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Text of remarks by the President to be delivered at Independence Hall [Ford Speech or Statement]
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7344830
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Text of remarks by the President to be delivered at Independence Hall [Ford Speech or Statement]
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1976
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Digitized from Box 28 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
THE WHITE HOUSE
Washington
The Bicentennial Speeches of
Gerald R. Ford
TEXT OF REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
TO BE DELIVERED AT INDEPENDENCE HALL
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
July 4, 1976
Embargoed for release until 9 p.m., EDT, July 3, 1976
1
On Washington's Birthday in 1861, a fortnight after
six states had formed a Confederacy of their own, Abraham
Lincoln came here to Independence Hall, knowing that ten
days later he would face the cruelest national crisis of
our 85-year history.
"I am filled with deep emotion,' he said, "at finding
myself standing here in the place where were collected to-
gether the wisdom, the patriotism, the devotion to principle --
from which sprang the institutions under which we live."
Today we can all share these simple, noble sentiments.
Like Lincoln, I feel both pride and humility, rejoicing and
reverence, as I stand in the place where two centuries ago
the United States of America was conceived in liberty and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
From this small but beautiful building, then the most
imposing structure in the colonies, came the two great docu-
ments that continue to supply the moral and the intellectual
power for the American adventure in self-government.
Before me is the great bronze bell that joyously rang
out news of the birth of our nation from the steeple of this
Statehouse. It was never intended to be a church hell. Yet
a generation before the great events of 1776, the elected
Assembly of Pennsylvania ordered it to be inscribed with
this Biblical verse: "Proclaim liberty throughout all the
land, unto all the inhabitants thereof."
The early American settlers had many hardships, but
they had more liberty than any other people on earth. That
was what they came for and what they meant to keep.
The verse from Leviticus on the Liberty Bell refers to
the ancient Jewish year of Jubilee. In every 50th year, the
Jubilee restored the land and the equality of persons that
prevailed when the children of Israel entered the land of
promise. And both gifts came from God, as the Jubilee regu-
larly reminded them.
Our Founding Fathers knew their Bibles as well as their
Blackstone. They boldly reversed the age-old political theory
that Kings derive their powers from God, and asserted that
both powers and unalienable rights belong to the people as
direct endowments from their Creator.
Furthermore, they declared that governments are instituted
among men, to secure their rights and to serve their purposes,
and governments continue only so long as they have the consent
of the governed.
With General Washington already commanding the American
Army in the field, the second Continental Congress met here
in 1776, not to demand new liberties but to regain long-
established rights which were being taken away from them
without their consent.
The American Revolution was unique, and remains unique,
in that it was fought in the name of law as well as liberty.
At the start, the Declaration of Independence proclaimed the
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Divine source of individual rights and the purpose of human
government, as Americans understand it. That purpose is to
secure the rights of individuals, against even government
itself.
But the Declaration did not tell us how to accomplish
this purpose, or what kind of government to set up. First,
our independence had to be won. It was not won easily, as
the nearby encampment of Valley Forge, the rude bridge at
Concord, and the crumbling battlements of Yorktown bear
witness.
We have heard much -- though we cannot hear it too
often -- about the 56 Americans who cast their votes, and
later signed their names, to Thomas Jefferson's ringing
declaration of equality and freedom.
But do you know what price the signers of that parchment
paid for "the patriotism, the devotion to principle" of which
Lincoln spoke?
John Hancock of Massachusetts was one of the wealthiest
men who came to Philadelphia. Later, as he stood outside
Boston and watched the enemy sweep by, he said, "Burn Boston,
though it makes John Hancock a beggar.
Altogether, of the 56 men who signed our great Declaration,
five were taken prisoner; twelve had their homes sacked; two
lost their sons; nine died in the war itself.
Those men know what they were doing. In the final stir-
ring words of the Declaration, they pledged to one another
"our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.'
And when liberty was at stake, they were willing to pay
the price.
We owe a great debt to these founders, and to the foot-
soldiers who followed General Washington into battle after
battle, retreat after retreat. But it is important to remember
that final success in that struggle for independence, as in
the many struggles that have followed, was due to the strength
and support of ordinary men and women who were motivated by
three powerful impulses -- personal freedom, self-government
and national unity.
For all but the Black slaves, many of whom fought bravely
beside their masters because they also heard the promise of
the Declaration, freedom was won in 1783. But the loose Articles
of Confederation had proved inadequate in war and were even less
effective in peace.
Again in 1787, representatives of the people and the
States met in this place to form a more perfect Union, a
permanent legal mechanism that would translate the principles
and purpose of Jefferson's Declaration into effective self-
government.
Six signers of the Declaration came back to forge the
Constitution, including the sage of Philadelphia, Benjamin
Franklin. Jefferson had replaced him as Ambassador in Paris.
