Americanism is not a matter of creed or birthplace or descent. That man is the best American who has in him the American spirit, the American soul. Such a man fears not the strong and harms not the weak. He scorns what is base or cruel or dishonest. He looks beyond the accidents of occupation or social condition and hails each of his fellow-citizens as his brother, asking nothing save that each shall treat the other on his worth as a man, and that they shall all join together to do what in them lies for the uplifting of this mighty and vigorous people. In our veins runs the blood of many an Old World nation. We are kin to each of these nations and yet identical with none. Our policy should be one of cordial friendship for them all, and yet we should keep ever before our eyes the fact that we are ourselves a separate people with our own ideals and standards, and destined, whether for better or for worse, to work out a wholly new national type. The fate of the twentieth century will in no small degree—I ask you to think of this from the standpoint of the world—the fate of the twentieth century as it bears on the world will in no small degree depend upon the type of citizenship developed on this Continent. Surely such a thought must thrill us with the resolute purpose so to bear ourselves that the name American shall stand as the symbol of just, generous, and fearless treatment of all men and all nations. Let us be true to ourselves, for we can not then be false to any man. ADDRESS AT THE DINNER OF THE SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, HOTEL ASTOR, NEW YORK CITY, MARCH 17, 1905 _Ladies and Gentlemen_: I am glad to greet not merely the Sons but the Daughters of the American Revolution, and it is indeed a pleasure to be with you and say a few words, partly of greeting to you and partly in reference to what I feel should be the work, the special work, of a society like this, the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. It ought to fulfil more than one function. In the first place, it should, of course, keep up our sense of historic continuity with the past. It is a good thing, pre-eminently a good thing, for this Nation never to lose sight of what has been done in the past by those who founded and those who preserved the Republic. It is eminently fit that there should be associations banded together for the special purpose of keeping fresh in the minds of all of us the great memories of the men of the past and of what these men did. But if we treat that merely as a relaxation, merely as a pleasant mental exercise, I think we come lamentably short of what we ought to do.