Israel
into a people able to withstand the onslaughts of the oppressor, and to
abolish forever within their borders despotic rule? Who could have had
faith that men of different creeds, speaking various tongues, bred in
unlike social conditions, would here coalesce and co-operate for the
general purposes of free government? Above all, who could have believed
that a form of government rarely tried, even in small States, and when
tried found practicable only for brief periods, would here become so
stable, so strong, that every hamlet, every village, is self-poised and
manages its own affairs? The achievement is greater than we are able to
know; nor does it lie chiefly in the millions who coming from many lands
have here made homes and found themselves free; nor in the building of
cities, the clearing of forests, the draining of swamps, the binding of
two oceans, and the opening of lines of rapid communication in every
direction. Not to numbers or wealth do we owe our significance among
the nations; but to the fact that we have shown that respect for law is
compatible with civil and religious liberty; that a free people can
become prosperous and strong, and preserve order without king or
standing army; that the State and the Church can move in separate orbits
and still co-operate for the common welfare; that men of different races
and beliefs may live together in peace; that in spite of an abnormally
rapid increase of population and of wealth, and of the many evils thence
resulting, the prevailing tendency is to sanity of thought and
sentiment, thus plainly manifesting the vigor of our life and
institutions; that the government of the majority, where men put their
trust in God and in knowledge, is in the end the government of the good
and the wise. We have thus helped to establish confidence in human
nature; to prove that man's instincts, like the laws of Nature, are
conservative; to show that the enthusiasts who would overturn
everything, destroy everything, have no abiding place or influence in
the affairs of a free people, as volcanic and cyclonic forces are but
transitory and superficial in their action upon the earth. We have shown
in a word that under a popular government, where men are faithful and
intelligent, it is as impossible that society should become chaotic as
that the planets should dissolve into star dust.

It is difficult to realize what an advance this is on all previous views
of political life; how ful