So it is all along the line, in serious matters and things less serious.
We are all of the same clay and spirit, and we can get together if we
desire to get together. Therefore, my counsel to you is this: Let us
show ourselves Americans by showing that we do not want to go off in
separate camps or groups by ourselves, but that we want to cooeperate
with all other classes and all other groups in the common enterprise
which is to release the spirits of the world from bondage. I would be
willing to set that up as the final test of an American. That is the
meaning of democracy. I have been very much distressed, my
fellow-citizens, by some of the things that have happened recently. The
mob spirit is displaying itself here and there in this country. I have
no sympathy with what some men are saying, but I have no sympathy with
the men who take their punishment into their own hands; and I want to
say to every man who does join such a mob that I do not recognize him as
worthy of the free institutions of the United States. There are some
organizations in this country whose object is anarchy and the
destruction of law, but I would not meet their efforts by making myself
partner in destroying the law. I despise and hate their purposes as much
as any man, but I respect the ancient processes of justice; and I would
be too proud not to see them done justice, however wrong they are.