XIV
AT INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
TUESDAY, MAY 8TH
I MUST say in my own name and that of my companions that here we have seen something we have seen nowhere else. Everywhere else we were expected, and could only congratulate ourselves on being met by the enthusiastic crowds which have greeted France in our persons. But the number of our engagements was so great that we had been unable to reserve a visit to your important town. Warned of our arrival only this morning, you, Mr. Mayor, and you, Mr. Governor, have managed to gather together in the streets of this vast city, thousands and thousands of citizens who have come to meet us with outstretched hands, to greet France and the French Republic.
Such results cannot be attributed to discipline alone. They come from the love your hearts bear to France, from the patriotic flame too, which yet burns there, the flame of gratitude you spoke of just now, still so bright that after one hundred and forty years America and France are as close today as in the days when Lafayette came here with French soldiers to your aid.
And I do not forget the chief reason for our presence here, so clearly marked by the spot on which this platform is raised. We are here to salute the glorious soldiers who fell for their native land, for justice. In the name of France, I salute those who at the call of your great President, Abraham Lincoln, fell to assure equal rights for all, justice and right, all the eternal principles which Washington and Lincoln caused to triumph by the creation of American independence. They are the very principles at stake in Europe; it is because Imperial Germany sought to trample under foot and destroy European democracy as represented by the France of the Revolution, that Frenchmen have struggled three years and are still struggling. And it is in order to save these principles from perishing that free America rises at the voice of President Wilson and that this city before the conscription law was voted, had started voluntary enlistments on so large a scale.
You have shown, Mr. Mayor, and you, free citizens of this great industrial and intellectual centre, workers who give freely the labour of your hands for the generations to come, you have all shown how deeply these principles are engraved in your hearts.
You said, Mr. Governor, and you too, Mr. Mayor, that the French and American flags were about to wave together in the same cause. You said their folds would he mingled and become one. I hail the message and thank you for saying these grave words. Yes, to-morrow, all together, arms in hand, we will drive German autocracy back and build up universal democracy throughout the world, thanks to France and thanks to the Republic of the United States.