General “Black Jack” Pershing and Governor Coolidge, Boston

“Coming into your presence in ordinary times, gentlemen of the committee, I should be inclined to direct your attention to the long and patriotic services of our party, to the great benefits its policies have conferred upon this Nation, to the illustrious names of our leaders, to our present activities, and to our future party policy. But these are not ordinary times. Our country is at war. There is no way to save our party if our country be lost…

“We seek no party advantage from the distress of our country. Among Republicans there will be no political profiteering…

“We have fought before for the rights of all men irrespective of color. We are proud to fight now with colored men…

“The only hope of a short war is to prepare for a long one. In this work the States play a most important part…

“But America must furnish more than armies and navies for the future. If armies and navies were to be supreme, Germany would be right. There are other and greater forces in the world than march to the roll of the drum. As we are turning the scale with our sword now, so hereafter we must turn the scale with the moral power of America. It must be our disinterested plans that are to restore Europe to a place through justice when we have secured victory through the sword. And into a new world we are to take not only the people of oppressed Europe but the people of America. Out of our sacrifices and suffering, out of our blood and tears, America shall have a new awakening, a rededication to the cause of Washington and Lincoln, a firmer conviction for the right” — excerpts from Governor Calvin Coolidge’s speech before the Somerville Republican City Committee, August 7, 1918.