[7] Awarded to Mr. Roosevelt for his acts as mediator between
Russia and Japan which resulted in the Treaty of Portsmouth and
the ending of the Russo-Japanese war.--L.F.A.
We must ever bear in mind that the great end in view is righteousness,
justice as between man and man, nation and nation, the chance to lead
our lives on a somewhat higher level, with a broader spirit of
brotherly good-will one for another. Peace is generally good in
itself, but it is never the highest good unless it comes as the
handmaid of righteousness; and it becomes a very evil thing if it
serves merely as a mask for cowardice and sloth, or as an instrument
to further the ends of despotism or anarchy. We despise and abhor the
bully, the brawler, the oppressor, whether in private or public life;
but we despise no less the coward and the voluptuary. No man is worth
calling a man who will not fight rather than submit to infamy or see
those that are dear to him suffer wrong. No nation deserves to exist
if it permits itself to lose the stern and virile virtues; and this
without regard to whether the loss is due to the growth of a heartless
and all-absorbing commercialism, to prolonged indulgence in luxury and
soft effortless ease, or to the deification of a warped and twisted
sentimentality.
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