British ancestors. His sword
returned to its scabbard with the achievement of the independence of
the colonies, and the mission of Washington was yet but half
accomplished. To garner up the fruits of successful revolution by
ensuring stable government was the task demanding the loftiest
statesmanship. The five years immediately succeeding our first
treaty of peace with Great Britain have been truly defined, 'our
period of greatest peril.' It was fortunate, indeed, that Washington
was called to preside over the historic convention of '87, and that
his spirit--a yearning for an indissoluble union of the States--
permeated all its deliberations. Fortunate, indeed, that in its
councils was his colleague and friend, the constructive statesman,
James Madison. Inseparably associated for all time with the
formulation and interpretation of the great covenant are the names
of two illustrious Virginians--for all the ages illustrious Americans
--Madison, the father, and Marshall, the expounder of the
Constitution.

"It remained to another son of this first commonwealth, from the
high place to which he had been chosen, to enunciate in trenchant words,
at a crucial moment, a national policy which, under the designation
of 'the Monroe doctrine,' has been the common faith of three
generations of his countrymen and is to remain the enduring bar to
the establishment of monarchial government upon this western
hemisphere.

"Four decades later, at the striking of the hour that noted the
inevitable 'breaking with the past,' it remained to still
another illustrious successor of Jefferson--alike of Virginian
ancestry, and born within her original domain--by authoritative
proclamation to liberate a race, and thereby, for all time, to give
enlarged and grander meaning to our imperishable declaration of
human rights.

"My countrymen, the little settlement planted just three centuries
ago near the spot upon which we have to-day assembled has under
divine guidance grown into a mighty nation. Eighty millions of
people, proud of local traditions and achievements, yet looking
beyond the mere confines of their distinctive commonwealths,
find their chief glory in being citizens of the great Republic.
The mantle of peace is over our own land, and our accredited
representatives in the world's conference, at this auspicious hour,
are outlining a policy that looks to the establishment of enduring
peace among all the nations. To-day, inspired