This Federal Union has stood for one hundred and

fifteen years. It has surmounted the gravest peril to which it was exposed, a disputed sovereignty. It has proved to be the highest and most perfect form of government. It combines the power and strength of a great nation with local self-government and the largest liberty. It has the capacity of assimilating many different races, and moulding them into one homogeneous people. It has added State after State to the Union, and its territory now stretches from ocean to ocean and to possessions beyond. It has demonstrated the adaptability of a Federal system to extend over a continent; and in the union of these imperial commonwealths it has afforded a model and a precedent for the federation of the world.

The era of constructive government has passed. The struggles of our fathers have ended. Independence, liberty, and a stable Federal compact are accomplished facts. We are a nation in all things which concern the general welfare, while the individual is protected by the organic law which covers every known personal right. The system has been perfected. The structure is complete. Our con

tinued safety no longer lies in adding to or changing the framework of our government. It is not the American Union or democracy which is now on trial, but the American people.

The grave questions which confront society today are economic and industrial rather than political. They involve the regulation and equalization of social conditions. These issues lie outside of legislation. They rest in the domain of morals. Government and laws have their limitations. They cannot make wealth without labor. They cannot make men of equal capacity and energy. If these questions seem insoluble, if the outlook at times appears dark, let us take courage and inspiration from the seemingly insurmountable obstacles which our fathers overcame in the making of the nation. Let the mind run back to the midnight winter of Valley Forge; to the hour when the Constitution hung trembling in the balance; to the time when brother and brother throughout the land were divided into hostile camps.

Deeper than the logic of the rights of capital and labor, deeper than the academic discussion of individualism and socialism, the solution of these questions will be found in the broad humanity, the sense of fairness and justice, of the American people; just as, in the building of the nation, we discovered that beneath the logic of constitutional sovereignty, beneath the final analysis of political issues, our safety lay in the intelligent judgment and sound sense of the great body of the people.

The same broad and liberal spirit that made us a nation must be directed to the social and industrial

problems of the time. As it was the spirit of national unity that built up the Union, so it will be the spirit of humanity which will preserve society. As the nation is one and indivisible, so the whole people are one and indivisible. The well-being of the entire community is inseparable from the well-being of each individual of which it is composed. All classes are indissolubly bound together. When we fail to realize this truth, we become un-American,-a class apart. Our destiny lies hidden in the spirit which teaches that we cannot be of the rich unless we are of the poor, we cannot be of the capitalist unless we are of the wageworker, we cannot be of the North unless we are of the South, we cannot be of America unless we are of the world. This is the true American spirit which made the nation and will transmit it to our posterity. This is the realization of the great lesson which this Exposition inculcates, the unity of the human race and the ties which bind us to all mankind.

AMERICA'S SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM OF GOVERNMENT

Fourth of July Oration delivered in Faneuil Hall before the City Council and Citizens of Boston at the Celebration of the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Anniversary of the Independence of the United States, July 4, 1905.

MR. MAYOR AND FELLOW CITIZENS :

O

N the Fourth of July, 1776, our fathers ceased to be colonists of Britain, and became an independent people. On that day the representatives of the United States of America in General Congress assembled, at the City of Philadelphia, declared that the thirteen united Colonies possessed "full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do."

On that day, upon a new continent, and upon a magnitude hitherto unknown, was begun, in the words of Bryce, "the most remarkable experiment in government the world has yet witnessed."

The history of mankind for three thousand years pointed against the success of this experiment. The teachings of philosophers and statesmen of all ages

foretold its failure. Many of our own great leaders were distrustful of the result.

One hundred and twenty-nine years have passed since that eventful scene in Independence Hall, and lo! we now behold, as the outcome of this experiment, the fairest picture of government which ever met the eye of man. Oh, that the great patriots of this storm centre of Revolution might look down upon this scene! Would that the heroic band who signed the Declaration might gaze upon their country to-day! Would that all the great founders of the Republic might behold this United States of America on this Fourth of July, 1905!

Imagine the "transports of enthusiasm" of John Adams, as, through "the rays of ravishing light and glory," he finds his prophecy fulfilled a thousand fold. Picture to yourselves the thoughts of Otis - that "flame of fire" in whom "Independence was born" - as he perceives the "liberties" which the people here enjoy! Call to your minds, as he looks upon this wonderful progress of American freedom, the joyous emotions of that proscribed and inflexible patriot statesman, Samuel Adams, whom no fear of death could induce "to abandon the righteous cause of his country." Think of the exaltation of John Hancock, could he look down upon us in this hour - he who put the question, "Shall the Declaration be adopted?" and who, at the risk of life and fortune,