This country is not only a free country, but its government is the perfection of human wisdom. From the dawn of its existence, the United States has been heir to the ripest harvests of the world’s learning and experience. England, France, Germany and Sweden struggled through long centuries of barbarism, ignorance and oppression, before they wrested from force and Kingcraft the protection of constitutional government. Our forefathers brought with them, across the ocean, the fruits of this experience. They loved liberty, and they braved the isolation and dangers of an unknown land in order to enjoy it. Transmitted from sire to son, and broadening and strengthening for a hundred years, the ideas and the aspirations of the men who landed at Plymouth and at Jamestown at last found expression in the Declaration of Independence. “This immortal State paper,” says Bancroft, “was the soul of the country at that time; the revelation of its mind when, in its youth, its enthusiasm, its sublime confronting of danger, it rose to the highest creative powers of which man is capable. The heart of Jefferson in writing the Declaration, and of Congress in adopting it, beat for all humanity; the assertion of right was made for the entire world of mankind, without any exception whatever, for the proposition which admits of exceptions can never be self-evident.”
It was inevitable that the successful maintenance of the rights asserted in the Declaration, and the establishment of a government based upon the self-evident truths it affirmed, should not only exercise a potent influence upon the civil institutions of the world, but attract to this country the most energetic, daring and aspiring spirits of all civilized nations. A wide continent, almost boundless in its area and infinite in its resources, afforded human industry and activity such opportunities for the exercise of their powers as were never before known, while the theories and principles of the Declaration, embodied in the organic law of the Republic, guaranteed to every citizen the largest individual liberty consistent with social order, and ample protection in the enjoyment of the products of his industry and skill.
If it was great to be a Roman citizen centuries ago, it is glorious, to-day, to be a citizen of the United States. What Nation enjoys such a splendid fame as ours? What other people is so opulent in the blessings of liberty, intelligence and peace? What country can boast of a happier and more prosperous present, or a more hopeful future? We have no venerable antiquity to look back upon; but what Nation, old or young, has enriched history with so long a list of immortal names—the names of jurists such as Jay and Marshall; or statesmen equalling Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, Seward, and Blaine; or orators rivaling Patrick Henry, Webster, Clay, Douglas, Morton, and Sumner; or soldiers equalling Washington, Jackson, Grant, Sherman, and Thomas; or philosophers such as Benjamin Franklin; or poets of nobler fame than Longfellow, Bryant, Lowell, and Whittier; or financiers greater than Morris, Gallatin, Chase, and Sherman; or historians such as Bancroft, Prescott, and Motley? And what age or country, marshalling all its proud names, and blending the splendid qualities of each in a single person, can match the towering greatness of him who was at once statesman, orator, philosopher, hero, patriot and wise ruler—Abraham Lincoln?
The citizens of the United States are heirs to the rights of the Declaration, the guarantees of the Constitution, the protection of the flag, and the fame and glory of all the splendid names I have mentioned. It is, therefore, glorious to be a citizen of this Republic, and in leaving the bleak Scandinavian Peninsula and coming to America, you have made a wise exchange. The true Fatherland is the land of equal rights. The best country is that which affords to all its citizens the best opportunities for acquiring happy homes. The best government is that which makes all men equal before the throne of its Constitution and its laws. This country, this government, as I firmly believe, is the United States. You share in this belief, and so believing, you have taken our National Festival to your hearts, and made it your Festival, to celebrate, to be proud of, to honor and to revere. I greet you, therefore, not as Swedes, but as fellow-citizens. I rejoice in your prosperity. I acknowledge the brave, energetic part you have taken in the work of developing the resources of Kansas. I gladly join with you in celebrating this Festival of Liberty. You and your kindred have witnessed the full fruition of the predictions which one of our great poets attributes to a prophetess of your race, who lived centuries ago:
I.
“Men from the Northland,
Men from the Southland,
Haste empty-handed;
No more than manhood
Bring they, and hands.