We made
freedom a birthright. We extended our domain over distant islands
in order to safeguard our own interests and accepted the
consequent obligation to bestow justice and liberty upon less
favored peoples. In the defense of our own ideals and in the
general cause of liberty we entered the Great War. When victory
had been fully secured, we withdrew to our own shores
unrecompensed save in the consciousness of duty done.
Throughout all these experiences we have enlarged our freedom, we
have strengthened our independence. We have been, and propose to
be, more and more American. We believe that we can best serve our
own country and most successfully discharge our obligations to
humanity by continuing to be openly and candidly, in tensely and
scrupulously, American. If we have any heritage, it has been that.
If we have any destiny, we have found it in that direction.
But if we wish to continue to be distinctively American, we must
continue to make that term comprehensive enough to embrace the
legitimate desires of a civilized and enlightened people
determined in all their relations to pursue a conscientious and
religious life. We can not permit ourselves to be narrowed and
dwarfed by slogans and phrases. It is not the adjective, but the
substantive, which is of real importance.
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