and usefulness. Thus is the people's will impressed upon the whole
framework of our civil polity - municipal, State, and Federal; and this
is the price of our liberty and the inspiration of our faith in the
Republic.

It is the duty of those serving the people in public place to closely
limit public expenditures to the actual needs of the Government
economically administered, because this bounds the right of the
Government to exact tribute from the earnings of labor or the property
of the citizen, and because public extravagance begets extravagance
among the people. We should never be ashamed of the simplicity and
prudential economies which are best suited to the operation of a
republican form of government and most compatible with the mission of
the American people. Those who are selected for a limited time to
manage public affairs are still of the people, and may do much by their
example to encourage, consistently with the dignity of their official
functions, that plain way of life which among their fellow-citizens
aids integrity and promotes thrift and prosperity.

The genius of our institutions, the needs of our people in their home
life, and the attention which is demanded for the settlement and
development of the resources of our vast territory dictate the
scrupulous avoidance of any departure from that foreign policy
commended by the history, the traditions, and the prosperity of our
Republic. It is the policy of independence, favored by our position and
defended by our known love of justice and by our power. It is the
policy of peace suitable to our interests. It is the policy of
neutrality, rejecting any share in foreign broils and ambitions upon
other continents and repelling their intrusion here. It is the policy
of Monroe and of Washington and Jefferson - "Peace, commerce, and