For the interesting and inspiring thing about America, gentlemen, is
that she asks nothing for herself except what she has a right to ask for
humanity itself. We want no nation's property; we wish to question no
nation's honor; we wish to stand selfishly in the way of the development
of no nation; we want nothing that we cannot get by our own legitimate
enterprise and by the inspiration of our own example, and, standing for
these things, it is not pretention on our part to say that we are
privileged to stand for what every nation would wish to stand for, and
speak for those things which all humanity must desire.
When I think of the flag that those ships carry, the only touch of color
about them, the only thing that moves as if it had a settled spirit in
it, in their solid structure, it seems to me I see alternate strips of
parchment upon which are written the rights of liberty and justice and
strips of blood spilt to vindicate those rights, and then, in the
corner, a prediction of the blue serene into which every nation may swim
which stands for these great things.
The mission of America is the only thing that a sailor or soldier should
think about; he has nothing to do with the formulation of her policy; he
is to support her policy, whatever it is--but he is to support her
policy in the spirit of herself, and the strength of our policy is that
we, who for the time being administer the affairs of this nation, do not
originate her spirit; we attempt to embody it; we attempt to realize it
in action we are dominated by it, we do not dictate it.
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