There is a touch of sorrow, but there is a touch of reassurance also
in a day like this, because we know how the men of America have
responded to the call of the cause of liberty, and it fills our mind
with a perfect assurance that that response will come again in equal
measures, with equal majesty and with a result which will hold the
attention of all mankind.
When you reflect upon it, these men who died to preserve the Union
died to preserve the instrument which we are now using to serve the
world--a free nation espousing the cause of human liberty. In one
sense the great struggle into which we have now entered is an
American struggle, because it is in the sense of American honor and
American rights, but it is something even greater than that; it is a
world struggle. It is a struggle of men who love liberty everywhere;
and in this cause America will show herself greater than ever because
she will rise to a greater thing.
We have said in the beginning that we planned this great Government
that men who wish freedom might have a place of refuge and a place
where their hope could be realized, and now, having established such
a Government, having preserved such a Government, having vindicated
the power of such a Government, we are saying to all mankind, "We did
not set this Government up in order that we might have a selfish and
separate liberty, for we are now ready to come to your assistance and
fight out upon the fields of the world the cause of human liberty."