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The Commoner.
WILLIAJI J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.
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Vol. 3. No. 48.
Lincoln, Nebraska, December 18, I9j.
Whole No. 1534
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Mr. Bryan's Thanksgiving Day Address
DELIVERED AT THE BANQUET GIVEN
BY HON. JOSEPH CHOATH, AMBA53ADOR
TO THE COURT OP ST. JAMES, AT THE
HOTEL CECIL, LONDON, NOV. 26, f 903.
Mr. Chairman, Your Excellency, Your Grace,
My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen: It is 1 who
have reason to be grateful for the opportunity of
meeting so many of my own countrymen and those
who are so like my countrymen that I cannot,
looking down the tables, tell which is which. I
am not surprised to find that the ladies of En
gland are so handsome as to be taken for Ameri
cans, for I have found the ladies everywhere
liandsome enough for the men, but I have been a
little surprised to find that I could not tell an
3Engli3hman from an American on the street here.
And as I have a high opinion of the American, I
cannot have a low opinion of the Englishman.
(Cheers.) It is proper that I should express my
gratitude tonight for several things. I am grate
ful to our distinguished ambassador for the cour
tesies he has shown me, and I have the advantage
of him in one respect, I had seen and heard him
before. Once when I was in Washington, a young
man then, I went into the supreme court of the
United States, and heard a lawyer arguing a case.
I was so impressed with the appearance of the
man and with the manner of his speech that I
inquired who this lawyer might be, and was told
that it was Mr. Choate, of New tfork. From that
time to this I have looked back to that occasion,
and I have never found in my country a lawyer
who measured higher than he did. (Cheers.) I
am grateful to him for his kind words, although
in doing me what he intended for a kindness he
lias somewhat embarrassed me, and if I were to
give full credit to what he has said I am afraid I
might soon be like the young lady whose sweebv.
heart praised her until she became so vain that
she would not speak to him. (Laughter.) This
society I am informed, celebrates two occasions,
tho Fourth of July and Thanksgiving Day. On
the Fourth of July we celebrate our independence;
on Thanksgiving Day we acknowledge our de
pendence. And it is proper that Mr. Choate should
be a conspicuous figure on both occasions, because
on the Fourth of July wo boast of what we have,
and on Thanksgiving Day we feel grateful for
what we have received, and we are both proud and
grateful for Ambassador Choate. (Laughter and
cheers.) On the Fourth of July the eagle seems a
little larger than it does on any other day, and. its
scream may grate more harshly on the foreign
ear than it does at any other time. But on this
day we cultivate reverence and express our ap
preciation of those blessings that have come to
our country without the thought or aid of Ameri
cans. We have reason to look with some degree
of pride upon, the achievement of the United
States; we contemplate the present with satisfac
tion, and look to the future .ope; and yet on
this occasion we may well remember that we are
but building upon the foundations that have been
laid for us. Wo fid not create the fertile soil that
is the basis of our agricultural greatness; the
streams that drain and feed our valleys were
not channelled by. human hands. We did not
fashion the climate that gives us the white cotton
belt of the south, the yellow wheat belt of the
north, and the central corn belt that joins the two
and overlaps them both. We do not gather up the
moisture and fix the date of the early and later
rains; we did not hide away in the mountains the
gold and the silver; we did not store in the
earth the deposits of copper and of zinc; wo did
not create the measures of coal and the beds of
iron. All these natural resources, whic't we hnvo
but commenced to develop, are the gift of Him
before Whom we bow in rrrnHtude tonlcrht. (Loud
cheers.) Nor are we Indebted to the Heavenly
Father alone, for we have received much from
those who are separated from us by the Atlantic.
If wo have great and flourishing industries wo
must not forget that every nation in Europe has
sent us its trained and skilled artisans. If wo
have made intellectual progress, we must remem
ber that those who. crossed the ocean as pioneers
Drought with them their intelligence and their
desire for learning. Even our religion is not of
American origin. Like you, wo laid tho founda
tions of our church in tho Holy Land, and thoso
who came in tho Mayflower and in other ships
brought a love of religious liberty. Free speech,
which has been developed in our country, and
which wo prize so much, is not of American origin.
Since I have been hero I have boon profoundly im
pressed with tho part that Englishmen have taken
in establishing the right of free speech. (Cheers.)
And I may say that before I camo to this coun
try the thing that most challenged my admira
tion in the Englishman was his determination to
make his opinion known when ho had an opinion
that ho thought should be given to tho world.
(Cheers.) Passing through tho Bank of England,
to which my friend, the ambassador, has referred,
my attention was called to a protest that Admiral
Cochrane wrote upon tho banit-noto with which
he paid the thousand pounds line that had been
assessed against him. I w interested in that
protest because it showed a fearlessness that in
dicates tho possibilities of the race. Let mo read
what he said: "My health having suffered by long
and close confinement, and my oppressors having
resolved to deprive mo of property or life, I sub
mit to robbery to protect m- ' from murder
(laughter) in tho hope that I shall livo to bring
the delinquents to justice." (Renewed laughter.)
