TENNESSEE TOLERANCE
now as at any previous time in our history. It is
eminently fitting that once a year our people should set
apart a day for praise and thanksgiving to the Giver of
Good, and, at the same time that they express their
thankfulness for the abundant mercies received, should
manfully acknowledge their shortcomings and pledge
themselves solemnly and in good faith to strive to
overcome them. During the past year we have been
blessed with bountiful crops. Our business prosperity
has been great. No other people has ever stood on as
high a level of material well-being as ours now stands.
We are not threatened by foes from without. The foes
from whom we should pray to be delivered are our own
passions, appetites, and follies; and against these there
is always need that we should war. (Proclamation,
November 2, 1905.) Presidential Addresses and State
Papers VI, 1477-1478.
THAYER, ABBOTT H., and GERALD H. See
effect that I did not deem it my duty to interfere, that is,
to forbid the action which more than anything else in
actual fact saved the situation. The result justified my
judgment. The panic was stopped, public confidence in
the solvency of the threatened institution being at once
restored. (1913.) Mem. Ed. XXII, 502; Nat. Ed. XX,
432.
TENNESSEE COAL AND IRON COMPANY. See
also PANIC OF 1907.
TENURE OF OFFICE. See OFFICE.
TEXANS. See COWBOYS.
TEXAS—CONQUEST OF. The conquest of Texas
should properly be classed with conquests like those of
the Norse sea-rovers. The virtues and faults alike of the
Texans were those of a barbaric age. They were
restless, brave, and eager for adventure, excitement, and
plunder; they were warlike, resolute, and enterprising;
they had all the marks of a young and hardy race,
flushed with the pride of strength and self-confidence.
On the other hand they showed again and again the
barbaric vices of boastfulness, ignorance, and cruelty;
and they were utterly careless of the rights of others,
looking upon the possessions of all weaker races as
simply their natural prey. A band of settlers entering
Texas was troubled by no greater scruples of
conscience than, a thousand years before, a shipload of
Knut's followers might have felt at landing in England;
and when they were engaged in warfare with the
Mexicans they could count with certainty upon
assistance from their kinsfolk who had been left behind,
and for the same reasons that had enabled Rolf’s
Norsemen on the seacoast of France to rely confidently
on Scandinavian help in their quarrels with their
Karling overlords. (1887.) Mem. Ed. VIII, 132-133;
Nat. Ed. VII, 115.
THANKSGIVING DAY. When nearly three centuries
ago the first settlers came to the country which has now
become this great Republic, they fronted not only
hardships and privation, but terrible risk to their lives.
In those grim years the custom grew of setting apart one
day in each year for a special service of thanksgiving to
the Almighty for preserving the people through the
changing seasons. The custom has now become
national and hallowed by immemorial usage. We live in
easier and more plentiful times than our forefathers, the
men who with rugged strength faced the rugged days;
and yet the dangers to national life are quite as great
ANIMALS—PROTECTIVE COLORATION OF.
THEATRE. See ABBEY THEATRE.
THEOLOGY. See REASON; RELIGION.
THEORISTS. See CROMWELL, O.; Federalist, The;
PRACTICALITY.
THIRD TERM ISSUE. See PRESIDENCY.
THRIFT. Thrift and industry are indispensable virtues;
but they are not all-sufficient. We must base our
appeals for civic and national betterment on nobler
grounds than those of mere business expediency.
(Forum, February 1895.) Mem. Ed. XV, 13; Nat. Ed.
XIII, II.
THRIFT. See also WEALTH.
THRIFT STAMPS. See LIBERTY LOANS.
TOBACCO TRUST. See NORTHERN SECURITIES
CASE; SHERMAN ANTI-TRUST ACT .
TOLERANCE. In a republic, to be successful we must
learn to combine intensity of conviction with a broad
tolerance of difference of conviction. Wide differences
of opinion in matters of religious, political and social
belief must exist if conscience and intellect alike are not
to be stunted, if there is to be room for healthy growth.
Bitter internecine hatreds, based on such differences,
are signs, not of earnestness of belief, but of that
fanaticism which, whether religious or antireligious,
demo-
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