h her the stability to which it
is now a stranger. Her statesmen might well recall the words of
Lord Bacon: 'What men will not alter for the better, Time, the
great innovator, will alter for the worse.'

"The splendid commonwealth in which we are assembled contains a
population a million greater than did the entire country at the
first inauguration of President Washington. The one hundred and
nine years which have passed since that masterful hour in history have
witnessed the addition of thirty-two States to our federal Union, and
of seventy millions to our population. And yet, with but few
amendments, our great organic law as fully meets the requirements
of a self-governing people to-day as when it came from the hands
of its framers. The builders of the Constitution wisely ordained the
Presidential office a co-ordinate department of the Government.
Moving in its own clearly defined orbit, without usurpation or
lessening of prerogative, the great executive office, at the close
as at the beginning of the century, is the recognized constitutional
symbol of authority and of power. The delegated functions and
prerogatives that pertained in our infancy and weakness have proved
ample in the days of our strength and greatness as a nation.

"It is well that to the people was entrusted the sovereign power
of choosing their chief magistrate. It is our glory, in the
retrospect of more than a century, that none other than patriots
--statesmen well equipped for the discharge of its timeless duties
--have ever been chosen to the Presidency. May we not believe that
the past is the earnest of the future, and that during the rolling
years and centuries the incumbents of the great office--the chosen
successors of Washington and of Lincoln--in the near and in the
remote future, will prove the guardians and defenders of the
Constitution, the guardians and defenders of the rights of all the
people?

"Luminous will be the pages of history that tell to the ages the
story of our recent conflict, of its causes and of its results.
In brilliancy of achievement, the one hundred days war with Spain is
the marvel of the closing century. It was not a war of our seeking.
It was the earnest prayer of all, from the President to the humblest
in private life, that the horrors of war might be averted. Had
our ears remained deaf to the cry of the stricken and starving
at our doors, we would not have been guiltless in the high court
of conscie