of life, discerned the great truth that self-restraint is the supreme
necessity and the supreme virtue of a democracy. The people of the United
States have exercised that virtue by the establishment of rules of right
action in what we call the limitations of the constitution, and until
this day they have rigidly observed those rules. The general judgment of
students of government is that the success and permanency of the American
system of government are due to the establishment and observance of
such general rules of conduct. Let us change and adapt our laws as the
shifting-conditions of the times require, but let us never abandon or
weaken this fundamental and essential characteristic of our ordered
liberty.