hin five years we shall bring the Navy to a fighting strength which
otherwise might have taken eight or ten years; along exactly the same
lines of development that have been followed and followed diligently and
intelligently for at least a decade past. There is no sudden panic,
there is no sudden change of plan; all that has happened is that we now
see that we ought more rapidly and more thoroughly than ever before to
do the things which have always been characteristic of America. For she
has always been proud of her Navy and has always been addicted to the
principle that her citizenship must do the fighting on land. We are
working out American principle a little faster, because American pulses
are beating a little faster, because the world is in a whirl, because
there are incalculable elements of trouble abroad which we cannot
control or alter. I would be derelict to the duty which you have laid
upon me if I did not tell you that it was absolutely necessary to carry
out our principles in this matter now and at once.

And yet all the time, my fellow-citizens, I believe that in these things
we are merely interpreting the spirit of America. Who shall say what the
spirit of America is? I have many times heard orators apostrophize this
beautiful flag which is the emblem of the Nation. I have many times
heard orators and philosophers speak of the spirit which was resident in
America. I have always for my own part felt that it was an act of
audacity to attempt to characterize anything of that kind, and when I
have been outside of the country in foreign lands and have been asked if
this, that, or the other was true of America I have habitually said,
"Nothing stated in general terms is true of America, because it is the
most variegated and varied and multiform land under the sun." Yet I know
that if you turn away from the physical aspects of the country, if you
turn away from the variety of the strains of blood that make up our
great population, if you turn away from the great variations of
occupation and of interest among our fellow-citizens, there is a
spiritual unity in America. I know that there are some things which stir
every heart in America, no matter what the racial derivation or the
local environment, and one of the things that stirs every American is
the love of individual liberty. We do not stand for occupations. We do
not stand for material interests. We do not stand for any narrow
conception even of political insti