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. It is not the name of the action, but the result of the
action, which is the chief concern. It will be well not to be too much
disturbed by the thought of either isolation or entanglement of
pacifists and militarists.
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