the attention
of the people of Europe after peace comes to them is the fact that we
are not only the great exponents but the great example of the success of
the principle of federation in its application to unity of political
life regardless of local, economic, and racial differences.

"If our fathers had attempted to organize this country upon the basis of
a single, closely unified State, it would have gone to smash almost at
the outset, wrecked by clashing economic and personal interests. Indeed,
this nearly happened in the civil war, which was more economic than
political in its origin.

"But, though we had our difficulties, we did find a way to make a
unified nation of a hundred million people and forty-eight
Commonwealths, all bound together in unity and in loyalty to a common
political ideal and a common political purpose.

"Just as certainly as we sit here this must and will be the future of
Europe. There will be a federation into the United States of Europe.

"When one nation sets out to assert itself by force against the will, or
even the wish, of its neighbors, disaster must inevitably come. Disaster
would have come here if, in 1789, New York had endeavored to assert
itself against New England or Pennsylvania.

"As a matter of fact, certain inhabitants of Rhode Island and
Pennsylvania did try something of the sort after the Federal Government
had been formed, but, fortunately, their effort was a failure.

"The leaders of our national life had established such a flexible and
admirable plan of government that it was soon apparent that each State
could retain its identity, forming its own ideals and shaping its own
progress, and still remain a loyal part of the whole; that each State
could make a place for itself in the new federated nation and not be
destroyed thereby.

"There is no reason why each nation in Europe should not make a place
for itself in the sun of unity which I am sure is rising there behind
the war clouds. Europe's stupendous economic loss, which already has
been appalling and will soon be incalculable, will give us an
opportunity to press this argument home.

"True internationalism is not the enemy of the nationalistic principle.

"On the contrary, it helps true nationalism to thrive. The Vermonter is
more a Vermonter because he is an American, and there is no reason why
Hungary, for example, should not be more than ever before Hungarian
after she becomes a member of the United States