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Robert T. Hartmann Files
Robert Hartmann's Presidential Speeches and Statements Files
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American Revolution Bicentennial, 1776-1976
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The original documents are located in Box 5, folder "Monticello Drafts (1)" of the Robert
T. Hartmann Files at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of
photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Gerald Ford donated to the United
States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.
Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public
domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to
remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid
copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Digitized from Box 5 of the Robert Hartmann Files at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
-6-
We have the same capacity for discipline and sacrifice.
Let us show the world, and ourselves, that quality of American and its
people has not changed in 200 years.
Thomas Jefferson said: "I like to dream of the future
better than the history of the past. 11
Let us do more than dream. Let us show the way to a
tomorrow worthy of all our yesteryears.
# # #
FORD
6
Speech 6. Monticello
Goldwin
Kristol's suggestions for this speech are very good and
definitely should be used. (I did something like it , on
the theme of Joseph's coat, for Ron Nessen in March, but to
the best of my knowledge it was not used. Copy attached.)
I would suggest adding a foreign-policy theme, somewhat as
follows.
What we established for ourselves 200 years ago, we
were sure we were doing not only for ourselves but for all
mankind. Our hopes for the spread of political liberty have
not been fulfilled, but the ideas are still powerful and
attractive to men and women all over the world. There are
not many free governments in the world, but the longing for
freedom is still strong.
There are some who think that political liberty can be
achieved only by certain kinds of people with certain kinds
of ethnic and racial characteristics, but I disagree.
Americans know from experience that there is no race or
nationality incapable of self-government, given the opportunity
to practice it.
I find it hard to believe, all Americans find it hard
to believe, that other peoples do not want political freedom,
free elections, free discussion of political issues, a free
press, protection against political arrest and detention
without charges and trial in open court, and freedom to
choose one's own occupation.
We find it difficult to believe, in fact inconceivable,
that people in other countries would not choose these things
for themselves in place of what they have: staged elections
with no real choices, no freedom of dissent, a government-
controlled press, secret police, prison camps filled with
political prisoners held indefinitely without having charges
brought against them, secret trials, and a controlled
economy with workers assigned to jobs and places to work and
live.
We cannot believe, we do not believe, that the peoples
of the world who are not free do not long for the freedom we
have and take too much for granted. We know that they would
choose freedom if they were given a choice. But they are
not given that choice because their leaders are afraid
the consequences.
BERALO FORD LIBRARY
MEMORANDUM TO ROBERT T. HARTMANN
FROM:
IRVING KRISTOL
RE:
The President's Bicentennial Speeches
Here, as requested, are some thoughts about the themes the
President might evoke in his speeches on or about July 4.
I propose them with great dissidence, because I really have
no background as a speechwriter and, in addition, do not know
President Ford well enough to have a "feel" as to what kind
of speech he is comfortable with.
To begin with, I suggest that you and your staff take a look
at the collection of lectures published by American Enterprise
Institute under the title "America's Continuing Revolution. "
There are lectures by myself, Martin Diamond, Daniel Boorstin,
and others of a similar outlook. I suspect you might find
them useful in ways in which even I cannot foresee.
Let me begin with the Monticello speech because I find myself
with some specific thoughts on this question of "a nation of
immigrants." The thoughts have been provoked by my teaching
experience -- it is astonishing how little our young people
appreciate the uniqueness of the immigrant experience in this
country, and I'm sure their elders are no more enlightened
This uniqueness is revealed in two extraordinary facts:
FORD i LIBRARY GERALD
(1) The United States is, to my knowledge, the only
nation in history which, during most of its existence, permitted
-2-
unrestricted immigration. The boldness of this policy has been
insufficiently appreciated -- we gambled that we could take in
anyone, from anywhere, and that simply by reason of their ex-
perience in America these people would become loyal, law-abiding,
productive citizens. The gambles worked. And the success of
this enterprise reveals both the universality of the political
ideals on which the U.S. was founded, and their realism.
(2) The U.S. is, to my knowledge, the first nation, and
still remains one of the very few nations -- it may even be
the only one: check it out! -- which makes the acquisition of
citizenship an automatic proceeding. The conditions for becoming
a citizen are specific, and those who fulfill these conditions
have a right to citizenship -- one which the government cannot
deny. In all other countries I am familiar with, citizenship
is regarded as a privilege, not a right, and the political
authorities have final discretion as to whether to bestow or
withhold it.
