And a nation, like a person, has something deeper, something more
permanent, something larger than the sum of all its parts. It is
that something which matters most to its future--which calls forth
the most sacred guarding of its present.
It is a thing for which we find it difficult--even impossible--to
hit upon a single, simple word.
And yet we all understand what it is--the spirit--the faith of
America. It is the product of centuries. It was born in the
multitudes of those who came from many lands--some of high degree,
but mostly plain people, who sought here, early and late, to find
freedom more freely.
The democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase in human
history. It is human history. It permeated the ancient life of
early peoples. It blazed anew in the middle ages. It was written
in Magna Charta.
In the Americas its impact has been irresistible. America has been
the New World in all tongues, to all peoples, not because this
continent was a new-found land, but because all those who came
here believed they could create upon this continent a new life--a
life that should be new in freedom.
Its vitality was written into our own Mayflower Compact, into the
Declaration of Independence, into the Constitution of the United
States, into the Gettysburg Address.
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