35 Presidential Addresses 



sion and direction, whom they followed rather than 

 led. The history of the land comprised within the 

 limits of the Purchase is an epitome of the entire 

 history of our people. Within these limits we 

 have gradually built up State after State until now 

 they many times surpass in wealth, in population, 

 and in many-sided development, the original thir 

 teen States as they were when their delegates met 

 in the Continental Congress. The people of these 

 States have shown themselves mighty in war with 

 their fellow-man, and mighty in strength to tame 

 the rugged wilderness. They could not thus have 

 conquered the forest and the prairie, the mountain 

 and the desert, had they not possessed the great 

 fighting virtues, the qualities which enable a people 

 to overcome the forces of hostile men and hostile 

 nature. On the other hand, they could not have 

 used aright their conquest had they not in addition 

 possessed the qualities of self-mastery and self-re 

 straint, the power of acting in combination with 

 their fellows, the power of yielding obedience to 

 the law and of building up an orderly civilization. 

 Courage and hardihood are indispensable virtues 

 in a people ; but the people which possesses no others 

 can never rise high in the scale either of power or 

 of culture. Great peoples must have in addition 

 the governmental capacity which comes only when 

 individuals fully recognize their duties to one an 

 other and to the whole body politic, and are able 

 to join together in feats of constructive statesman 

 ship and of honest and effective administration. 



