THE DUTY OF THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR

GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS

Taken from an oration on "The Duty of the American Scholar to Politics and the Times," delivered before the Literary Societies of Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., August 5, 1856. This extract is here reprinted, by special permission, from the "Orations and Addresses of George William Curtis." Copyright, 1893, by Harper & Brothers. Scholars, you would like to loiter in the pleasant paths of study. Every man loves his ease, loves to please his taste. But into how many homes along this lovely valley came the news of Lexington and Bunker Hill, eighty years ago, and young men like us, studious, fond of leisure, young lovers, young husbands, young brothers and sons, knew that they must forsake the wooded hillside, the river meadows, golden with harvest, the twilight walk along the river, the summer Sunday in the old church, parents, wife, and child, and go away to uncertain war. Putnam heard the call at his plow, and turned to go, without waiting. Wooster heard it, and obeyed.

Not less lovely in those days was this peaceful valley, not less soft this summer air. Life was dear, and love as beautiful to those young men as it is to us who stand upon their graves. But, because they were so dear and beautiful, those men went out bravely to fight for them, and fall. Through these very streets they marched, who never returned. They fell, and were buried; but they can never die. Not sweeter are the flowers that make your valley fair, not greener

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are the pines that give your river its name, than the memory of the brave men who died for freedom.

Gentlemen, while we read history we make history. Because our fathers fought in this great cause, we must not hope to escape fighting. Because, two thousand years ago, Leonidas stood against Xerxes, we must not suppose that Xerxes was slain, nor, thank God, that Leonidas is not immortal. Every great crisis of human history is a pass of Thermopylæ, and there is always a Leonidas and his three hundred to die in it, if they can not conquer. And, so long as Liberty has one martyr, so long as one drop of blood is poured out for her, so long from that single drop of bloody sweat of the agony of humanity shall spring hosts as countless as the forest leaves, and mighty as the sea.

THE PARTING OF THE WAYS

HENRY CABOT LODGE

Taken from a speech on the retention of the Philippine Islands, delivered in the United States Senate, March 7, 1900. Printed by permission.

Like every great nation, we have come more than once in our history to where the road of fate divided. Thus far we have never failed to take the right path. Again are we come to the parting of the ways. Again a momentous choice is offered to us. Shall we hesitate and make, in coward fashion, what Dante calls "the great refusal?" Even now we can abandon the Monroe doctrine, we can reject the Pacific, we can shut

ourselves up between our oceans, as Switzerland is inclosed between her hills, and then it would be inevitable that we should sink out from among the great powers of the world and heap up riches that some stronger and bolder people, who do not fear their fate, might gather them. Or we may follow the true laws. of our being, the laws in obedience to which we have come to be what we are, and then we shall stretch out into the Pacific; we shall stand in the front rank of the world powers; we shall give to our labor and our industry new and larger and better opportunities; we shall prosper ourselves; we shall benefit mankind. What we have done was inevitable because it was in accordance with the laws of our being as a nation, in the defiance and disregard of which lie ruin and retreat.

We are told that the possession of these islands brings a great responsibility upon us. This I freely admit. A great nation must have great responsibilities. It is one of the penalties of greatness. But the benefit of responsibilities goes hand in hand with the burdens they bring. The nation which seeks to escape from the burden also loses the benefit, and if it cowers in the presence of a new task and shirks a new responsibility, the period of its decline is approaching. That fatal hour may draw near on leaden feet, but weakness and timidity are sure signs that it is coming, be its progress swift or slow. These islands, I well know, impose upon us new and great responsibilities, and I do not doubt that we shall make mistakes in dealing with them before we reach complete success; but I firmly believe that they will enure to our lasting benefit.

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The pioneer does not open up new regions to his fellowmen by staying in warm shelter behind the city walls. A cloistered virtue is but a poor virtue after all. Men who have done great things are those who have never shrunk from trial or adventure. If a man has the right qualities in him, responsibility sobers, strengthens, and develops him. The same is true of nations. The nation which fearlessly meets its responsibilities rises to the task when pressure is upon it.

I do not believe that this nation was raised up for nothing. I have faith that it has a great mission in the world-a mission of good, a mission of freedom. I believe that it can live up to that mission; therefore I want to see it step forward boldly and take its place at the head of the nations. I wish to see it master of the Pacific. I would have it fulfill what I think is its manifest destiny if it is not false to the laws that govern it. I am not dreaming of a primrose path. I know well that in the past we have committed grievous mistakes and paid for them, done wrong and made heavy compensation for it, stumbled and fallen and suffered. But we have always risen, bruised and grimed sometimes, yet still we have risen stronger and more erect than ever, and the march has always been forward and onward. Onward and forward it will still be, despite stumblings and mistakes as before, while we are true to ourselves and obedient to the laws which have ruled our past and will still govern our future. But when we begin to distrust ourselves, to shrink from our own greatness, to shiver before the responsibilities which come to us, to retreat

in the face of doubts and difficulties, then indeed peril will be near at hand.

OUR OPPORTUNITY IN THE ORIENT

ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE

Abridged from a speech on the Philippines, delivered in the United States Senate, January 9, 1900. Reprinted by permission.

The Philippines are ours forever, "territory belonging to the United States," as the Constitution calls them. And just beyond the Philippines are China's illimitable markets. We will not retreat from either. We will not repudiate our duty in the archipelago. We will not abandon our opportunity in the Orient. We will not renounce our part in the mission of our race, trustee, under God, of the civilization of the world.

This island empire is the last land left in all the oceans. If it should prove a mistake to abandon it, the blunder once made would be irretrievable. If it proves a mistake to hold it, the error can be corrected when we will; every other progressive nation stands ready to relieve us.

But to hold it will be no mistake. Our largest trade henceforth must be with Asia. The Pacific is our ocean. China is our natural customer. The Philippines give us a base at the door of all the East. The power that rules the Pacific, therefore, is the power that rules the world. And, with the Philippines, that power is and will forever be the American Republic.