4jo Presidential Addresses 



lines have likewise rendered a very great service to 

 the community. Every man who has made wealth 

 or used it in developing great legitimate business 

 enterprises has been of benefit and not harm to the 

 country at large. This city has grown by leaps and 

 bounds only when the railroads came to it, when the 

 railroads came to the State; and if the State were 

 now cut off from its connection by rail and by steam- 

 ship with the rest of the world its position would 

 of course diminish incalculably. Great good has 

 come from the development of our railroad system ; 

 great good has been done by the individuals and cor- 

 porations that have made that development possible ; 

 and in return good is done to them, and not harm, 

 when they are required to obey the law. Ours is 

 a government of liberty by, through and under the 

 law. No man is above it and no man is below it. 

 The crime of cunning, the crime of greed, the crime 

 of violence, are all equally crimes, and against them 

 all alike the law must set its face. This is not and 

 never shall be a government either of a plutocracy 

 or of a mob. It is, it has been, and it will be, a gov- 

 ernment of the people ; including alike the people of 

 great wealth and of moderate wealth, the people who 

 employ others, the people who are employed, the 

 wage-worker, the lawyer, the mechanic, the banker, 

 the farmer; including them all, protecting each and 

 every one if he acts decently and squarely, and dis- 

 criminating against any one of them, no matter from 

 what class he comes, if he does not act squarely and 

 fairly, if he does not obey the law. While all pea- 



