I am deeply sensible of the great honor which you confer upon me, an honor coming from this primate of the universities of the New World; an honor which receives me into the company of men learned, devoted to science, the disciples of truth, men eminent in the republic of letters. I am the more appreciative of this emblem because I am myself the son of a college professor, born within the precincts of a learned institution, and all my life closely associated with higher education in the United States of America. But I realize, sir, that my personality plays no considerable part in the ceremony of today. Happy is he who comes, by whatever chance, to stand as the representative of a great cause; as the representative of ideas which conciliate the feelings and arouse the enthusiasm of men; for the cause sheds light upon his person, however small, and the honor of his purpose reflects honor on him. With the greatest satisfaction I have heard from the lips of the learned rector and professor of this university so just and high an estimate of the contributions made by my country to the cause of ordered liberty and justice in the world. I feel that what has been said here today is of far greater weight than any ordinary compliment, because it comes from men who speak under the grave responsibility of their high station as instructors of their countrymen, and after deliberate study, resulting in definite and certain conclusions. It is a matter of most interesting reflection that after the nations of the Old World, from which we took our being, had sought for many years to gain wealth and strength and profit by the enforcement of a narrow and mistaken colonial policy, the revolt of the colonies of the New World brought to the mother nations infinitely greater blessings even than they were seeking. The reflex action of the working of the spirit of freedom on these shores of the new hemisphere upon the welfare of the countless millions of the Old World, has been of a value incalculable and inconceivable to the minds against whose mistaken policy we revolted. I have always thought, sir, that the chief contribution of the United States of America to political science, was the device of incorporating in written constitutions an expression of the great principles which underlie human freedom and human justice, and putting it in the power of the judicial branch of the government to pass judgment upon the conformity of political action to those principles.