F3a 63 H Congress \ ?c? Session j T ( SENATE Document No. 180 Address on Washington's Birthday ADDRESS DELIVERED ON FEBRUARY 22, 1918, AT WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION BEFORE THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF THE REVOLUTION, AT WASHINGTON, D. C. By HON. WARREN G. HARDING UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF OHIO I P' 6 ^^0/ PRESENTED BY MR. POMERENE February 25, 1918.~Ordered to be printed WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1918 . 63 0. JUL ADDEESS ON WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY. Mr. President, Madam iPresident, Your Excellencies, Sons and Daughters of the Revolution, ladies and gentlemen, my countrymen, I have been sensing the atmosphere of this patriotic occasion and the significance of this celebration. There is an interesting suggestion in the representation here to-day which gives assurances of that fra- ternity of nations which is to hold justice and our ideals of civiliza- tion secure to the world. Here, on my right, is the ambassador from Italy, whose people discovered us; on my left is the new ambassador from Great Britain, whose people largely developed us; and nearby sits the ambassador of France, whose people helped to deliver us, all joining us of America in a tribute to the beloved Father of the Eepublic, and consecrating all to the common cause of liberty and justice and the security of national life. It is impossible to resist the impelling thought to speak as an eligible son of the Eevolution and say what I know is in your hearts to these official representatives of the nations with whom we are committed in all conscience and righteousness. To you, Mr. Ambassador, I pledge you America's sympathy and admiration, in the sacrifices made and the courageous battle which Italy is giving to our common enemy. And to you, Lord Reading, I utter what I knoAv to be felt and yet little expressed, our reverent regard for Great Britain's unselfish and unalterable resolution to fight to the death for the sanctity of international compacts. And to you. Mr. Ambassador, I speak the love and admiration of America for noble and heroic France, who helped us establish the very liberty for which your sons are dying to-day. In such a fraternity as you and our own people make, I find the highest assurance mankind may have for the future security of the civilized world. It is good to meet and drink at the fountains of wisdom inherited from the founding fathers of the Republic. It is a fitting time for retrospection and introspection Avhen we face a problem to-day even greater than the miracle they wrought. The comparison does not belittle their accomplishment. Xothing in all history • surpasses their achievement. The miracle was not the victory for independ- ence. The stupendous thing was the successful establishment of the Republic. There they were, spent and bleeding, in the very chaos of newly found freedom ; there they were, with ideas conflict- ing, interests varied, jealousies threatening, and selfishness impell- ing; there they were, without having visualized nationality. They had contended only for liberty, and Avhen it was obtained they found a nation to be the necessary means of its preservation. With commanding patriotism and lofty statesmanship, with heroic sacrifice and deep-penetrating foresight, they founded what we had 3 4 ADDRESS ON WASHINGTON S BIRTHDAY. come to believe the first seemingly dependable popular Government on the face of the earth. I can believe they were divinely inspired. In the reverent retrospection I can believe that destiny impelled. Surely there Avas the guiding hand of divinity itself, conscious of sublime purpose. They not only wrought union and concord out of division and discord, but the}'^ established a representative democracy, and for the first time in the history of the world wrote civil liberty'' into the fundamental law. On this civil liberty is builcled the temple of human liberty, and through this representative Government we Americans have wrought to the astonishment of the world. More, on the unfailing foundation of civil liberty they established orderly government, the most precious possession of all civilization, and made justice its highest purpose. JMark you, they were not reforming the world. They had dearly bought the freedom of a new people; they reared new standards of liberty; they consecrated themselves to equal rights, then sought to establish the highest guaranty of them all. They had the vision to realize that no dependable government could be founded on ephem- eral popular opinion. They knew that thinking, intelligent, delib- erate, public opinion, in due time would write any statute that justice inspired. They knew that no pure democracy, with political power measured by physical might, ever had endured; that neither the autocrat with usurped or granted power, or the mass in impassioned committal could maintain libe^-ty and justice or bestow their limit- less blessings. So they fashione 1 their triumphs, their hopes, their aspirations, and their convictions into the Constitution of the repre- sentative Republic; they made justice the crowning figure on the surpassing temple, and stationed jjeckoning opportunity at the door — equal opportunity, let me say — and bade the world to come and be welcome ;' and the world came — the down-trodden and the oppressed, the adventurous and ambitious — and they drank freely of the waters of our political life, and stood erect, and achieved, each according to his merits or his industry, his talents or his genius. Generous in their rejoicing, the fathers neglected to establish the altars of consecration at the threshold. Eager to develop our measureless re- sources, anxious to have humanity come and partake freely of new- world liberty, they asked no dedication at the portals. They devel- oped an American soul in their own sacrifices for liberty, but neg- lected to demand soul consecration before participation on the part of those who came to share their triinnphs. We have come to realize the oversight noAv. We have come to find our boasted popular Government put to the crucial test in defending its national rights. We met with no such problem in the Civil War. That was a destined -conflict between Americans of the two schools of political thought, which was the final test in maintaining nation- ality. There was like passion for country on either side of that great struggle, but the dross in the misdirected passion for disunion was burned aAvay in the crucible of fire and blood, and the pure gold turned into shining stars in dear Old Glory again. We settled rights to nationalitv among ourselves. We are fighting to-day for the unalterable rights Avhich are inherent in nationality^, without which no self-respecting nation could hope to survive, and for which any nation refusing to fight does not deserve to survive. ADDKESS ON WASHINi, jTON S BIRTHDAY. 5 There has never been one moment ors^oubt among Americans about the righteousness of our part in this ynutterable war. There has never been any question among Americsms about the necessitj^ of our taking a mighty part therein. And theji'e isn't any question among real, red-blooded Americans about our pghting it to a triumphant ending. It is not in my heart to utter alboast, and I am not so un- heeding as to underrate the determinati(|)n and the preparedness of the allied, central powers. I do not misconstrue the loyalty of their peoples, against whom we do and must gi've battle, whether we pro- claim it so or not, but this mightiest conflict of all time is one of resources and brains as well as valor and heroism, and America is rich in all, and her strength is doubled by the righteousness of our cause. We were slow in our committal, but it is unalterable. We do not seek to destro}-, but Germany must be brought to terms. We do not cry for vengeance, but the madman of the world must be re- strained or restored to reason. We do not mean to intrude or dictate any more than we mean to tolerate intrusion or dictation, but now (hat we are in>olved, we mean to make the world fit to live in, and hold America and all lawful avenues of commerce and comity safe for America7is on land or sea. We have the duty to preserve the inherited covenant of the fathers ; we have the obligation to hand on to succeeding generations the very Republic which we inherited. If this generation will not sacrifice and suffer in this crisis of the world, the Republic is doomed. If this fortunate people can not prove popular government capable of de- fense in a war for national rights, popular government fails. If the impudent assumption of world domination is not thwarted by the entente allies and this people, then civilization itself is defeated. Never since the world began has any nation been able to dominate the world. A mighty, righteous people may influence and help man- kind, and I have wished that noble task foi' this Republic, but domi- nation is for God alone, and His agency is the universal brotherhood of man. There is one compensation in the very beginning. We are finding ourselves. From this day henceforth' we are to be an American people in fact as well as name. Consecration to America is the delib- erate and unalterable decree. The dedicating altars are erected and are free as liberty itself. Now and hereafter the individual, no matter who he is or whence he comes, who proclaims himself an American and fattens his existence on American opportunity, must be an American in his heart and soul. More, the American of to-day, to-morrow, and so long as the Republic endures and triumphs, must be schooled to the duties of citizenship which go with the privileges and advantages thereof, and men and women of America are to find vv'hat they can do for orderly government irstead of seeking what it can do for them. Solemnly, my countrymen, this is an epoch in human affairs. The world is in upheaval. There is more than war and its measureless cost. Civilization is in a fluid state. All existent forms of govern- ment are being tested, and the very fundamentals of human achieve- ment are in question. In this hour of reverent memory for the be- loved Father of our Country, in this wholesome retrospection of the miracle wrought by the founders, in the hurried contemplation of the 6 ADDRESS ON WASHINGTON'S BIKTHDAY. inaivelous a('Iiie>'eiiients of our people to whom they gave an immor- tal boginning, let us strive to appreciate their wisdom and our good fortune and commit ourselves anew to the essential preservation. 