ho had just taken
the life of the President. The people would have torn him limb from limb
if it had not been that the law he defied was at once invoked in his
behalf. So far from his deed being committed on behalf of the people
against the Government, the Government was obliged at once to exert its
full police power to save him from instant death at the hands of the
people. Moreover, his deed worked not the slightest dislocation in our
governmental system, and the danger of a recurrence of such deeds, no
matter how great it might grow, would work only in the direction of
strengthening and giving harshness to the forces of order. No man
will ever be restrained from becoming President by any fear as to his
personal safety. If the risk to the President's life became great, it
would mean that the office would more and more come to be filled by men
of a spirit which would make them resolute and merciless in dealing
with every friend of disorder. This great country will not fall into
anarchy, and if anarchists should ever become a serious menace to its
institutions, they would not merely be stamped out, but would involve in
their own ruin every active or passive sympathizer with their doctrines.
The American people are slow to wrath, but when their wrath is once
kindled it burns like a consuming flame.

During the last five years business confidence has been restored,
and the nation is to be congratulated because of its present abounding
prosperity. Such prosperity can never be created by law alone, although
it is easy enough to destroy it by mischievous laws. If the hand of the
Lord is heavy upon any country, if flood or drought comes, human wisdom
is powerless to avert the calamity. Moreover, no law can guard us
against the consequences of our own folly. The men who are idle or
credulous, the men who seek gains not by genuine work with head or hand
but by gambling in any form, are always a source of menace not only
to themselves but to others. If the business world loses its head,
it loses what legislation cannot supply. Fundamentally the welfare of
each citizen, and therefore the welfare of the aggregate of citizens
which makes the nation, must rest upon individual thrift and energy,
resolution, and intelligence. Nothing can take the place of this
individual capacity; but wise legislation and honest and intelligent
administration can give it the fullest scope, the largest opportunity
to work to good effect.

The tremend