There, by night the cotton whitens beneath the stars, and by day THE WHEAT LOCKS THE SUNSHINE IN ITS BEARDED SHEAF. In the same field the clover steals the fragrance of the wind, and tobacco catches the quick aroma of the rains. THERE ARE MOUNTAINS STORED WITH EXHAUSTLESS TREASURES:  forests—­vast and primeval; and rivers that, tumbling or loitering, run wanton to the sea. Of the three essential items of all industries—­cotton, iron and wood—­that region has easy control. IN COTTON, a fixed monopoly—­IN IRON, proven supremacy—­IN TIMBER, the reserve supply of the Republic. From this assured and permanent advantage, against which artificial conditions cannot much longer prevail, has grown an amazing system of industries.  Not maintained by human contrivance of tariff or capital, afar off from the fullest and cheapest source of supply, but resting in divine assurance, within touch of field and mine and forest—­not set amid costly farms from which competition has driven the farmer in despair, but amid cheap and sunny lands, rich with agriculture, to which neither season nor soil has set a limit—­this system of industries is mounting to a splendor that shall dazzle and illumine the world. THAT, SIR, is the picture and the promise of my home—­A LAND BETTER AND FAIRER THAN I HAVE TOLD YOU, and yet but fit setting in its material excellence for the loyal and gentle quality of its citizenship.

This hour little needs the LOYALTY THAT IS LOYAL TO ONE SECTION and yet holds the other in enduring suspicion and estrangement. Give us the broad and perfect loyalty that loves and trusts GEORGIA alike with Massachusetts—­that knows no SOUTH, no North, no EAST, no West, but endears with equal and patriotic love every foot of our soil, every State of our Union.

    A MIGHTY DUTY, SIR, AND A MIGHTY INSPIRATION impels every one
    of us to-night to lose in patriotic consecration WHATEVER
    ESTRANGES, WHATEVER DIVIDES.

WE, SIR, are Americans—­AND WE STAND FOR HUMAN LIBERTY! The uplifting force of the American idea is under every throne on earth. France, Brazil—­THESE ARE OUR VICTORIES.  To redeem the earth from kingcraft and oppression—­THIS IS OUR MISSION!  AND WE SHALL NOT FAIL. God has sown in our soil the seed of His millennial harvest, and He will not lay the sickle to the ripening crop until His full and perfect day has come. OUR HISTORY, SIR, has been a constant and expanding miracle, FROM PLYMOUTH ROCK AND JAMESTOWN, all the way—­aye, even from the hour when from the voiceless and traceless ocean a new world rose to the sight of the inspired sailor.  As we approach the fourth centennial of that stupendous day—­when the old world will come to marvel and to learn amid our gathered treasures—­let us resolve to crown the miracles of our past with the