He said our country was powerful for all military purposes, and if
asked to compare her armies and her navy with those of the great
powers of Europe, he would answer, that is not our standard. History
teaches that our strength is in the courage and patriotism, the skill
and intelligence of our people. A part of the American army was before
him, and a part of the American navy was lying in the harbor of their
city. That army and that navy had fought the battles of the
Revolution, of the "war of 1812" and of the war with Mexico, and would
never be found wanting, whilst the patriotism of the earlier days of
the Republic, proved a sufficient cement to hold the different parts
of our wide spread and extending country together. He said that
everything around him spoke eloquently of the wisdom of the men who
founded these colonies-their descendants, who sat before him,
contrasted strongly, as did their history and present power, stand out
in bold relief, when compared with those of the inhabitants of Central
and Southern America. Chief among the reasons for this, he believed to
be the self-reliant hardihood of their forefathers who, when but a
handful, found themselves confronted by hordes of savages, yet proudly
maintained the integrity of their race and asserted its supremacy over
the descendants of Shem, in whose tents they had come to dwell. They
preferred to encounter toil, privation and carnage, rather than debase
their lineage and race. Their descendants of that pure and heroic
blood have advanced to the high standard of civilization attainable by
that type of mankind. Stability and progress, wealth and comfort, art
and science, have followed their footsteps.

Among our neighbors of Central and Southern America, we see the
Caucasian mingled with the Indian and the African. They have the forms
of free government, because they have copied them. To its benefits
they have not attained, because that standard of civilization is above