(3) The reason behind both of these phenomena is the fact
that the United States is unique among nations in being founded,
not on race, not on kinship, not on language, not on religion,
but on political values. To be an American is to subscribe to
these values. We are uniquely a political community, as distinct
from an ethnic community, a religious community, a racial com-
munity, or any other kind. Our two key political values are
individual liberty (i.e., limited government) and civic liberty
(i.e., self-government). Our experience with mass immigration
FORD
RALD
-3-
demonstrates that these are not parochial values, not peculiar
to Americans, but rather reside in the hearts and minds of men
and women all over the world.
For the President's Independence Hall speech, I would suggest
the use of the quotation from Lincoln, in a speech also delivered
in Independence Hall, as quoted at the opening of Diamond's
lecture. That quotation reads:
"I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself
standing here in the place where were collected
together the wisdom, the patriotism, the devotion
to principle, from which sprang the institutions
under which we live."
These are noble, simple words. These also make an important
point: At Independence Hall was born both the Declaration and
the Constitution, and these two documents cannot be understood
except in the light of one another. The Declaration provides us
with the purpose of government, as Americans understand it --
i.e., to secure the rights of the individual, against even
government. The Constitution gives us the means to this end --
i.e., a democratic republic, with a decentralized, federal
structure, and with checks and balances within this government.
The importance of checks and balances certainly needs to be
emphasized today. But the importance of a decentralized political
structure needs to be emphasized even more. It is healthy and
FORD i LIBRARY GERALD
7
There is in the world still a powerful latent force for
freedom. So long as this nation and the other free nations
preserve essential freedoms, we keep alive the hopes of
oppressed peoples everywhere. We owe it to them to stand
fast for freedom. We are still, after 200 years, mankind's
best hope for freedom and decency on earth.
STORING
MONTICELLO SPEECH, July 5
MISCELLANEOUS POINTS
In the speech relating to the arts and the pursuit of
happiness, care should be taken that the focus on the
arts does not trivialize the basis of the arts,
The pursuit of the arts in the main basis for teh
President's emphasis on individual liberty. The arts
are a part of this but should not be allowed to pre-empt
the pursuit of happiness theme.
Regarding the Monticello speech: The proposed theme here
(as elaborated by Kristol) is surely sound but should not
be exaggerated. "Open" citizenship is difficult.
A. Problems with our Blacks (see below)
B. Immigration is not now and has not been for many years
perfectly open
C. Citizenship even for resident aliens is not simply a right;
it depends upon qualifications and political committments.
The question of American blacks: I think that the President
should acknowledge of American Blacks in this celebration.
It is not easy (but it is altogehter possible ) to do this
well. But to omit the matter altogether from the President's
account of the significance of the Bicentennial would be a
serious injustice to our past and to our present.
But how?
1. The basic point is that the American revolution was
based on the notion of universal human rights and that
the American founders did think that that included Blacks.
For that reason the founders understood and often spoke of
the injustice of slavery, at the same time that they could
not see a way of getting rid of the institution immediately.
2. One way of making this point would be to let an outstanding
Black make it. I have had sent to you a copy of a marvelous
Fourth of July Speech by Frederick Douglass (1854 I think)
Some of the reflections on and praise of the American
Founders by this great Black Abolitionist might well be
quoted in one of the President's speeches.
3. In the speech at Monticello I think some reference should
be made to the question of citizenship for Blacks. The essential
point here is that we have significantly improved on the
work of our fathers , though there is still much to do. They
were on the whole very doubtful, not about the right of every
man to be free, but about the possibility of building a bi-racial
political society. We have committed to that and we have gone
reselves
-2-
very far in achieving it -- much further than most of the
early American statesmen, Black as well as white would have
thought possible.
(I could help work some of this out next week if that would
be possible.)
