O BEAUTIFUL! MY COUNTRY!
By James Russell Lowell
This is a part of Lowell's "Commemoration Ode" written in honor of the heroes of Harvard College, killed in the Civil War. Lowell here imagines America as a beautiful woman—a Goddess of Liberty—now fully restored to her worshipers.
O beautiful! My Country! ours once more!
Smoothing thy gold of war-disheveled hair
O'er such sweet brows as never other wore, . . .
What were our lives without thee?
What all our lives to save thee?5
We reck not what we gave thee;
We will not dare to doubt thee,
But ask whatever else, and we will dare!
THE PROBLEMS OF THE REPUBLIC
By Theodore Roosevelt
The following is extracted from the inaugural address of President Roosevelt, delivered March 4, 1905. It is of special interest to read it in connection with Mr. Hughes's speech (page 356) and to compare the ideas of citizenship and of our country as expressed in the two. In reading this speech you should bear in mind that the era was one of peace, long undisturbed by war. Our problems then were the ordinary problems of everyday living.