lic can only be kept pure by the
individual purity of its members; and that if it become once
thoroughly corrupted, it will surely cease to exist. In our
body politic, each man is himself a constituent portion of
the sovereign, and if the sovereign is to continue in power,
he must continue to do right. When you here exercise your
privileges at the ballot box, you are not only exercising a
right, but you are also fulfilling a duty; and a heavy
responsibility rests on you to fulfill your duty well. If
you fail to work in public life, as well as in private, for
honesty and uprightness and virtue, if you condone vice
because the vicious man is smart, or if you in any other way
cast your weight into the scales in favor of evil, you are
just so far corrupting and making less valuable the
birthright of your children. The duties of American
citizenship are very solemn as well as very precious; and
each one of us here to-day owes it to himself, to his
children, and to all his fellow Americans, to show that he
is capable of performing them in the right spirit.

It is not what we have that will make us a great nation; it
is the way in which we use it.

I do not undervalue for a moment our material prosperity;
like all Americans, I like big things; big prairies, big
forests and mountains, big wheat-fields, railroads,--and
herds of cattle, too,--big factories, steamboats, and
everything else. But we must keep steadily in mind that no
people were ever yet benefited by riches if their prosperity
corrupted their virtue. It is of more importance that we
should show ourselves honest, brave, truthful, and
intelligent, than that we should own all the railways and
grain elevators in the world. We have fallen heirs to the
most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one
must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is
worthy of its good fortune. Here we are not ruled over by
others, as in the case of Europe; we rule ourselves. All
American citizens, whether born here or elsewhere, whether
of one creed or another, stand on the same footing; we
welcome every honest immigrant no matter from what country
he comes, provided only that he leaves off his former
nationality, and remains neither Celt nor Saxon, neither
Frenchman nor