FROM HERBERT J. STORING, ED.,
WHAT COUNTRY HAVE I: POLITICAL WRITINGS BY
BLACK AMERICANS
(NEW YORK: ST. MARTINIS PRESS, 1970)
PP 27-38
Frederick Douglass
The career of Frederick Douglass represented the depths and
the heights of the career of the black American during the nine-
teenth century. Struggling to be a man while yet a slave; escaping
to the North and joining the abolitionists; establishing his own
abolitionist newspaper; securing for blacks a share in the honor of
defending Union and liberty; agitating for full political and civil
rights as well as freedom for blacks; and serving at last as Marshall
of the District of Columbia and Minister to Haiti, Douglass more
than anyone else represented the aspirations and achievements
of the nineteenth century black American. He was not, of course,
an "average" black or an "average" man. He was extraordinary
as a. political leader, as a writer and orator, as a thinker, as a
human being. He was without question one of the great men of
his generation.
The chief theme of Douglass' thought is that the black man is
in the United States to stay. "We shall neither die out nor be
FOR
driven out, but shall go with this people, either as a testimony
&
27
GERALD
against them, or as evidence in their favor throughout their
generations." While Douglass insisted upon fundamental political
and civil rights for all, he acknowledged that the United States
was and, in a sense, would always be, the white man's country.
The blacks were stepchildren of Abraham Lincoln and of the
United States, he said in his speech at the dedication of the
Freedman's Monument in Washington, D.C., one of the most pro-
found statements ever made on the relation of blacks and whites
in America. These stepchildren were, in Douglass' view, deter-
mined to remain in America, determined to make Americans
live up to their own principles, and determined to fit themselves
for the benefits America offered. Few men have understood the
American principles, and their shocking betrayal, so well. Doug-
lass' Fourth of July Oration in Rochester in 1852 is, in both sub-
stance and rhetoric, quite possibly the best speech of its kind
ever given by a black American.
Although one of the great men of his race, Douglass was not a
"race" man. His platform was the individualism of the Declaration
of Independence, and he was consistent in urging the American
government and society to abolish distinctions based on race and
Fourth of July Oration
This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. It is the
birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom.
This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God.
It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliver-
ance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act,
and that day. This celebration also marks the beginning of another year
of your national life; and reminds you that the Republic of America is
now 76 years old. I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young.
Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck
in the life of a nation. Three score years and ten is the allotted time for
individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. According
Oration Delivered in Corinthian Hall, Rochester, by Frederick Douglass, July 5, 1852.
Published by Lee, Mann & Co., 1852. (Abridged)
FORD is 070 LIBE
in urging blacks to eschew "race" organizations and principles
and values, except to the extent that they were forced on them
by circumstances. His emphasis was on the individual-individual
rights and individual duties. While demanding the removal of the
external obstacles of discrimination and civil wrongs, Douglass
emphasized the very great responsibility of the black to remove
the inner obstacles of ignorance, sloth, and moral corruption,
which enslaved and degraded too many blacks, while providing
plausible justification for prejudice and discrimination.
Additional Readings: Douglass published a series of autobio-
graphical writings during his life, the fullest of which is the Life
and Times of Frederick Douglass, finished in 1892. The shorter
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was first published
in 1845. It covers mainly Douglass' life as a slave and is an ex-
cellent introduction to the character of Frederick Douglass and
to the inner workings of slavery. The most complete collection
of Douglass' writings is Philip Foner's four-volume Life and Writ-
ings of Frederick Douglass, now available in paperback. Carter
G. Woodson's Negro Orators and their Orations contains much
Negro thought and argument from the Douglass period.
to this fact, you are, even now only in the beginning of your national
career, still lingering in the period of childhood. I repeat, I am glad this
is so. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the
dark clouds which lower above the horizon. The eye of the reformer is
met with angry flashes, portending disastrous times; but his heart may
well beat lighter at the thought that America is young, and that she is
still in the impressible stage of her existence. May he not hope that high
lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth, will yet give direction to her
destiny? Were the nation older, the patriot's heart might be sadder,
and the reformer's brow heavier. Its future might be shrouded in gloom,
and the hope of its prophets go out in sorrow. There is consolation in the
thought, that America is young.-Great streams are not easily turned
from channels, worn deep in the course of ages. They may sometimes
rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and
fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. They may also rise
in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated
wealth of years of toil and hardship. They, however, gradually flow back
to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. But, while
s
FORD
the river may not be turned aside, it may dry up, and leave nothing
behind but the withered branch, and the unsightly rock, to howl in the
GERALD
30 FOURTH OF JULY ORATION
abyss-sweeping wind, the sad tale of departed glory. As with rivers so
with nations.
Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this
republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave
men. They were great men too-great enough to give fame to a great
age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a
number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view
them is not, certainly the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate
their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, pa-
triots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they
contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory.
They loved their country better than their own private interests; and,
though this is not the highest form of human excellence, all will concede
that it is a rare virtue, and that when it is exhibited, it ought to command
respect. He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country,
is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. Your fathers staked
their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, on the cause of their
country. In their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other in-
terests.
They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful
submission to bondage. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink
from agitating against oppression. They showed forbearance; but that
they knew its limits. They believed in order; but not in the order of
tyranny. With them, nothing was "settled" that was not right. With
them, justice, liberty and humanity were "final;" not slavery and oppres-
sion. You may well cherish the memory of such men. They were great
in their day and generation. Their solid manhood stands out the more
as we contrast it with these degenerate times.
How circumspect, exact and proportionate were all their movements!
How unlike the politicians of an hour! Their statesmanship looked be-
yond the passing moment, and stretched away in strength into the
distant future. They seized upon eternal principles, and set a glorious
example in their defence. Mark them!
Fully appreciating the hardships to be encountered, firmly believing
in the right of their cause, honorably inviting the scrutiny of an on-looking
world, reverently appealing to heaven to attest their sincerity, soundly
comprehending the solemn responsibility they were about to assume,
wisely measuring the terrible odds against them, your fathers, the fathers
of this republic, did, most deliberately, under the inspiration of a glorious
patriotism, and with a sublime faith in the great principles of justice and
freedom, lay deep, the corner-stone of the national superstructure,
which has risen and still rises in grandeur around you.
ERALD FORD LIBRA
FREDERICK DOUGLASS 31
Of this fundamental work, this day is the anniversary. Our eyes are
met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. Banners and penants
wave exultingly on the breeze. The din of business, too, is hushed. Even
mammon seems to have quitted his grasp on this day. The ear-piercing
fife and the stirring drum unite their accents with the ascending peal
of a thousand church bells. Prayers are made, hymns are sung, and ser-
mons are preached in honor of this day; while the quick martial tramp
of a great and multitudinous nation, echoed back by all the hills, valleys
and mountains of a vast continent, bespeak the occasion one of thrilling
and universal interest-a nation's jubilee.
My business, if I have any here to-day, is with the present. The ac-
cepted time with God and his cause is the ever-living now.
Trust no future, however pleasant,
Let the dead past bury its dead;
Act, act in the living present,
Heart within, and God overhead.
We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present
and to the future. To all inspiring motives, to noble deeds which can be
gained from the past, we are welcome. But now is the time, the impor-
tant time. Your fathers have lived, died, and have done their work, and
have done much of it well. You live and must die, and you must do your
work. You have no right to enjoy a child's share in the labor of your
fathers, unless your children are to be blest by your labors. You have
no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to
cover your indolence.
Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon
to speak here to-day-? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your
national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and
of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, ex-
tended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offer-
ing to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout
gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?
Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer
could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be
light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold, that
a nation's sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to
the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such
priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice
to swell the hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude
&
FORD
GERALD
32 FOURTH OF JULY ORATION
had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the
dumb might eloquently speak, and the "lame man leap as an hart."
But, such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the
disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious
anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable
distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are
not enjoyed in common.- The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, pros-
perity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you,
not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought
stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may
rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated
temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were
inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock
me, by asking me to speak to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your con-
duct, And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a
nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the
breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin! I can
today take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people!
"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when we
remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst
thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a
song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one
of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If
I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth."
Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultous joy, I hear the mourn-
ful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are,
to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them.
If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of
sorrow this day, "may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my
tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!" To forget them, to pass lightly
over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be
treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach
before God and the world. My subject, then, fellow-citizens, is AMERI-
CAN SLAVERY. I shall see, this day, and its popular characteristics,
from the slave's point of view. Standing there, identified with the Ameri-
can bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with
all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked
blacker to me than on this 4th of July! Whether we turn to the declara-
tions of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the
nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past,
false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.
Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion,
1817 ALD ? FORD
FREDERICK DOUGLASS 33
I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty
which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible, which
are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to de-
nounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to
perpetuate slavery- the great sin and shame of America! "I will not
equivocate; I will not excuse;" I will use the severest language I can
command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose
judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder,
shall not confess to be right and just.
