obscurity; but a great country loses half its dignity and strength when it cannot in an orderly and methodical way give some account to all whom it may concern of the main reasons why its social progress and the contentment of its citizens have been so well assured.''* *1 Paterson, Lib. Subject, 175. Village Communities, p. 347. "THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES" Response to This Toast on the Occasion of President Roosevelt's Visit to Little Rock, October 5, 1905 "THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES" I will reply to that toast by saying that it seems to me that the most agreeable and encouraging retrospect in American history is to be found in the lives of our American presidents. Here is a fine opening for an extensive dissertation; but as this is neither the time nor the place for anything of that kind, I refrain, contenting myself with a few words. One of the chief grounds of opposition to the adoption of the federal constitution was the liberal grant of power to the president; a very vulnerable point of attack, because men who had experienced the tyranny of George III. and who had succeeded in establishing their liberties only at the price of a long and bloody war, were naturally suspicious of the one-man power. For many years after that great controversy was settled European writers on political topics habitually prophesied that this extensive grant of power would soon lead to the overthrow of the government, and to the establishment of a despotism in its place. We have now had a long succession of presidents belonging to many political parties; but these dire predictions have never been realized. On the contrary, our presidents have all been upright and patriotic men, attentive to their official duties, seeking in every way to promote the best interests of the country according to their several abilities and opportunities; thus putting to shame the longest and most illustrious line of kings that ever alternately blessed or afflicted mankind. The event has proved that our presidents have been more conservative and more mindful of constitutional limitations than the legislative department; so that by this long and consistent course of wise and prudent conduct the presidential office has acquired honor and dignity not directly derived from the constitution, thus affording new guarantees for the future. Our presidents have all had many difficult problems to deal with; and none of them have escaped censure; for Calumny, like Death, loves a shining mark. Washington in his declining years said that he had been accused of every crime that Nero ever committed; and his immediate successors were continually assailed by the most foul and improbable slanders; falsehoods concocted by the American demagogue that walketh in darkness and lieth at noonday; or at least did so in former times; for we may now congratulate ourselves in our more enlightened age that the American demagogue, like the mammoth and the mastodon that once inhabited our forests, has ceased to exist; and that his siren voice is no longer heard in the land. It is fortunate for us that political differences of opinion must always exist; for otherwise we should soon sink into a state of mental and moral degredation, wholly incompatible with liberty or progress; but it is a mistake to regard each recurring presidential election as a savage foray of revenge and extermination, instead of being, as it was intended, a peaceful method of solving political questions, and a necessary requisite for the continuation of a government of law and order. It would certainly be better if our political contests could be carried on with less rancor; if we could "C -do as adversaries do in law, Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends." But it is still more unfortunate when the bitterness of controversy is carried over after the contest is ended; bad policy, too, on the part of the disappointed, since |