THE STRENUOUS LIFE 



SPEECH BEFORE THE HAMILTON CLUB, CHICAGO, 

 APRIL 10, 1899 



IN speaking to you, men of the greatest city of the 

 West, men of the State which gave to the coun 

 try Lincoln and. Grant, men who pre-eminently and 

 distinctly embody all that is most American in the 

 American character, I wish to preach, not the doc 

 trine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenu 

 ous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife ; 

 to preach that highest form of success which comes, 

 not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to 

 the man who does not shrink from danger, from 

 hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these 

 wins the splendid ultimate triumph. 



A life of slothful ease, a life of that peace which 

 springs merely from lack either of desire or of 

 power to strive after great things, is as little worthy 

 of a nation as of an individual. I ask only that what 

 every self-respecting American demands from him 

 self and from his sons shall be demanded of the 

 American nation as a whole. Who among you 

 would teach your boys that ease, that peace, is to be 



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