GEORGETOWN ADDRESS 35 1 



Is this real progress? True, it is piling up more material 

 things, making huge mathematical results ; but in the end does 

 the individual man get any more real value out of life than 

 his fathers did ? Does he, after all his hurry and hustle, awake 

 any more of the finer and nobler side of life — to say nothing 

 of the spiritual and moral side — than his predecessor did? 

 Only so much of our material results as contribute to the 

 building up of a finer man, a better country, and a more en- 

 lightened civilization, can be said to be any real progress after 

 all. 



Yet in many respects our progress has been along the best 

 and noblest lines of human endeavor. We have set among the 

 nations of the earth a new conception of the functions of gov- 

 ernment. Before its time, legislatures and courts had been at 

 best but docile servants of the ruler. Occasionally legislative 

 bodies had defied the king who could do no wrong, but they 

 both aHke had overawed and tyrannized the judges who were 

 to interpret the laws. We embarked upon a new experiment in 

 government. Thenceforth the legislature was to be independ- 

 ent of the executive, whilst the courts were to be independent 

 of both. Laws might be made, but the maker might not exe- 

 cute them; still less was he to have the power of judging the 

 citizen under them. Each sphere of government was re- 

 strained within its own boundary, in order that the citizen 

 might grow to his full stature as a man. Added to that, we 

 provided that the State should not enter upon the domain of 

 religion, but should remain nevertheless its protector and well- 

 wisher. The success of our experiment in new and untried 

 government, as exemplified in our history, has been a magnifi- 

 cent tribute to its excellence and stability. The panorama of 

 American history, since the United States came into being, is 

 one of which we can be proud, and one which we must pledge 

 ourselves to continue in all its excellencies, whilst pruning 

 away any noxious growths that might seem to threaten it. 



Nor is this the only example of progress which appeals to us. 

 Consider for a moment just what the history of the Catholic 

 Church in the United States has been within the more than a 

 century and a quarter of its active existence. 



Beginning at the close of the eighteenth century with a 

 handful of clergy and a few thousand of laity, misunderstood, 

 possessing but the most meager of civic rights, with no men of 



