SPEECH TO THE WORKINGMEN OF TRONDHJEM, JUNE 14th, 1885

EIGHT days ago I returned home again to Norway after an absence of eleven years.

During these eight days at home I have experienced more of the joy of life than during all the eleven years abroad.

I have found immense progress in most lines, and I have seen that the nation to which I most closely belong has approached the rest of Europe considerably more than formerly.

But the visit at home has also caused me disappointments. My experience has shown me that the most indispensable individual rights are not as yet safeguarded as I believed I might hope and expect under the new form of government.

A ruling majority does not grant the individual either liberty of faith or liberty of expression beyond an arbitrarily fixed limit.

So there is still much to be done before we may be said to have attained to real liberty. But I fear that it will be beyond the power of our ‘present democracy to solve these problems. An element of nobility must enter into our political life, our administration, our representation, and our press.

Of course I am not thinking of the nobility of birth, nor of that of wealth, nor of that of knowledge, neither of that of ability or intelligence. But I think of the nobility of character, of the nobility of will and mind.

That alone it is which can make us free.

This nobility which I hope will be granted to our nation will come to us from two sources. It will come to us from two groups which have not as yet been irreparably harmed by party pressure. It will come to us from our women and from our workingmen.

The reshaping of social conditions which is now under way out there in Europe is concerned chiefly with the future position of the workingman and of woman.

That it is which I hope for and wait for; and it is that that I will work for, and shall work for my whole life so far as I am able.

It is with these words that I take pleasure in extending to you my most hearty thanks for all the honour and joy which the Trondhjem labor union to-night has given me. And while extending my thanks I propose a long life to the laboring class and its future.