47 Presidential Addresses 



stead of one merely of word. Under such circum- 

 stances the seeming liberty may be supplanted by 

 a tyranny or despotism in the first place, or it may 

 reach the road of despotism by the "path of license 

 and anarchy. It matters but little which road is 

 taken. In either case the same goal is reached. Peo- 

 ple show themselves just as unfit for liberty whether 

 they submit to anarchy or to tyranny; and class 

 government, whether it be the government of a 

 plutocracy or the government of a mob, is equally 

 incompatible with the principles established in the 

 days of Washington and perpetuated in the days of 

 Lincoln. 



Many qualities are needed by a people which 

 would preserve the power of self-government in fact 

 as well as in name. Among these qualities are fore- 

 thought, shrewdness, self-restraint, the courage 

 which refuses to abandon one's own rights, and the 

 disinterested and kindly good sense which enables 

 one to do justice to the rights of others. Lack of 

 strength and lack of courage unfit men for self- 

 government on the one hand ; and on the other, bru- 

 tal arrogance, envy, in short, any manifestation of 

 the spirit of selfish disregard, whether of one's own 

 duties or of the rights of others, are equally fatal. 



In the history of mankind many republics have 

 risen, have flourished for a less or greater time, and 

 then have fallen because their citizens lost the power 

 of governing themselves and thereby of governing 

 their state ; and in no way has this loss of power been 

 so often and so clearly shown as in the tendency 



