past, our proved governmental efficiency, is a guarantee as to our promises for the future. Our opponents, either openly or secretly, ac- cording to their several temperaments, now ask the people to trust their present promises in consideration of the fact that they intend to treat their past promises as null and void. We know our own minds, and we have kept of the same mind for a sufficient length of time to give to our policy coherence and sanity. In such a fundamental matter as the enforcement of the law we do not have to depend upon 213 ACCEPTANCE BY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT promises, but merely to ask that our record be taken as an earnest of what we shall continue to do. In dealing with the great organizations known as trusts we do not have to explain why the laws were not enforced, but to point out that they actually have been enforced and that legislation has been enacted to increase the ef- fectiveness of their enforcement. We do not have to propose to "turn the ras- cals out," for we have shown in very deed that whenever by diligent investigation a public official can be found who has betrayed his trust he will be punished to the full extent of the law, without regard to whether he was ap- pointed under a Republican or a Democratic Adiministration. This is the efficient way to turn the rascals out and to keep them out, and it has the merit of sincerity. Moreover, the betrayals of trust in the last seven years have been in- significant in number when compared with the extent of the public service. Never has the ad- ministration of the government been on a cleaner and higher level; never has the public work of the nation been done more honestly and efficiently. Assuredly, it is unwise to change the policies which have worked so well and which are now working so well. Prosperity has come at home. 214 ACCEPTANCE BY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT The national honor and interest have been up- held abroad. We have placed the finances of the nation upon a sound gold basis. We have done this with the aid of many who were for- merly our opponents, but who would neither openly support nor silently acquiesce in the heresy of unsound finance ; and we have done it against the convinced and violent opposition of the mass of our present opponents, who still refuse to recant the unsound opinions which for the moment they think it inexpedient to as- sert. We know what we mean when we speak of an honest and stable currency. We mean the same thing from year to year. We do not have to avoid a definite and conclusive com- mittal on the most important issue which has recently been before the people, and which may at any time in the near future be before them again. Upon the principles which under- lie the issue the convictions of half of our num- ber do not clash with those of the other half. So long as the Republican party is in power the gold standard is settled, not as a matter of temporary political expediency, not because of shifting conditions in the production of gold in certain mining centers, but in accordance with what we regard as the fundamental principles of national morality and wisdom. 215 ACCEPTANCE BY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT Under the financial legislation which we have enacted there is now ample circulation for every business need; and every dollar of this circulation is worth a dollar in gold. We have reduced the interest -bearing debt, and in still larger measure the interest on that debt. All of the war taxes imposed during the Spanish war have been removed with a view to relieve the people and to prevent the accumulation of an unnecessary surplus. The result is that hardly ever before have the expenditures and income of the government so closely corre- sponded. In the fiscal year that has just closed the excess of income over the ordinary ex- penditures was $9,000,000. This does not take account of the $50,000,000 expended out of the accumulated surplus for the purchase of the Isthmian Canal. It is an extraordinary proof of the sound financial condition of the nation that instead of following the usual course in such matters and throwing the burden upon posterity by an issue of bonds, we are able to make the payment outright, and yet after it to have in the Treasury a surplus of $161,000,000. Moreover, we were able to pay this $50,000,000 out of hand without causing the slightest dis- turbance to business conditions. We have enacted a tariff law under which, 216 ACCEPTANCE BY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT during the last few years, the country has at- tained a height of material well-being never be- fore reached. Wages are higher than ever be- fore. That whenever the need arises there should be a readjustment of the tariff schedules is undoubted ; but such changes can with safety be made only by those whose devotion to the principle of a protective tariff is beyond ques- tion; for otherwise the changes would amount not to readjustment but to repeal. The read- justment when made must maintain and not de- stroy the protective principle. To the farmer, the merchant, the manufacturer, this is vital; but perhaps no other man is so much interested as the wage worker in the maintenance of our present economic system, both as regards the finances and the tariff. The standard of living of our wage workers is higher than that of any other country, and it cannot so remain unless we have a protective tariff which shall always keep as a minimum a rate of duty sufficient to cover the difference between the labor cost here and abroad. Those who, like our opponents, "denounce protection as a robbery" thereby ex- plicitly commit themselves to the proposition that if they were to revise the tariff no heed would be paid to the necessity of meeting this difference between the standards of living for 217 ACCEPTANCE BY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT wage workers here and in other countries ; and therefore on this point their antagonism to our position is fundamental. Here again we ask that their promises and ours be judged by what has been done in the immediate past. We ask that sober and sensible men compare the workings of the present tariff law, and the conditions which obtain under it, with the workings of the preceding tariff law of 1894 and the conditions which that tariff of 1894 helped to bring about. We believe in reciprocity with foreign na- tions on the terms outlined in President Mc- Kinley's last speech, which urged the extension of our foreign markets by reciprocal agree- ments whenever they could be made without in- jury to American industry and labor. It is a singular fact that the only great reciprocity treaty recently adopted that with Cuba was finally opposed almost alone by the representa- tives of the very party which now states that it favors reciprocity. And here, again, we ask that the worth of our words be judged by com- paring their deeds with ours. On this Cuban reciprocity treaty there were at the outset grave differences of opinion among ourselves ; and the notable thing in the negotiation and ratification of the treaty, and in' the legislation which car- ried it into effect, was the highly practical man- 218 ACCEPTANCE BY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT ner in which, without