nce. Its real patriotism counts for nothing--is smothered dumb
under party systems that have become crimes against the character and
the intelligence of the people. The South gives nothing and receives
nothing from the increasing national political achievement of every
decade. Politically it is yet a province; and we are tired of this
barren seclusion. Men who prefer complaint to achievement may regard
this as treason: let them make the most of it. We prefer a higher
station in the Union than New Hampshire and Vermont and Pennsylvania and
Arkansas hold.

From the first our commonwealth conspicuously stood for something
greater than any party, something that antedates all our parties, that
spirit of independence in political judgment and action which brought
the old thirteen states into being and made the Republic possible. And
that spirit is not dead yet.

If it cannot regain its old-time influence through one party, it will
regain it through another.

We are the descendants of men who fashioned parties in their beginning;
and, if need be, we can refashion them. For the aim of government is not
to preserve parties but to give range to free individual action in a
democracy. And it is in this spirit of national aspiration that we
welcome our distinguished guest of honor--a man now placed above
parties, and too just to regard the Republic by sections, our best
equipped citizen for the highest office in the world.

TO THE PRESIDENT-ELECT: _May his administration mark the return of
Southern character and sincerity to its old-time part in the
constructive work of government and the end forever of political
isolation from the achievements and the glory of the Union!_

%The South and the National
Government%

ADDRESS BY
THE HONORABLE WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT

PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES

North Carolina presents an admirable type of the present conditions in
the South. It offers, therefore, a suitable subject for the discussion
planned for this evening, and I count it a privilege to be present to
hear it. One, in any degree responsible for the government and welfare
of the whole country at this time in her history, must take an especial
interest in the trend of public opinion and the conditions, material and
political, of the South.

The laws of the United States have equal operation from the Canadian
border to the Gulf of Mexico. Congress has representatives from every
part of the country, including the S