I am deeply sensible of the great honor which you confer upon me, an
honor coming from this primate of the universities of the New World; an
honor which receives me into the company of men learned, devoted to
science, the disciples of truth, men eminent in the republic of letters.
I am the more appreciative of this emblem because I am myself the son of
a college professor, born within the precincts of a learned institution,
and all my life closely associated with higher education in the United
States of America. But I realize, sir, that my personality plays no
considerable part in the ceremony of today. Happy is he who comes, by
whatever chance, to stand as the representative of a great cause; as the
representative of ideas which conciliate the feelings and arouse the
enthusiasm of men; for the cause sheds light upon his person, however
small, and the honor of his purpose reflects honor on him.
With the greatest satisfaction I have heard from the lips of the learned
rector and professor of this university so just and high an estimate of
the contributions made by my country to the cause of ordered liberty and
justice in the world. I feel that what has been said here today is of
far greater weight than any ordinary compliment, because it comes from
men who speak under the grave responsibility of their high station as
instructors of their countrymen, and after deliberate study, resulting
in definite and certain conclusions.
It is a matter of most interesting reflection that after the nations of
the Old World, from which we took our being, had sought for many years
to gain wealth and strength and profit by the enforcement of a narrow
and mistaken colonial policy, the revolt of the colonies of the New
World brought to the mother nations infinitely greater blessings even
than they were seeking. The reflex action of the working of the spirit
of freedom on these shores of the new hemisphere upon the welfare of
the countless millions of the Old World, has been of a value
incalculable and inconceivable to the minds against whose mistaken
policy we revolted.
I have always thought, sir, that the chief contribution of the United
States of America to political science, was the device of incorporating
in written constitutions an expression of the great principles which
underlie human freedom and human justice, and putting it in the power of
the judicial branch of the government to pass judgment upon the
conformity of political action to those principles.
When in the fullness of time the hour had come for the new experiment in
government among men, and it was the fate of the young and feeble
colonies upon the coast of the North Atlantic to make the experiment,
the Old World was full of the most dismal forebodings as to the result.
The world was told that the experiment of democratic government meant
the rule of the mob; that it might work well today, but that tomorrow
the mob which had had but half a breakfast and could expect no dinner,
would take control; and that the tyranny of the mob was worse than the
tyranny of any individual.
The provisions of our constitutions guard against the tyranny of the
mob, for at the time when men can deal in harmony with the principles of
justice, when no selfish motive exists, when no excited passions exist,
the constitution declares the great principles of justice--that no man
shall be deprived of his property without due process of the law; that
private property shall not be taken for public use without just
compensation; that a person accused of crime shall be entitled to be
informed of the charge against him, and given opportunity to defend
himself. These provisions are essential to the preservation of liberty;
and in the hands of judicial power rests the prerogative of declaring
that whenever a congress, or a president, or a general, or whatever
officer of whatever rank or dignity infringes, by a hair's breadth, upon
any one of these great impersonal declarations of human rights, his acts
cease to have official effect. The substitution of the divine quality of
judgment, of the judicial quality in man, that quality which is bound by
all that honor, by all that respect for human rights, by all that
self-respect can accomplish, to lay aside all fear or favor and decide
justly--the substitution of that quality for the fevered passions of the
hour, for political favor and political hope, for political ambition,
for personal selfishness and personal greed,--that is the contribution,
the great contribution, of the American Constitution to the political
science of the world.
If we pass to the field most ably and interestingly discussed in the
paper to which we have just listened, to the field of international
justice, we find the same principle less fully developed. I had almost
said we find the need for the application of the same principle. All
international law and international justice depend upon national law and
national justice. No assemblage of nations can be expected to establish
and maintain any higher standard in their dealings with one another than
that which each maintains within its own borders. Just as the standard
of justice and civilization in a community depends upon the individual
character of the elements of the community, so the standard of justice
among nations depends upon the standard established in each individual
nation. Now, in the field of international arbitration we find a less
fully developed sense of impersonal justice than we find in our
municipal jurisprudence. Many years ago the Marquis of Salisbury, in a
very able note, pointed out the extreme difficulty which lies in the way
of international arbitration, arising from the difficulty of securing
arbitrators who will act impartially, the trouble being that the world
has not yet passed, in general, out of that stage of development in
which men, even if they be arbitrators, act diplomatically instead of
acting judicially. Arbitrations are too apt, therefore, to lead to
diplomatic compromises rather than to judicial decisions. The remedy is
not in abandoning the principle of arbitration, but it is by pressing on
in every country and among all countries the quickened conscience, the
higher standard, the judicial idea, the sense of the responsibility for
impartial judgment in international affairs, as distinguished from the
opportunity for negotiation in international affairs. We are too apt,
both those who are despondent about the progress of civilization and
those who are cynical about the unselfishness of mankind, to be
impatient in our judgment, and to forget how long the life of a nation
is, and how slow the processes of civilization are; how long it takes to
change character and to educate whole peoples up to different standards
of moral law. The principle of arbitration requires not merely
declarations by governments, by congresses; it requires that education
of the people of all civilized countries up to the same standard which
now exists regarding the sacredness of judicial functions exercised in
our courts.
It does not follow from this that the declaration of the principle of
arbitration is not of value; it does not follow that governments and
congresses are not advancing the cause of international justice; a
principle recognized and declared always gains fresh strength and force;
but for the accomplishment of the results which all of us desire in the
substitution of arbitration for war, we must not be content with the
declaration of principles; we must carry on an active campaign of
universal national and international education, elevating the idea of
the sacredness of the exercise of the judicial function in arbitration
as well as in litigation between individuals. Still deeper than that
goes the duty that rests upon us. Arbitration is but the method of
preventing war after nations have been drawn up in opposition to each
other with serious differences and excited feelings. The true, the
permanent, and the final method of preventing war, is to educate the
people who make war or peace, the people who control parliaments and
congresses, to a love for justice and regard for the rights of others.
So we come to the duty that rests here--not in the whims or the
preference or the policy of a monarch, but here, in this university, in
every institution of learning throughout the civilized world, with every
teacher--the responsibility of determining the great issues of peace and
war through the responsibility of teaching the people of our countries
the love of justice, teaching them to seek the victories of peace rather
than the glories of war; to regard more highly an act of justice and of
generosity than even an act of courage or an act of heroism. In this
great work of educating the people of the American republics to peace,
there are no political divisions. As there is, and has been since the
dawn of civilization, but one republic of science, but one republic of
letters, let there be but one republic of the politics of peace, one
great university of the professors and instructors of justice, of
respect for human rights, of consideration for others, and of the peace
of the world.