I want to see five hundred millions of people living here in peace. If we want them to live in peace, we must develop the brain, civilize the heart, and above all things, must not forget education. Nothing should be taught in the school that somebody does not know.
When I look about me to-day, when I think of the advance of my country, then I think of the work that has been done.
Think of the millions who crossed the mysterious sea, of the thousands and thousands of ships with their brave prows towards the West.
Think of the little settlements on the shores of the ocean, on the banks of rivers, on the edges of forests.
Think of the countless conflicts with savages—of the midnight attacks—of the cabin floors wet with the blood of dead fathers, mothers and babes.
Think of the winters of want, of the days of toil, of the nights of fear, of the hunger and hope.
Think of the courage, the sufferings and hardships.
Think of the homesickness, the disease and death.
Think of the labor; of the millions and millions of trees that were felled, while the aisles of the great forests were filled with the echoes of the ax; of the many millions of miles of furrows turned by the plow; of the millions of miles of fences built; of the countless logs changed to lumber by the saw—of the millions of huts, cabins and houses.
Think of the work. Listen, and you will hear the hum of wheels, the wheels with which our mothers spun the flax and wool. Listen, and you will hear the looms and flying shuttles with which they wove the cloth.