But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, it is just in this cir-
cumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favor-
able impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, and de-
nounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause
would be much more likely to succeed. But, I submit, where all is plain
there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would
you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this
country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man?
That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders
themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their govern-
ment. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part
of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia, which,
if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him
to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will sub-
ject a white man to the like punishment.- What is this but the acknowl-
edgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being.
The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that
Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under
severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write.-
When you can point to any such laws, in reference to the beasts of the
field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the
dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your
hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable
to distinguish the slave from a brute, then will I argue with you that the
slave is a man!
For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the negro
race. Is it not astonishing that, while we are ploughing, planting and
reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing
bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver
and gold; that, while we are reading, writing and cyphering, acting as
clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors,
ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators and teachers; that, while we
are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging
&
FORD
gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep
GERALD
34 FOURTH OF JULY ORATION
and cattle on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning,
living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, con-
fessing and worshipping the Christian's God, and looking hopefully for
life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that
we are men!
Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is
the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must
I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for Republicans?
Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter
beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the prin-
ciple of justice, hard to be understood? How should I look to-day, in the
presence of Americans, dividing, and subdividing a discourse, to show
that men have a natural right to freedom? speaking of it relatively, and
positively, negatively, and affirmatively. To do so, would be to make
myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. - There
is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that
slavery is wrong for him.
What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them
of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of
their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their
flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs,
to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth,
to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their
masters? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained
with pollution, is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employment for
my time and strength, than such arguments would imply.
What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that
God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There
is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine!
Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can, may; I cannot.
The time for such argument is past.
At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is
needed. O! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation's ear, I would,
to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach,
withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed,
but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the
whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quick-
ened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the
nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and
its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that
reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice
FORD : RAVE LIBRA
FREDERICK DOUGLASS 35
and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration
is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national great-
ness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless;
your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of
liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your
sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity,
are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy- a
thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.
There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking
and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.
Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the mon-
archies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America,
search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts
by the side of the every day practices of this nation, and you will say
with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America
reigns without a rival.
Americans! your republican politics, not less than your republican
religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. You boast of your love of liberty,
your superior civilization, and your pure christianity, while the whole
political power of the nation, as embodied in the two great political
parties, is solemnly pledged to support and perpetuate the enslavement
of three millions of your countrymen. You hurl your anathemas at the
crowned headed tyrants of Russia and Austria, and pride yourselves on
your Democratic institutions, while you yourselves consent to be the
mere tools and body-guards of the tyrants of Virginia and Carolina. You
invite to your shores fugitives of oppression from abroad, honor them
with banquets, greet them with ovations, cheer them, toast them, salute
them, protect them, and pour out your money to them like water; but
the fugitives from your own land, you advertise, hunt, arrest, shoot and
kill. You glory in your refinement, and your universal education; yet
you maintain a system as barbarous and dreadful, as ever stained the
character of a nation- a system begun in avarice, supported in pride,
and perpetuated in cruelty. You shed tears over fallen Hungary, and
make the sad story of her wrongs the theme of your poets, statesmen
and orators, till your gallant sons are ready to fly to arms to vindicate her
cause against her oppressors; but, in regard to the ten thousand wrongs
of the American slave, you would enforce the strictest silence, and would
hail him as an enemy of the nation who dares to make those wrongs the
subject of public discourse! You are all on fire at the mention of liberty
for France or for Ireland; but are as cold as an iceberg at the thought
of liberty for the enslaved of America.- You discourse eloquently on
is
FORD
GERALD
36 FOURTH OF JULY ORATION
the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very essence,
casts a stigma upon labor. You can bare your bosom to the storm of
British artillery, to throw off a three-penny tax on tea; and yet wring
the last hard earned farthing from the grasp of the black laborers of
your country. You profess to believe "that, of one blood, God made all
nations of men to dwell on the face of all the earth," and hath com-
manded all men, everywhere to love one another; yet you notoriously
hate, (and glory in your hatred,) all men whose skins are not colored
like your own. You declare, before the world, and are understood by the
world to declare, that you "hold these truths to be self evident, that all
men are created equal; and are endowed by their Creator with certain
inalienable rights; and that, among these are, life, liberty, and the pur-
suit of happiness;" and yet, you hold securely, in a bondage, which
according to your own Thomas Jefferson, "is worse than ages of that
which your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose," a seventh part of the
inhabitants of your country.
