And what sort of soldiers //are those you are to lead? //
Are they reliable? //
Are they brave? //
Are they capable of victory? //
Their story is known to all of you. //
It is the story /of the American //man-at-arms. //
My estimate of him //was formed on the battlefield //many，/many years ago，//and has never changed. //
I regarded him //then as I regard him now //–
as one /of the world's /noblest figures，//
not only /as one /of the finest /military characters，//
but also /as one /of the most stainless. //
His name and fame /are the birthright /of
every /American citizen. /
In his youth and strength，//his
love and loyalty，//he gave /all
/that mortality can give. ///
He needs no eulogy from me //or from any other man. //
He has written /his own history /and written it /in red /on his enemy's breast. //
But when I think //of his patience under adversity，//
of his courage under fire，//
and of his modesty in victory，//
I am filled /with
an emotion /of admiration I cannot put into
words. //
He belongs to history //as furnishing /one
/of the greatest examples /of successful /patriotism.
//
He belongs to posterity //as the instructor //of future generations //in
the principles of liberty and freedom. //
He belongs to the present，to us，//by his virtues /and by his achievements. /
In 20 campaigns，//on
a hundred battlefields，//around
a thousand campfires，//
I have witnessed //that enduring fortitude，//
that patriotic /self-abnegation，//
and that /invincible
/determination//
which have carved his statue /in the hearts of his people. //
From one end of the world to the other
// has drained deep //the
chalice of courage. ///
As I listened to those songs，//
in memory's eye //
I could see those //staggering columns //of the First World War，//
bending under soggy packs，//on
many a weary march //
from dripping /dusk
/to drizzling dawn，//
slogging /ankle-deep
/through the mire of shell-shocked roads，//
to form /grimly
for the attack，//
blue-lipped，//covered with
sludge and mud，//
chilled by the wind and rain，//driving home to their objective，//
and for many，//to the judgment
seat of God. //
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