Those who first came here to carry out the longings of their
spirit, and the millions who followed, and the stock that sprang
from them--all have moved forward constantly and consistently
toward an ideal which in itself has gained stature and clarity
with each generation.
The hopes of the Republic cannot forever tolerate either
undeserved poverty or self-serving wealth.
We know that we still have far to go; that we must more greatly
build the security and the opportunity and the knowledge of every
citizen, in the measure justified by the resources and the
capacity of the land.
But it is not enough to achieve these purposes alone. It is not
enough to clothe and feed the body of this Nation, and instruct
and inform its mind. For there is also the spirit. And of the
three, the greatest is the spirit.
Without the body and the mind, as all men know, the Nation could
not live.
But if the spirit of America were killed, even though the Nation's
body and mind, constricted in an alien world, lived on, the
America we know would have perished.
That spirit--that faith--speaks to us in our daily lives in ways
often unnoticed, because they seem so obvious. It speaks to us
here in the Capital of the Nation. It speaks to us through the
processes of governing in the sovereignties of 48 States.
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