The world ought to know the truth, but the world ought not at this
period of unstable equilibrium to be disturbed by rumor, ought not to be
disturbed by imaginative combinations of circumstances or, rather, by
circumstances stated in combination which do not belong in combination.
For we are holding--not I, but you and gentlemen engaged like you--the
balances in your hand. This unstable equilibrium rests upon scales that
are in your hands. For the food of opinion, as I began by saying, is the
news of the day. I have known many a man go off at a tangent on
information that was not reliable. Indeed, that describes the majority
of men. The world is held stable by the man who waits for the next day
to find out whether the report was true or not.
We cannot afford, therefore, to let the rumors of irresponsible persons
and origins get into the atmosphere of the United States. We are
trustees for what I venture to say is the greatest heritage that any
nation ever had, the love of justice and righteousness and human
liberty. For fundamentally those are the things to which America is
addicted and to which she is devoted.
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