Do the day's work. If it be to protect the rights of the weak, whoever
objects, do it. If it be to help a powerful corporation better to serve
the people, whatever the opposition, do that. Expect to be called a
stand-patter, but don't be a stand-patter. Expect to be called a
demagogue, but don't be a demagogue. Don't hesitate to be as
revolutionary as science. Don't hesitate to be as reactionary as the
multiplication table. Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down
the strong. Don't hurry to legislate. Give administration a chance to
catch up with legislation.

We need a broader, firmer, deeper faith in the people--a faith that men
desire to do right, that the Commonwealth is founded upon a
righteousness which will endure, a reconstructed faith that the final
approval of the people is given not to demagogues, slavishly pandering
to their selfishness, merchandising with the clamor of the hour, but to
statesmen, ministering to their welfare, representing their deep,
silent, abiding convictions.

Statutes must appeal to more than material welfare. Wages won't satisfy,
be they never so large. Nor houses; nor lands; nor coupons, though they
fall thick as the leaves of autumn. Man has a spiritual nature. Touch
it, and it must respond as the magnet responds to the pole. To that, not
to selfishness, let the laws of the Commonwealth appeal. Recognize the
immortal worth and dignity of man. Let the laws of Massachusetts
proclaim to her humblest citizen, performing the most menial task, the
recognition of his manhood, the recognition that all men are peers, the
humblest with the most exalted, the recognition that all work is
glorified. Such is the path to equality before the law. Such is the
foundation of liberty under the law. Such is the sublime revelation of
man's relation to man--Democracy.