And State Papers 287 



To any American capable of any depth of reflec 

 tion whatever, it should always be a somewhat sol 

 emn thing to come into the presence of two bodies 

 one a legislative body; the other an educational 

 body; the legislative body, which is not only the 

 method but the symbol of our free government ; the 

 educational body, which, using educational in its 

 broadest and truest sense, means the body that fits 

 us for self-government. Self-government is not an 

 easy thing. The nations of antiquity, the nations 

 of the middle ages, that tried the experiment of in 

 dependent self-government which should guarantee 

 freedom to the individual, and yet safety from with 

 out and within to the body politic itself, rarely lasted 

 long, never rose to a pitch of greatness such as ours 

 without having suffered some radical and, as it 

 proved ultimately, fatal change of structure. Until 

 our Republic was founded it had proved impossible 

 in the long run to combine freedom for the individ 

 ual and greatness for the nation. The republics of 

 antiquity and of the middle ages went one of two 

 lines; either proved fatal. Either the individual's 

 interests were sacrificed, and, while retaining the 

 forms of freedom, the republic became in effect a 

 despotism, or else the freedom of the individual was 

 kept at the cost of utter impotence either to put 

 down disorder at home or to repel aggression from 

 abroad. 



It has been given to us during the century and a 

 quarter of our national life so to handle ourselves 

 as a people that we have escaped both dangers. We 



