_Governor Burleigh, my fellow-citizens, men and women of Maine_:
It would be difficult for any man speaking to this audience and from
in front of the house in which Blaine once lived to fail to feel
whatever of Americanism there was in him stirred to the depths. For
my good fortune I knew Mr. Blaine quite well when he was Secretary of
State, and I have thought again and again during the past few years
how pleased he would have been to see so many of the principles for
which he had stood approach fruition.
One secret, perhaps I might say the chief secret, of Mr. Blaine’s
extraordinary hold upon the affections of his countrymen was his
entirely genuine and unaffected Americanism. When I speak of
Americanism I do not for a minute mean to say, gentlemen, that
all the things we do are all right. I think there are plenty of
evils to correct and that often a man shows himself all the more
a good American because he wants to cut out any evil of the body
politic which may interfere with our approaching the ideal of true
Americanism. But not only admitting but also emphasizing this, it
yet remains true that throughout our history no one has been able to
render really great service to the country if he did not believe in
the country. Mr. Blaine possessed to an eminent degree the confident
hope in the nation’s future which made him feel that she must ever
strive to fit herself for a great destiny. He felt that this Republic
must in every way take the lead in the Western Hemisphere. He felt
that this Republic must play a great part among the nations of the
earth. The last four years have shown how true that feeling of his was.
He had always hoped that we would have a peculiarly intimate relation
with the countries south of us. He could hardly have anticipated—no
one could have—the Spanish War and its effects. In consequence of that
war America’s interest in the tropic islands to our south and the
seas and coasts surrounding those islands is far greater than ever
before. Our interest in the Monroe Doctrine is more complicated than
ever before. The Monroe Doctrine is simply a statement of our very
firm belief that on this continent the nations now existing here must
be left to work out their own destinies among themselves and that the
continent is not longer to be regarded as colonizing ground for any
European power. The one power on the continent that can make that
doctrine effective is, of course, ourselves; for in the world as it
is, gentlemen, the nation which advances a given doctrine likely to
interfere in any way with other nations must possess power to back it
up if she wishes the doctrine to be respected. We stand firmly on the
Monroe Doctrine.
The events of the last nine months have rendered it evident that we
shall soon embark on the work of excavating the Isthmian Canal to
connect the two great oceans—a work destined to be, probably, the
greatest engineering feat of the twentieth century, certainly a
greater engineering feat than has ever yet been successfully attempted
among the nations of mankind; and as it is the biggest thing of its
kind to be done I am glad it is the United States that is to do it.
Whenever a nation undertakes to carry out a great destiny it must make
up its mind that there will be work and worry, labor and risk, in
doing the work. It is with a nation as it is with an individual; if
you are content to attempt but little in private life you may be able
to escape a good deal of worry, but you won’t achieve very much. The
man who attempts much must make up his mind that there will now and
then come days and nights of worry; there will come even moments of
seeming defeat. But out of the difficulties we wrest success. So it is
with the nation. It is not the easy task that is necessarily the best.