any new estate which events devolve upon it, and in the fear of God will “take occasion by the hand and make the bounds of freedom wider yet.”  If there are those among us who would make our way more difficult, we must not be disheartened, but the more earnestly dedicate ourselves to the task upon which we have rightly entered.  The path of progress is seldom smooth.  New things are often found hard to do.  Our fathers found them so.  We find them so.  They are inconvenient.  They cost us something.  But are we not made better for the effort and sacrifice, and are not those we serve lifted up and blessed?

We will be consoled, too, with the fact that opposition has confronted every onward movement of the Republic from its opening hour until now, but without success.  The Republic has marched on and on, and its step has exalted freedom and humanity.  We are undergoing the same ordeal as did our predecessors nearly a century ago.  We are following the course they blazed.  They triumphed.  Will their successors falter and plead organic impotency in the nation?  Surely after 125 years of achievement for mankind we will not now surrender our equality with other powers on matters fundamental and essential to nationality.  With no such purpose was the nation created.  In no such spirit has it developed its full and independent sovereignty.  We adhere to the principle of equality among ourselves, and by no act of ours will we assign to ourselves a subordinate rank in the family of nations.

My fellow-citizens, the public events of the past four years have gone into history.  They are too near to justify recital.  Some of them were unforeseen; many of them momentous and far-reaching in their consequences to ourselves and our relations with the rest of the world.  The part which the United States bore so honorably in the thrilling scenes in China, while new to American life, has been in harmony with its true spirit and best traditions, and in dealing with the results its policy will be that of moderation and fairness.

We face at this moment a most important question that of the future relations of the United States and Cuba.  With our near neighbors we must remain close friends.  The declaration of the purposes of this Government in the resolution of April 20, 1898, must be made good.  Ever since the evacuation of the island by the army of Spain, the Executive, with all practicable speed, has been assisting its people in the successive steps necessary to the establishment of a free and independent government prepared to assume and perform the obligations of international law which now rest upon the United States under the treaty of Paris.  The convention elected by the people to frame a constitution is approaching the completion of its labors.  The transfer of American control to the new government is of such great importance, involving an obligation resulting from our intervention and the treaty of peace, that I am glad to be advised by the recent act of Congress