jaz-do
Active member
" We Seek Liberty "
if it dies in men's hearts,no court can save it
We have gathered here to affirm a faith, a faith in a common purpose,
a common conviction, a common devotion. Some of us have chosen
America as the land of our adoption;the rest have come from those who did the same. For this reason we have some right to consider ourselves a
picked group,a group of those who had the courage to break from the
past and brave the dangers and the loneliness of a strange land.
What was the object that nerved us,or those who went before us,
to this choice? We sought Liberty;freedom from oppression,freedom
from want,freedom to be ourselves.This we then saught.This we now
believe that we are by the way of winning.
What do we mean when we say that first of all we seek liberty? I often
wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions,
upon laws and upon courts.These are false hopes;believe me ,these
are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts and of men and women.
When it dies there, no constitution,no law,no court can save it. No
constitution,no law,no court can even do much to help it. While it lies
there,it needs no constitution,no law,no court to save it.
And what is this liberty which must lie in the hearts of men and women?
It is not the ruthles,the unbridled will. It is not freedom to do as one likes.
That is the denial of liberty,and leads straight to its overthrow. A society
in which men recognize no check upon their freedom,soon becomes a
society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few;as we have
learned to our sorrow.
What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my
own faith.The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is
right.The spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds
of other men and women.The spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs
their interests alongside its own without bias.The spirit of liberty remembers
that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded.The spirit of liberty is the spirit of him who,near two thousand years ago,taught mankind that lesson
it has never learned,but has never quite forgotten;that there may be a
kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side
with the greatest.
And now in that spirit,that spirit of an America which has never been,and
which may never be; nay,which never will be,except as th conscience and
the courage of Americans create it;yet in the spirit of that America which
lies hidden in some form in the aspirations of us all;in the spirit of that
America for which our young men are at this moment fighting and dying;
in that spirit of liberty and of America I ask you to rise and with me to
pledge our faith in the glorious destiny of our beloved country.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to
the Republic for which it stands-one nation indivisible,with liberty and
justice for all.
July 3 1944
if it dies in men's hearts,no court can save it
We have gathered here to affirm a faith, a faith in a common purpose,
a common conviction, a common devotion. Some of us have chosen
America as the land of our adoption;the rest have come from those who did the same. For this reason we have some right to consider ourselves a
picked group,a group of those who had the courage to break from the
past and brave the dangers and the loneliness of a strange land.
What was the object that nerved us,or those who went before us,
to this choice? We sought Liberty;freedom from oppression,freedom
from want,freedom to be ourselves.This we then saught.This we now
believe that we are by the way of winning.
What do we mean when we say that first of all we seek liberty? I often
wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions,
upon laws and upon courts.These are false hopes;believe me ,these
are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts and of men and women.
When it dies there, no constitution,no law,no court can save it. No
constitution,no law,no court can even do much to help it. While it lies
there,it needs no constitution,no law,no court to save it.
And what is this liberty which must lie in the hearts of men and women?
It is not the ruthles,the unbridled will. It is not freedom to do as one likes.
That is the denial of liberty,and leads straight to its overthrow. A society
in which men recognize no check upon their freedom,soon becomes a
society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few;as we have
learned to our sorrow.
What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my
own faith.The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is
right.The spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds
of other men and women.The spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs
their interests alongside its own without bias.The spirit of liberty remembers
that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded.The spirit of liberty is the spirit of him who,near two thousand years ago,taught mankind that lesson
it has never learned,but has never quite forgotten;that there may be a
kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side
with the greatest.
And now in that spirit,that spirit of an America which has never been,and
which may never be; nay,which never will be,except as th conscience and
the courage of Americans create it;yet in the spirit of that America which
lies hidden in some form in the aspirations of us all;in the spirit of that
America for which our young men are at this moment fighting and dying;
in that spirit of liberty and of America I ask you to rise and with me to
pledge our faith in the glorious destiny of our beloved country.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to
the Republic for which it stands-one nation indivisible,with liberty and
justice for all.
July 3 1944