as a man I try to keep it, and I know of no
other rule permissible to a nation. The most distinguished nation in
the world is the nation that can and will keep its promises even to its
own hurt. And I want to say parenthetically that I do not think anybody
was hurt. I cannot be enthusiastic for subsidies to a monopoly, but let
those who are enthusiastic for subsidies ask themselves whether they
prefer subsidies to unsullied honor.

The most patriotic man, ladies and gentlemen, is sometimes the man who
goes in the direction that he thinks right even when he sees half the
world against him. It is the dictate of patriotism to sacrifice yourself
if you think that that is the path of honor and of duty. Do not blame
others if they do not agree with you. Do not die with bitterness in your
heart because you did not convince the rest of the world, but die happy
because you believe that you tried to serve your country by not selling
your soul. Those were grim days, the days of 1776. Those gentlemen did
not attach their names to the Declaration of Independence on this table
expecting a holiday on the next day, and that 4th of July was not itself
a holiday. They attached their signatures to that significant document
knowing that if they failed it was certain that every one of them would
hang for the failure. They were committing treason in the interest of
the liberty of 3,000,000 people in America. All the rest of the world
was against them and smiled with cynical incredulity at the audacious
undertaking. Do you think that if they could see this great Nation now
they would regret anything that they then did to draw the gaze of a
hostile world upon them? Every idea must be started by somebody, and it
is a lonely thing to start anything. Yet if it is in you, you must start
it if you have a man's blood in you and if you love the country that you
profess to be working for.

I am sometimes very much interested when I see gentlemen supposing that
popularity is the way to success in America. The way to success in this
great country, with its fair judgments, is to show that you are not
afraid of anybody except God and his final verdict. If I did not believe
that, I would not believe in democracy. If I did not believe that, I
would not believe that people can govern themselves. If I did not
believe that the moral judgment would be the last judgment, the final
judgment, in the minds of men as well as the tribunal of God, I could
not believ