sacrifice of principle, these differences of opinion were reconciled. There was no rupture of a great party, but an excellent practical outcome, the result of the harmonious co-operation of two successive Presidents and two successive Congresses. This is an illustration of the governing capacity which entitles us to the confidence of the people not only in our purposes but in our practical ability to achieve those purposes. Judging by the history of the last twelve years, down to this very month, is there justification for believing that under similar circumstances and with sim- ilar initial differences of opinion our opponents would have achieved any practical result? We have already shown in actual fact that our policy is to do fair and equal justice to all men, paying no heed to whether a man is rich or poor ; paying no heed to his race, his creed or his birthplace. We recognize the organization of capital and the organization of labor as natural outcomes of our industrial system. Each kind of organi- zation is to be favored so long as it acts in a spirit of justice and of regard for the rights of others. Each is to be granted the full protection of the law, and each in turn is to be held to a strict obedience to the law ; for no man is above 219 ACCEPTANCE BY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT it and no man below it. The humblest indi- vidual is to have his rights safeguarded as scru- pulously as those of the strongest organization, for each is to receive justice, no more and no less. The problems with which we have to deal in our modern industrial and social life are manifold ; but the spirit in which it is necessary to approach their solution is simply the spirit of honesty, of courage and of common sense. In inaugurating the great work of irrigation in the West the administration has been enabled by Congress to take one of the longest strides ever taken under our government towards util- izing our vast national domain for the settler, the actual home maker. Ever since this continent was discovered the need of an isthmian canal to connect the Pacific and the Atlantic has been recognized ; and ever since the birth of our nation such a canal has been planned. At last the dream has become a reality. The isthmian canal is now being built by the government of the United States. We conducted the negotiation for its construction with the nicest and most scrupulous honor, and in a spirit of the largest generosity toward those through whose territory it was to run. Every sinister effort which could be devised by the spirit of faction or the spirit of self-interest was 220 ACCEPTANCE BY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT made in order to defeat the treaty with Panama and thereby prevent the consummation of this work. The construction of the canal is now an assured fact, but most certainly it is unwise to intrust the carrying out of so momentous a policy to those who have endeavored to defeat the whole undertaking. Our foreign policy has been so conducted that, while not one of our just claims has been sacrificed, our relations with all foreign nations are now of the most peaceful kind ; there is not a cloud on the horizon. The last cause of irrita- tion between us and any other nation was re- moved by the settlement of the Alaskan bound- ary. In the Caribbean Sea we have made good our promises of independence to Cuba, and have proved our assertion that our mission in the island was one of justice and not of self-ag- grandizement, and thereby no less than by our action in Venezuela and Panama we have shown that the Monroe Doctrine is a living reality, designed for the hurt of no nation, but for the protection of civilization on the Western con- tinent and for the peace of the world. Our steady growth in power has gone hand in hand with a strengthening disposition to use this power with strict regard for the rights of 221 others and for the cause of international justice and good-will. We earnestly desire friendship with all the nations of the New and Old Worlds; and we endeavor to place our relations with them upon a basis of reciprocal advantage instead of hos- tility. We hold that the prosperity of each nation is an aid and not a hindrance to the pros- perity of other nations. We seek international amity for the same reasons that make us be- lieve in peace within our own borders; and we seek this peace not because we are afraid or unready, but because we think that peace is right as well as advantageous. American interests in the Pacific have rap- idly grown. American enterprise has laid a cable across this, the greatest of oceans. We have proved in effective fashion that we wish the Chinese Empire well and desire its integ- rity and independence. Our foothold in the Philippines greatly strengthens our position in the competition for the trade of the East; but we are governing the Philippines in the interest of the Philippine people themselves. We have already given them a large share in their government, and our purpose is to increase this share as rapidly as they give evidence of increasing fitness for ACCEPTANCE BY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT the task. The great majority of the officials of the islands, whether elective or appointive, are already native Filipinos. We are now pro- viding for a legislative assembly. This is the first step to be taken in the future ; and it would be eminently unwise to declare what our next step will be until this first step has been taken and the results are manifest. To have gone faster than we have already gone in giving the islanders a constantly increasing measure of self-government would have been disastrous. At the present moment to give political inde- pendence to the islands would result in the im- mediate loss of civil rights, personal liberty and public order, as regards the mass of the Filipinos, for the majority of the islanders have been given these great boons by us, and only keep them because we vigilantly safeguard and guarantee them. To withdraw our gov- ernment from the islands at this time would mean to the average native the loss of his barely won civil freedom. We have established in the islands a government by Americans, assisted by Filipinos. We are steadily striving to transform this into self-government by the Filipinos assisted by Americans. The principles which we uphold should ap- peal to all our countrymen, in all portions of 223 ACCEPTANCE BY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT our country. Above all, they should give us strength with the men and women who are the spiritual heirs of those who upheld the hands of Abraham Lincoln, for we are striving to do our work in the spirit with which Lincoln ap- proached his. During the seven years that have just passed there is no duty, domestic or foreign, which we have shirked; no necessary task which we have feared to undertake, or which we have not performed with reasonable efficiency. We have never pleaded impotence. We have never sought refuge in criticism and complaint instead of action. We face the future with our past and our present as guar- antors of our promises, and we are content to stand or to fall by the record which we have made and are making. 224 IK THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. Series 9482 001 026680 "