Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. [An oration delivered at the Commencement Exercises of Boston University, in Tremont Temple, on Wednesday, June 7.] OMMENCEMENT is an event of never failing interest. Age can- kindred and friends gather with generous enthusiasm to bid Godspeed nation present a common appeal. No one can hope to state national ideals with accuracy, with certainty, or with finality. Doubtless, like everything which grows and improves, they have no absolute and unyielding fashion. But in a country where ultimate authority is the will of the people, discussion, interchange, and criticism of view are the means by which a standard can be established and a consensus of opinion be reached. A free contribution of the best thought, highest resolve, most exalted hope, by each, will evolve national ideals of compelling force. My word will not be new. I can only recall to your memory a few well-known facts of history, and ask your attention to the promise of the years of which you will be a part and which are to make history. The members of the Classes of 1916 in the United States enter upon their life-work amid conditions unparalleled since the beginning of recorded time. The very air is vibrant with uncertainty and with expectancy. In the babel of sounds as to the right position of our country, the unreflecting might doubt whether it has any ideals, and think that the public mind is hopelessly distracted as to the purpose of our nation's existence. Some are bold enough to assert that we have no ideals, and that we are actuated by mere motives, varying chiefly in the degree of the self-interest from which they spring. It is said in some quarters that we have no national literature or art or culture; and that is made the basis of an appeal to immigrants from countries of a more fixed civilization, with cultural traditions more easily comprehended, not to abandon the old for the new. There is much debate as to various sorts and degrees of citizenship. But out of this seeming confusion there is heard a stern call for genuine and unqualified loyalty to America. Here is no room for a divided duty. It behooves us to think seriously and wisely as to the kind of America it is to which such loyalty is demanded, and to determine how inspiringly real are her dominating ideals. Let us first take our bearings. What is a nation, and what manner of nation are we? A nation is a body of individuals united together for the promotion of their mutual safety and advantage by the joint efforts of their combined strength, becoming thus a moral being, possessed of rights and subject to obligations. Manifestly ours is not a nation of ethnical unity. The initial settlements of the continent foreshadowed the commingling of races which with increasing variety has continued to mark our population. The Spanish, French, and Dutch, as well as the English, Scotch, and Irish, were among the Colonists of the States which have made the Union. It has been the general policy of our nation from the first to welcome the oppressed of every race and clime to cast aside that which is behind and, looking only to that which lies before, to join with us in the upbuilding of a free nation. Of very necessity this has involved the surrender of old national conceptions and prejudices and the adoption of new national hopes and aspirations. Respecting the question of slavery, Lincoln said: "A house divided against itself cannot stand. ... This government cannot endure half slave and half free." That was no temporary or half truth. It will endure for all time. It is adapted to all occasions. It is as applicable to every other line of cleavage as it was to that of slavery. This Union can tolerate no bisected allegiance. A republic demands the absolute, unalloyed, and unquestioned loyalty of every citizen. A republic, whose voice is that of all its people, can have no permanency and unfolding enlargement save by united and indissoluble support of its own nationality from all its citizens. Its patriotism must be blended of the fervent devotion and glowing fealty of its every member. The forefathers founded on this continent a constitutional republic. That is the form of government which is committed to our charge. It is ours to understand and to execute. Familiar as may be its principles, it still is as true as it was when the words were written by John Adams, now more than a century and a third ago, that "a frequent recurrence to the fundamental principles of the constitution and a constant adherence to those of piety, justice, moderation, temperance, industry, and frugality are absolutely necessary to preserve the advantages of liberty and to maintain a free government." A republic is a government by the people expressed through the form of representation. It recognizes the practical impossibility of a pure democracy, where the people directly settle every question. A constitution is an instrument framed by the mighty hand of the people, stating fundamental principles of government, to be obeyed by officers, by individuals, and by the people themselves. A constitutional republic is a nation founded on the rule of a people whose hasty and unmatured impulse is restrained by self-imposed limitations, but whose intelligent and deliberately fixed conviction finds expression in binding law. Such a government imports equality of rights amongst all citizens. It invokes fraternity of spirit. It means the largest degree of individual liberty compatible with the greatest good to the largest number. It is no accident, but an inevitable concomitant of these principles that "promotion of the general welfare" finds its place with the formation of a more perfect union, the establishment of justice, pro vision for domestic tranquillity, and the common defense and the preservation of liberty, among the purposes for which this nation was founded. Such a governmental machine cannot run itself. It is not automatic. It must be administered by a free people. A people is not free simply when king or emperor is dethroned and forms of self-government are established. A people becomes free only when within themselves ignorance has been conquered by intelligence, prejudice by a spirit of fairness, selfishness by good-will, simple ethical sentimentality by sound moral judgment. The fate of the nation in its last analysis depends upon the character of the individuals who compose its citizenship. No power can rise higher than its source. So true are these principles that the statement is made by some writers that our national ideal is a free and enlightened democracy. National ideals, however, are not embodied in the hard and fast words of rigid constitutions. They are more spiritual. They represent the hope, the yearning, the aspiration, of a people rather than the details of ways and means. Certain forms of greatness which have appeared to be the cardinal aim of some of the nations of earth easily may be eliminated from our scheme of national accomplishment. Material prosperity founded on commercial superiority, industrial power, and manufacturing skill is not our national ideal. Historically the nations whose chief efforts have been in this direction have contributed the least to the progress of civilization. The legacies of Tyre and Carthage are hardly perceptible in the heritage from the past. The immense economic value of these activities need not be minimized. But they are a means and not the end. Lust for military and naval supremacy has never dominated our national life. In times of peril our citizens have fought with courage in defense of the flag. But in the main our ways have been those of peace and not of war. Whatever may be said about degrees of preparedness, defense and not conquest is the basis of the most extreme demand. There is no call even in these days for a militaristic program as the dominating note of national policy. The position of commanding influence which the United States holds in this present crisis of the world rests upon the power born of peaceful progress in civilization and not of instant capacity to wage destructive warfare. Territorial aggrandizement is far from being our national ambition. The apostrophe of Senator Hoar to the American people as "a free and brave people who do not bow the neck or bend the knee to any other, and who desire no other to |