That is the spirit that moves the world! Thero
was a man in prison. He must pay his fine in
order to gain his liberty. Ho believed the action
of "the court unjust. He know that if ho stayed
there ho would, lose his life and lose tho chance
-for vindication, and yet, as he was going forth
from tho prison doors, ho did not go with bowed
head or cringing, but flung his protest in the faco
of his oppressors, and told them he submitted to
robbery to protect his life in the hope that, hav
ing escaped from their hands, he might bring
them to justice. I like that in tho iiinglishman,
and during my short knowledge of public affairs
I have looked across the ocean and admired tho
moral courage and the manliness of those En
glishmen who have dared to stand out against
overwhelming odds and assert their opinions be
fore the world. (Cheers.) We sometimes feel
that we have a sort of proprietary interest in tho
principles of government get forth in tho Declar
ation of Independence. That is a document which
we have given to the world, and yet tho principles
set forth therein were not Invented by an Ameri
can. Thomas Jefferson expressed them in felicit
ous language and put tnem into permanent form,
but the principles had been known before. The
doctrine that all men are created equal, that they
are endowed with inalienable rights, that gov
ernments were instituted amongst men to secure
these rights, and that they derived their just
power from the consent of the governed this doc
trine which stands four square with all the world
was not conceived in the United States, it did not
spring from the American mind aye, it did not
come so much from any mind as it was an emana
tion from the heart, and it had been in the hearts
of men for ages. (Crrs.) Before Columbus
turned the prow of his ship towards the west on
that eventful voyage, before the Barons wrested
Magna Charta from King John yes, before the
Roman lemons landed on the shores of this isl
andaye, before Homer qang that sentiment had
nestled in the heart of man, and nerved him to
resist the oppressor. That sentiment was not
V even of human origin. Our own great Lincoln
declared that It was God Himself who Implanted
in every human heart the love of liberty. Yes,
when God created man He gave him life
He linked to life the love of liberty, and what God
hath joined together let no man put asunder.
(Cheers ) We have received great bler-ings from
God and from all tho world, and what is our
duty'7 We cannot make --t"rn to t'ose from
whom those gifts were received. It is not in our
power to make return to the Father ibove. Nor
can we make return to those who have sacrificed
so much for our advancement. Tho child can
novor mako full return to tho mother whoHc lifo
trembled in tho balance at its birth, and whoso
kindness and care guarded it In all the years of
infancy. Tho student cannot mako full return to
tho teacher who awakened tho mind, and aroused
an ambition for a broador intellectual lifo. The
adult cannot mako full roturn to tho patriarch
whoso noblo lifo gavo inspiration and incentive.
So a generation cannot mako return to the genera
tion 'gono; it must make Its return to tho gener
ations to como. Our nation must discharge its
debt not to tho dead, but to tho living. How can
our country dischargo this great debt? In but
0110 way, and that is by giving to the world some
thing equal in valuo to that which it has re
ceived from tho world. And what is tho groatest
gift that man can bestow upon man? Feed a
man and ho will hunger again; givo him clothing
and his clothing will wear out; but give him a
noblo Ideal, and that ideal will bo with hlra
through every waking hour, lifting him to a
higher plane of lifo, and giving him a broader con
ception of his relations to his follows. I know,
therefore, of no greater service that my country
can render to tho world than to furnish to tho
world the highest ideal that tho world has known.
That ideal must bo so far above us that It will
keep us looking upward all our lives, and so far
in advance of us that wo shall never overtake it.
I know of no hotter illustration, no better symbol,
of an ideal life than tho living spring, pouring
forth constantly of that which refreshes and invig
orates, not tho stagnant pool which receives con
tribution from all tho land around and around
and gives forth nothing. (Ciioora.) Our nation
must make a largo contribution to tho welfare of
the world, and it Is no reflection upon those who
have gone before to say that wo ought to do bet
ter than they have done. Wo would not meet tho
responsibilities of touay if wo did not build still
higher the social structure to which they devoted
their lives. (Cheers.) I visited tho Tower of
London today and saw upon the wall a strango
figure. It was made of swords, ramrods, and
bayonets, and was fashioned into tho form of a
fiower. Someone had put a card on it and aptly
named it the passion flower and it has been too
often the international flower. But the world has
made progress. No longer do ambition and avar
ice furnish a sufficient excuse for war. The world
has made progress, and today you cannot Justify
bloodshed except in defense of a right already as
certained, and then only when all peaceable means
have been exhausted. (Cheers.) The world has
made progress. Wo have reached a point where
we respect not tho man who will die to secure
some pecuniary advantage, but who will die In
defense of his rights. We admire the moral cour
ago of the man who is willing to die in defense
of his rights, but there is yet before us a higher
ground. Is he great who will die in defense of his
rights? There is yet to come a greater man still
the man who will die rather than trespass upon
the rights of another. (Cheers.) Hail to the na
tion whatever its name may be that leads tho
world towards the realization of this higher ideal.
I am glad that we now recognize that there is
something more powerful than physical force, and
no one has stated it better than Carlylc. He said
that thought was stronger than artillery parks,
and at last moulded the world like soft clay;
that behind thought was love, and that thero
never was a wise head that had not behind it a
generous heart. The world was coming to under
stand that armies and navies, however numerous
and strong, are impotent to stop thought. Thought
inspired by love will yet rule tho world. I am
glad that there is a national product more valua
ble than gold or silver, more valuable than cot
ton or wheat or corn or iron, the ideal. That is
a merchandise If I may call it such that moves
freely from conntrr to country. You cannot vex
it with nn export tax or hinder It with an Import
tarlffi (Cheers.) It Is greater than legislators,
and rises triumphant over tho machinery of gov-
V
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