hands of a great Nation which
chooses whom it will to carry out its decrees and who invariably rejects
the man who forgets the ideals which it intended him to serve. So that I
hope that wherever you go you will have a generous, comprehending love
of the people you come into contact with, and will come back and tell
us, if you can, what service the United States can render to the
remotest parts of the world; tell us where you see men suffering; tell
us where you think advice will lift them up; tell us where you think
that the counsel of statesmen may better the fortunes of unfortunate
men; always having it in mind that you are champions of what is right
and fair all 'round for the public welfare, no matter where you are, and
that it is that you are ready to fight for and not merely on the drop
of a hat or upon some slight punctilio, but that you are champions of
your fellow-men, particularly of that great body one hundred million
strong whom you represent in the United States.

What do you think is the most lasting impression that those boys down at
Vera Cruz are going to leave? They have had to use some force--I pray
God it may not be necessary for them to use any more--but do you think
that the way they fought is going to be the most lasting impression?
Have men not fought ever since the world began? Is there anything new in
using force? The new things in the world are the things that are
divorced from force. The things that show the moral compulsions of the
human conscience, those are the things by which we have been building up
civilization, not by force. And the lasting impression that those boys
are going to leave is this, that they exercise self-control; that they
are ready and diligent to make the place where they went fitter to live
in than they found it; that they regarded other people's rights; that
they did not strut and bluster, but went quietly, like self-respecting
gentlemen, about their legitimate work. And the people of Vera Cruz, who
feared the Americans and despised the Americans, are going to get a very
different taste in their mouths about the whole thing when the boys of
the Navy and the Army come away. Is that not something to be proud of,
that you know how to use force like men of conscience and like
gentlemen, serving your fellow-men and not trying to overcome them? Like
that gallant gentleman who has so long borne the heats and perplexities
and distresses of the situation in Vera Cruz--Admiral F