Fellow-citizens! I will not enlarge further on your national inconsis-
tencies. The existence of slavery in this country brands your republican-
ism as a sham, your humanity as a base pretence, and your christianity
as a lie. It destroys your moral power abroad [;] it corrupts your politi-
cians at home. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a
hissing, and a bye-word to a mocking earth. It is the antagonistic force in
your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers
your Union. It fetters your progress; it is the enemy of improvement, the
deadly foe of education; it fosters pride; it breeds insolence; it promotes
vice; it shelters crime; it is a curse to the earth that supports it; and yet,
you cling to it, as if it were the sheet anchor of all your hopes. Oh! be
warned! be warned! a horrible reptile is coiled up in your nation's bosom;
the venomous creature is nursing at the tender breast of your youthful
republic; for the love of God, tear away, and fling from you the hidious
monster, and let the weight of twenty millions, crush and destroy it
forever!
But it is answered in reply to all this, that precisely what I have now
denounced is, in fact, guaranteed and sanctioned by the Constitution of
the United States; that, the right to hold, and to hunt slaves is a part of
that Constitution framed by the illustrious Fathers of this Republic.
Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have said before, your
fathers stooped, basely stooped
To palter with us in a double sense:
And keep the word of promise to the ear,
But break it to the heart.
:
FORD
GERALD
LIBRARY
FREDERICK DOUGLASS 37
And instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to
be, they were the veriest imposters that ever practised on mankind.
This is the inevitable conclusion, and from it there is no escape; but I
differ from those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Consti-
tution of the United States. It is a slander upon their memory, at least,
so I believe. There is not time now to argue the constitutional question
at length; nor have I the ability to discuss it as it ought to be discussed.
The subject has been handled with masterly power by Lysander Spooner,
Esq., by William Goodell, by Samuel E. Sewall, Esq., and last, though
not least, by Gerritt Smith, Esq. These gentlemen have, as I think, fully
and clearly vindicated the Constitution from any design to support
slavery for an hour.
Fellow-citizens! there is no matter in respect to which, the people of
the North have allowed themselves to be so ruinously imposed upon,
as that of the pro-slavery character of the Constitution. In that instrument
I hold there is neither warrant, license, nor sanction of the hateful thing;
but interpreted, as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a GLO-
RIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT. Read its preamble, consider its pur-
poses. Is slavery among them? Is it at the gateway? or is it in the temple?
it is neither. While I do not intend to argue this question on the present
occasion, let me ask, if it be not somewhat singular that, if the Constitu-
tion were intended to be, by its framers and adopters, a slaveholding
instrument, why neither slavery, slaveholding, nor slave can anywhere
be found in it. What would be thought of an instrument, drawn up,
legally drawn up, for the purpose of entitling the city of Rochester to a
track of land, in which no mention of land was made? Now, there are
certain rules of interpretation, for the proper understanding of all legal
instruments. These rules are well established. They are plain, common-
sense rules, such as you and I, and all of us, can understand and apply,
without having passed years in the study of law. I scout the idea that the
question of the constitutionality, or unconstitutionality of slavery, is not
a question for the people. I hold that every American citizen has a right
to form an opinion of the constitution, and to propagate that opinion,
and to use all honorable means to make his opinion the prevailing one.
Without this right, the liberty of an American citizen would be as inse-
cure as that of a Frenchman. Ex-Vice-President Dallas tells us that the
constitution is an object to which no American mind can be too attentive,
and no American heart too devoted. He further says, the constitution, in
its words, is plain and intelligible, and is meant for the home-bred, un-
sophisticated understandings of our fellow-citizens. Senator Berrien
tells us that the Constitution is the fundamental law, that which controls
all others. The charter of our liberties, which every citizen has a per-
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
38 FOURTH OF JULY ORATION
sonal interest in understanding thoroughly. The testimony of Senator
Breese, Lewis Cass, and many others that might be named, who are
everywhere esteemed as sound lawyers, so regard the constitution. I
take it, therefore, that it is not presumption in a private citizen to form
an opinion of that instrument.
