of William
Morris will appeal to you. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and many happy
years, I am yours affectionately,
JOHN HAY.
In internal affairs I cannot say that I entered the Presidency with any
deliberately planned and far-reaching scheme of social betterment. I
had, however, certain strong convictions; and I was on the lookout for
every opportunity of realizing those convictions. I was bent upon making
the Government the most efficient possible instrument in helping
the people of the United States to better themselves in every way,
politically, socially, and industrially. I believed with all my heart
in real and thoroughgoing democracy, and I wished to make this
democracy industrial as well as political, although I had only partially
formulated the methods I believed we should follow. I believed in the
people's rights, and therefore in National rights and States' rights
just exactly to the degree in which they severally secured popular
rights. I believed in invoking the National power with absolute freedom
for every National need; and I believed that the Constitution should be
treated as the greatest document ever devised by the wit of man to aid
a people in exercising every power necessary for its own betterment, and
not as a straitjacket cunningly fashioned to strangle growth.
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