The young genius of the Constitutional Convention was another
Virginian, James Madison. The hero of the Revolution, Washington,
was called back from Mount Vernon to preside.
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Seldom in history have the men who made a revolution
seen it through, but the United States was fortunate. The
result of their deliberations and compromises was our Con-.
stitution, which William Gladstone, a great British Prime
Minister, called "the most wonderful work every struck off
at a given time by the brain and purpose of man. 77
The Constitution was created to make the promise of
the Declaration come true. The Declaration was not a pro-
test against government, but against the excesses of government.
It prescribed the proper role of government, to secure the
rights of individuals and to effect their safety and happiness.
In modern society no individual can do this alone, so govern-
ment is not a necessary evil, but a necessary good.
The framers of the Declaration feared a central government
that was too strong, as many Americans rightly do today. The
framers of the Constitution, after their experience under the
Articles, feared a central government that was too weak, as
many Americans rightly do today. They spent days studying all
the contemporary governments of Europe and concluded with
Dr. Franklin that all contained the seeds of their own
destruction.
So the framers built something new, drawing on their
English traditions, on the Roman republic, and on the
uniquely American institution of the town meeting.
To reassure those who felt the original Constitution did
not sufficiently spell out the unalienable rights of the
Declaration, the first United States Congress added, and the
States ratified, the first 10 Amendments which we call the
Bill of Rights.
Later, after a tragic fraternal war, those guarantees
were expanded to include all Americans. Later still, voting
rights were assured for women and for younger citizens 13 to
21 years of age. It is good to know that in our own lifetimes,
we have taken part in the growth of freedom and the expansion
of equality which began here so long ago.
This union of corrected wrongs and expanded rights has
brought the blessings of liberty to 215 million Americans
today, but the struggle for life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness is never truly won. Each generation of Americans,
indeed of all humanity, must strive to achieve these
aspirations anew.
Liberty is a living flame to be fed, not dead ashes to
be revered, even in a Bicentennial year. It is fitting that
we ask ourselves hard questions, even on a glorious day like
today.
Are "the institutions under which we live" working the
way they should? Are the foundations laid in 1776 and 1789
still strong enough and sound enough to resist the tremors
of our times? Are our God-given rights secure, our hard-won
liberties protected?
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The very fact that we can ask these questions, that we
can freely examine and criticize our society, is cause for
confidence in itself. Many of the voices raised in doubt
200 years ago served to strengthen and improve the decisions
finally made.
The American adventure is a continuing process.
As one milestone is passed another is sighted. As we
achieve one goal a longer lifespan, a literate population,
a leadership in world affairs we raise our sights.
As we begin our third century there is still so much to
be done.
-- We must increase the independence of the individual,
and the opportunity of all Americans to attain their full
potential.
We must ensure each citizen's right to privacy.
We must create a more beautiful America, making human
works conform to the harmony of nature.
--- We must develop a safer society, so ordered that
happiness may be pursued without fear of crime or man-made
hazards.
We must build a more stable international order,
politically, economically and legally.
We must match the great breakthroughs of the past
century in improving health and conquering disease.
We must continue to unlock the secrets of the universe
beyond our planet as well as within ourselves.
We must work to enrich the quality of American life at
work, at play and in our homes.
It is right that Americans are always improving ---- it is
not only right, it is necessary. From need comes action, as
it did here in Independence Hall.
Those fierce political rivals, John Adams and Thomas
Jefferson, in their later years carried on a warm correspondence.
Both died on the Fourth of July of 1826 having lived to see the
handiwork of their finest hour endure a full 50 years. They
had seen the Declaration's clear call for human liberty and
equality arouse the hopes of all mankind, and Jefferson wrote
to Adams that "even should the cloud of barbarism and despotism
again obscure the science and libraries of Europe, this country
remains to preserve and restore light and liberty to them."
Over a century later, in 1936, Jefferson's dire prophesy
seemed about to come true. President Franklin D. Roosevelt,
speaking for a mighty nation reinforced by millions of immi-
grants who had joined the American adventure, was able to
warn the new despotisms:
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"We too, born to freedom, and believing in freedom, are
willing to fight to maintain freedom. We, and all others
who believe as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet
than live on our knees. ii
The world knows where we stand. The world is ever
conscious of what Americans are doing, for better or for
worse, because the United States remains today the most
successful realization of humanity's universal hope.
The world may or may not follow, but we lead because
our whole history says we must liberty is for all men and
women as a matter of equal and unalienable right. The
establishment of justice and peace abroad will in large
measure depend upon the peace and justice we create here
in our own country, for we still show the way.
The American adventure began here "with a firm reliance
on the protection of Divine Providence". It continues in a
common conviction that the source of our blessings is a
loving God, in whom we trust.
# # #