greatest achievements in all history. You are beholding the fulfilment
of the age-old promise, man coming into his own. You are to have the
opportunity and responsibility of reflecting this new spirit in the laws
of the most enlightened of Commonwealths. We must steadily advance. Each
individual must have the rewards and opportunities worthy of the
character of our citizenship, a broader recognition of his worth and a
larger liberty, protected by order--and always under the law. In the
promotion of human welfare Massachusetts happily may not need much
reconstruction, but, like all living organizations, forever needs
continuing construction. What are the lessons of the past? How shall
they be applied to these days of readjustment? How shall we emerge from
the autocratic methods of war to the democratic methods of peace,
raising ourselves again to the source of all our strength and all our
glory--sound self-government?

It is your duty not only to reflect public opinion, but to lead it.
Whether we are to enter a new era in Massachusetts depends upon you. The
lessons of the war are plain. Can we carry them on into peace? Can we
still act on the principle that there is no sacrifice too great to
maintain the right? Shall we continue to advocate and practise thrift
and industry? Shall we require unswerving loyalty to our country? These
are the foundations of all greatness.

Let there be a purpose in all your legislation to recognize the right of
man to be well born, well nurtured, well educated, well employed, and
well paid. This is no gospel of ease and selfishness, or class
distinction, but a gospel of effort and service, of universal
application.

Such results cannot be secured at once, but they should be ever before