_My Fellow-Citizens_:
No man could fail to be made a better American by traveling through
this great historic State of yours, where, throughout his journey,
he sees place after place associated with the historic past, such as
this city of yours near the Guilford battleground, commemorating by
its name one of Washington’s great generals. North Carolina’s history
has ever been high and honorable. It is right that we should remember
that the mighty deeds of our forefathers are not to serve to us as
excuses for inaction on our part, but as spurs to drive us forward to
doing our duty in our turn. We respect the son of a worthy father if
he feels that the fact that his father did well makes it incumbent
upon him to strive to do better. We despise the boy who treats the
fact that his father counted for something as being an excuse for his
counting for nothing. So I am glad to note the care that you in this
State are giving to education. The greatness of the country in the
time immediately to come will depend upon the way in which the young
generation of to-day is trained to citizenship in the future. I am
sorry to say that there is probably no one here who is not acquainted
with some kindly, well-meaning, and most foolish father or mother
who, because life has been hard with him or her in the past, takes the
view that the children are not to have to face any difficulties. The
worst thing that you can do for a child is to bring up him or her to
dodge difficulties. The children who will rise up to call their parents
blessed are those whom the parents have trained to meet difficulties,
not to shirk them; to overcome obstacles, not to get out of the way for
them. Neither the individual nor the community is worth anything if it
seeks after that which is easy. The thing to do is to find out what is
worth doing and do it—to show the manly quality that allows of this
being done.