deeply stirred, stirred by a solemn passion, stirred by the knowledge
of wrong, of ideals lost, of government too often debauched and made an
instrument of evil. The feelings with which we face this new age of
right and opportunity sweep across our heartstrings like some air out
of God's own presence, where justice and mercy are reconciled and the
judge and the brother are one. We know our task to be no mere task of
politics but a task which shall search us through and through, whether
we be able to understand our time and the need of our people, whether
we be indeed their spokesmen and interpreters, whether we have the pure
heart to comprehend and the rectified will to choose our high course of
action.

This is not a day of triumph; it is a day of dedication. Here muster,
not the forces of party, but the forces of humanity. Men's hearts wait
upon us; men's lives hang in the balance; men's hopes call upon us to
say what we will do. Who shall live up to the great trust? Who dares
fail to try? I summon all honest men, all patriotic, all
forward-looking men, to my side. God helping me, I will not fail them,
if they will but counsel and sustain me!


***

Woodrow Wilson
Second Inaugural Address
Monday, March 5, 1917

My Fellow Citizens:

THE four years which have elapsed since last I stood in this place have