brief period of four years is not necessarily a supreme matter
of faith. We might try one or we might, in a spirit of
experiment, try another.

"In speaking of this we would have our personal fortunes
forgotten. They are of transient interest to ourselves and we
might say of less interest to others. To hold the exalted office
of President of the United States, to occupy the place of
Washington, of Jefferson, of Lincoln, to be looked to for
leadership in public questions, to be the first citizen in this
great land is not a trifling but a gigantic ambition, worthy of
all honest striving but involving, in the ordinary sense, no
supreme issue. So if personal reasons only animated us, we could
not muster the temerity to state our case with the ardent zeal
that controls us.

"But the motives that guide us are of greater import. As leader
of a great organization which has had its part in interpreting
the aspirations of the American people, and in shaping
Americanism through the generations we have been invested with a
sacred commission, a mandate sanctified by the reckless bravery
of our sons and ennobled by the heart impulses of our daughters.
Through circumstances not of our own choosing we have become the
custodians of the honor of the nation, we have been called to
fight the good fight of faith.

"We as a party willed otherwise. In the face of bigoted denials
of our good faith we sought only concord of all our people in
the tasks of American in the world. There was glory enough for
all and we never advanced the claim that it was a partisan matter