XXXIX

REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION, TREMONT TEMPLE, BOSTON

OCTOBER 4, 1919


Ancient custom crystallized to law has drawn us here. We come to renew
our pledge publicly at the altar of our country. We come in the light of
history and of reason. We come to take counsel both from experience and
from imagination. Over us shines a glorious past, before us lies a
promising future. Around us is a renewed determination deep and solemn
that this Commonwealth of ours shall endure.

The period since our last election has been one of momentous events.
Within its first week the victorious advance of America and her allies
terminated in the armistice of November eleventh. The power of organized
despotisms had been proven to be inferior to the power of organized
republics. Reason had again triumphed over absolutism. The "still small
voice" of the moral law was seen to be greater than the might of kings.
The world appeal to duty triumphed over the world appeal to selfishness.
It always will. There will be far-reaching results from all this which
no one can now foresee. But some things are apparent. The power of the
people has been revealed. The worth of the individual man shines forth
with an increased glory. But most significant of all, for it lies at the
foundation of all civilization and all progress, was the demonstration