arbitration. [Applause.]

And now, gentlemen, I think we may well be proud of that self-contained,
yet adequate, appreciation of our power, of our right, and of our duty,
that could thus, while abating not one jot or tittle of our rights,
compose such grave differences by the wisdom of statesmanship, instead
of renewing the struggles of war. I may, I think, recognize in the
general appreciation by our countrymen of the excellence of this great
adjustment between England and the United States, their satisfaction
with this settlement, which, without in the least abating the dignity or
disturbing the peace of England, has maintained the dignity and made
secure the peace of the United States. [Applause.] I think I may
recognize in this general satisfaction of our countrymen, their
conviction that the result of the Geneva arbitration has secured for us
every point that was important as indemnity for the past, and yet has so
adjusted the difficult question between neutrality and belligerency as
to make it safe for us, in maintaining our natural, and, as we hope, our
perpetual, position in the future, of a neutral, and not a belligerent.

The gentlemen to whom were entrusted, by the favor of the President of
the United States, the representation of our country in this great
forensic controversy, have been somewhat differently situated from
lawyers, in ordinary lawsuits, charged with the interests of clients.
For, as we all know, the interest of the client and the duty of the
lawyer are, for the most part, limited to success in the particular
controversy that is being agitated, and, therein, the whole power of the
lawyer and all his resources may be properly directed to secure the
completest victory in the particular suit. But, when a nation is a
party, and when the lawsuit is but an incident, in its perpetual duty
and its perpetual interests, in which it must expect to change sides, in
the changing circumstances of human affairs, it is very plainly its
interest, and the duty of those to whom its interests are entrusted, to
see to it, that in the zeal of the particular contest there shall be no
triumph that shall disturb, embarrass, or burden its future relations
with foreign nations. [Applause.] In other words, when our government
was calling to account a neutral which had interfered with our rights as
belligerents, it was of very great importance that we should insist upon
neither a measure of right nor a measure of indemnity