1 Avonder what the great Washington would utter in warning, in his passionate love of the Eepublic and his deep concern about future welfare, if he coiild know the drift of to-day? In his undying fare- well address his repeated anxiety Avas concerning jealousies and heart- burnings Avhich spring from distrust and factional misrepresenta- tions—" they tend to rend alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection." And he Avarned us that " respect for authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures are duties enjoined by the fun- damental maxims of true liberty." " Liberty itself will find in such a government, Avith powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little less than a name where the gov- ernment is too feeble to Avithstand the enterprises of faction * * * and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of rights and property." Alluding to parties, more comparable to factions in our citizen- ship of the present day, he Avarned against " the spirit having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists in all goA'ernments, more or less stifled, controlled or repressed, but in those of popular form it is seen in its greatest rankness and is truly their Avorst enemy." In our mighty development we have added to the perils of which Washington Avarned. The danger has not been in party association, but in party appeal or surrender to faction. There has been no partisan politics in our Avar preparation. On the contrary, par- tisan lines haA'C been effaced, to close up the ranks in patriotic dcA^o- tion. But factions have groAvn more menacing and hold their fac- tional designs more necessary than patriotic consecration. It is characteristic of popular goA'ernment, and its Aveakness, that (here is more appeal to popularity than concern for the common Aveal. Too many men in public life are more concerned about bal- lots than the bulwarks of free institutions. Our groAvth, our diversi- fication, our Nation-Avide communication, our profit-bearing selfish- ness — these have filled the land Avith organzied factions, not geo- graphical, as Washington so much feared, but commercial, industrial, agricultural, and professional, each seeking to promote the interests of its OAvn, not Avithout justification at times, but often a menace, in exacting privilege or favor through the utterance of political threats. If poiDular goAcrnment is to survive it must grant exact justice to all men and fear none. If laAV is to be respected and government reriiain supreme, legislation must be for all the people, not for the feAv of vast fortune or its influences, or the fcAV of. commanding activity and their assumptions, or the many who may assert political poAver in accordance Avith numerical strength. The Eepublic is of all the people, equal in their claims to civil liberty and the grant of opportunity, aye, and its righteous rewards. The anxieties of world conflict and" the inevitable alterations must not blind us to the tasks of preservation. If the Avar is to make of us, or of any national votary of modified democracy, an impotent people, paralyzed by revolutionary reform, ADDRESS ON WASHINGTON S BIETHDAY. it is not worth the winning. If this a\ ()iW tumult is to leave w^i\ecked hopes like that of chaotic Russia to pnnle that autocracy and unin- telligent democracy have a common infatny, then civilization must have its purification in a penitence of lailure and wrecked hopes and unspeakable sacrifices, until God in llis mercy and wisdom re- stores sanity to mankind and admonishea men to achie\ement over the proven paths of human progress. Na thinking man can ignore the changes which war is working. But sjurely there is a righteous mean between the extremes of the expiring adherents of autocracy and the intoxicated radicals of deceived and demoralized democrac3^ Let's prove the Eepublic the highest agency of humanity's just aspirations. My countrymen, I am not crj^ing out in a wilderness of pessimism, I am uttering a warning that comes of love for the Republic. Let us go on, no matter what betides, to the dependable establishment of our national rights and the safely of our peoples; yes, and the sus- tained hands of justice among the peoples of the earth. We are no longer able to hold aloof, and the world must be made safe to live in. Let us prove our unity — the common purpose and the unalterable purpose of all Americans to do that, and then let us dedicate our- selves in unity and concord and the same unalterable resolution to the preservation of the inherited Republic. I could utter a prayer for an American benediction, to bestow on us the wisdom, the devo- tion, the faith, and the willingness to sacrifice, which strengthened the fathers in their mighty tasks. I wish w^e might dwell in their simplicity and frugality and the freedom from envy which attended. I wish I might end the extravagance of government and of indi- vidual life which adds to unrest and rends our strength. It is our besetting sin. We need as much sober thought about what we spend as we need agitation about what we earn in every walk of life. No people shod in $18 shoes is equipped for the conquering march of civilization. We do not proclaim ours the perfect Republic, nor yet the ideal popular Government, but we do maintain it is the best and the freest that the world has ever known, and under it mankind has advanced and achieved as under none other since civilization dawned, and in good conscience and consecrated citizenship and abiding faith and* high hope we mean, with God's good guidance, to go on to the fulfillment of the highest American destiny. / J LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS ijiiiliiiiiliiiiiii 011 712 036 3