[A speech to a convention at the newly opened state capital in Sacramento, California, by then Secretary of State Ignacio Vallejo, announcing his intention to run for president on the Republican ticket. Disturbed by some of the new directions of the New Democratic movement and encouraged by the reform of the Republicans and the passing of the issues which had caused the initial division, Vallejo hoped to bring out the old heritage of the Whigs and old liberalism]
Gentlemen, our nation has passed through many struggles - victorious. We have shown the world that a nation can thrive by the application of virtue, freedom, and equality, thrive even against great storms which seek to tear it apart. We have weathered the bitter winds of tyrants of all kinds - kings, dictators, slaveowners.
It has not been easy, nor costless. Otherwise, what would be the worth of it? It is of no cost to pretend to be equal - to pretend to have liberty - to pretend to stand to our duties in the truth that all men are created equal. It is of great cost to be free and to be right.
We are tired. We have seen wars of all kinds - petty and great. Our nation has been torn apart - politics, armies, buildings, lives. We have moved mountains and taken flight across a vast territory of fields, factories, friends, but also enemies. It is this heavy task that makes us weary. Many of us have succumbed to sleep. They tell us to turn back, envying the sweet decay of the old ways. Wrongful war. Wrongful peace. Strife, destruction, greed. This is the easy way. It is a welcoming way for those tired like us.
But I will not ask you to turn to this route. I will ask you to pick up your crosses yet again, to raise the banners again and show the world again what it means to be free. This is our next war. Not a war of sword and gunshot, but a war of purpose and effort. A war of liberty. A war of peace.
At home, we must be brothers and fellow soldiers. We must care for those sick and poor. We must profit not only ourselves, but those who work with us, above us, and under us. To this end we should support a free economy while supporting beneficial industry for our people ((Interventionism: Supporting infrastructure as needed, building forts and ports, supporting factories to keep high employment and growth, high education spending, good administrative spending, and bringing about the beginnings of anti-monopoly and workplace fairness legislation)). We must educate all people and produce jobs where they are needed. Every able man without a job is an idle hand that could be increasing production and growth. Every man lost in poverty is an idle mind that could be supporting his nation.
We must work against the divisions of politics and ideologies that some wish to use to trip us up. Neither strife nor greed, separatism nor tyranny, rebellion nor paralysis will get us anywhere. We must debate, not out of rivalrous and partisan fighting but out of sound reasoning, to support both the industrialist and the worker, the poor and the prosperous. As we have done before, let us work to such fantasies with reason - not to ignore them, but to make them real.
Militarily, we must be cautious and ready. We must continue to produce adequate and advanced ships to protect our shores, and guns and cannon to project our force on land. We must reach out to our free allies in our mission together to support and exemplify the rights of man, most especially here in our hemisphere. We must prevent the downfall of our free neighbors to the intervention of those who hate such rights. We will not do this by reckless militarism, rampant militias, overspending, or the expansion of military political power, as they have done in other nations and we have fallen prey to in the past. Every man who is not a soldier may be a writer, a statesman, a businessman, a farmer. We must balance such things with a need to have a reasonable and flexible military force. ((Defense: American alliances with other democracies and freedom loving nations, defense of our allies in America in particular in fights against tyrannical groups (including military support, especially naval power, in just fights) diplomatic and economic support for freedom and peace around the globe, supporting free nations against tyrannical imperialism. Limited expansion of the military, mostly in regards to better trained and organized troops and expanded useful navies. Military spending to decrease to a steady slow growth.)).
In the world we must be a light to all governments, showing that peace and prosperity can go hand in hand with liberty and truth. We should seek to guide those nations just hearing of our experiments of liberty in Asia and other places, and prevent the hegemony of European tyrants. We must not seek war, but we must not seek the peace of ignorance or the quietness of falsehood. ((NonIsolationism: Alliances in the Americas primarily, but also with our friends such as in Britain. Avoidance of European politics, while keeping relations cordial enough. Influence in keeping Japan and China, among others, from falling into the wrong spheres of influence. War, especially aggressive or unjust war, should be avoided at great cost. It should not be thrown away entirely, though, if a free people need our assistance [or, of course, an attack against America - we should fight then too
]))
This is a great task before us, greater even than before - but we can achieve it. Our nation has thrown of the tyrants of imperialistic Britain, stood for the rights of our fellow men against the neglect and abuses of Santa Anna, and brought about liberty against great struggle to all men at home even in the face of widespread rebellion and destruction. We will prove to the world again that this experiment of liberty is one worth following.
