The Monroe Doctrine 263 



The finest speech that for many years has been 

 delivered by a college man to other college men was 

 that made last spring by Judge Holmes, himself a 

 gallant soldier of the Civil War, in that hall which 

 Harvard has erected to commemorate those of her 

 sons who perished when the North strove with the 

 South. It should be graven on the heart of every 

 college man, for it has in it that lift of the soul to- 

 ward things heroic that makes the eyes burn and 

 the veins thrill. It must be read in its entirety, for 

 no quotation could do justice to its fine scorn of the 

 mere money-maker, its lofty fealty to a noble ideal, 

 and, above all, its splendid love of country and splen- 

 did praise of the valor of those who strive on stricken 

 fields that the honor of their nation may be upheld. 



It is strange, indeed, that in a country where 

 words, like those of Judge Holmes can be spoken, 

 there should exist men who actually oppose the 

 building of a navy by the United States, nay, even 

 more, actually oppose so much as the strengthening 

 of the coast defences, on the ground that they prefer 

 to have this country too feeble to resent any insult, 

 in order that it may owe its safety to the contemptu- 

 ous forbearance which it is hoped this feebleness will 

 inspire in foreign powers. No Tammany alderman, 

 no venal legislator, no demagogue or corrupt poli- 

 tician, ever strove more effectively than these men 

 are striving to degrade the nation and to make one 

 ashamed of the name of America. When we re- 

 member that among them there are college gradu- 

 ates, it is a relief to remember that the leaders on 



