Have you not felt the spirit of the nation rise and its thought become
a single and common thought since these eventful days came in which we
have been sending our boys to the other side? I think you must read
that thought, as I do, to mean this, that the people of this country
are not only united in the resolute purpose to win this war, but are
ready and willing to bear any burden and undergo any sacrifice that it
may be necessary for them to bear in order to win it. We need not be
afraid to tax them, if we lay taxes justly. They know that the war must
be paid for, that it is they who must pay for it, and, if the burden is
justly distributed and the sacrifice made a common sacrifice from which
none escapes who can bear it at all, they will carry it cheerfully
and with a sort of solemn pride. I have always been proud to be an
American, and was never more proud than now, when all that we have said
and all that we have foreseen about our people is coming true. The
great days have come when the only thing that they ask for or admire is
duty, greatly and adequately. done; when their only wish for America
is that she may share the freedom she enjoys, when a great, compelling
sympathy wells up in their hearts for men everywhere who suffer and
are oppressed, and when they see at last the high uses for which their
wealth has been piled up and their mighty power accumulated, and,
counting neither blood nor treasure, now that their final day of
opportunity has come, rejoice to spend and to be spent through a long
night of suffering and terror in order that they and men everywhere may
see the dawn of a day of righteousness and justice and peace. Shall we
grow weary when they bid us act?