University of Virginia Library

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171

XXIV
AT ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY, ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI,
APRIL 29, 1903

Cardinal Gibbons, gentlemen, and ladies:

It is indeed a pleasure to be received here as a guest of
the first and oldest university founded in our country
west of the Mississippi River in the Louisiana Purchase.
I know your work. I have myself been much in the
West, and I have come across the traces of your work,
both among the communities of our own people and
among the Indian tribes.

I thank you personally for your kind allusions to me,
and would hold myself recreant to the principles upon
which this Government was founded did I not strive as
Chief Executive to do fair and equal justice to all men
without regard to the way in which any man chooses to
worship his Maker. I thank you for your greeting. I
appreciate it, and I can assure you, you are not as glad
to have me as I am to be here.