Now, take the constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy
the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. On the other hand
it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the
existence of slavery.
I have detained my audience entirely too long already. At some future
period I will gladly avail myself of an opportunity to give this subject a
full and fair discussion.
Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have
this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this
country. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably, work the
downfall of slavery. "The arm of the Lord is not shortened," and the
doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with
hope. While drawing encouragement from "the Declaration of Indepen-
dence," the great principles it contains, and the genius of American
Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the
age. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that
they did ages ago. No nation can now shut itself up, from the surround-
ing world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without
interference. The time was when such could be done. Long established
customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do
their evil work with social impunity. Knowledge was then confined and
enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental
darkness. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind.
Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The arm of com-
merce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Intelligence is pene-
trating the darkest corners of the globe. It makes its pathway over and
under the sea, as well as on the earth. Wind, steam, and lightning are
its chartered agents. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together.
From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Space is compara-
tively annihilated. Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic, are
distinctly heard on the other.
The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet.
The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. The fiat of the
Almighty, "Let there be Light," has not yet spent its force. No abuse,
no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from
the all-pervading light. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must
be seen, in contrast with nature. Africa must rise and put on her yet
Lunwoven garment. "Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand unto God.
FORD & READ LIBR
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
5828 SOUTH UNIVERSITY AVENUE
CHICAGO ILLINOIS 60637
(312) 753-
June 17, 1976
Robert T. Hartman
Counsellor to the President
White House
Washington, D.C.
Dear Mr. Hartman,
Professor Herbert Storing asked that I send you this
copy of a speech by Frederick Douglas. He thought that you
might find this useful in the preparation of the President's
speeches to be delivered around the Fourth of July.
Professor Storing will be communicating with you further,
but suggested in the meantime that the material on page 30 seems
especially pertinent.
Sincerely,
Josyph pm. Bessette
Joseph M. Bessette
for
Professor Herbert Storing
Prostin - Pat r David
pop songs
best th in life
are free
whenever you go
you see Im movies
science
#1
the Exploring Smith
#5
- det our our X dest
The earth belongs to
the living FORD Jeff
& LIBRARY DERATO
"What we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly.
It is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven
knows how to put a proper price upon its goods, and it would
be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should
not be highly rated."
Good luck to all of you.
-14-
(Storing)
MONTICELLO SPEECH, July 5
Miscellaneous Points
In the speech relating to the arts and the pursuit of
happiness, care should be taken that the focus on the arts does
not trivialize the basis of the arts. The pursuit of the arts
is the main basis for the President's emphasis on individual
liberty. The arts are a part of this but should not be allowed
to pre-empt the pursuit of happiness theme.
Regarding the Monticello speech: The proposed theme
here (as elaborated by Kristol) is surely sound but should
not be exaggerated. "Open" citizenship is difficult.
A. Problems with our Blacks (see below).
B. Immigration is not now and has not been for many years
perfectly open.
C. Citizenship even for resident aliens is not simply a
right; it depends upon qualifications and political commitments.
The question of American blacks: I think that the
President should acknowledge American Blacks in this celebration.
It is not easy (but it is altogether possible) to do this well.
But to omit the matter altogether from the President's account
of the significance of the Bicentennial would be a serious in-
justice to our past and to our present.
But how?
1. The basic point is that the American revolution was
based on the notion of universal human rights and that the
-2-
American founders did think that that included Blacks. For
that reason the founders understood and often spoke of the
injustice of slavery, at the same time that they could not see
a way of getting rid of the institution immediately.
2. One way of making this point would be to let an out-
standing Black make it. I have had sent to you a copy of a
marvelous Fourth of July Speech by Frederick Douglass (1854 I
think). Some of the reflections on and praise of the American
Founders by this great Black Abolitionist might well be quoted
in one of the President's speeches.
3. In the speech at Monticello I think some reference
should be made to the question of citizenship for Blacks. The
essential point here is that we have significantly improved on
the work of our fathers, though there is still much to do.
They were on the whole very doubtful, not about the right of
every man to be free, but about the possibility of building a
bi-racial political society. We have committed ourselves to that
and we have gone very far in achieving it -- much further than
most of the early American statesmen, Black as well as white
would have thought possible.
(Kristol)
MONTICELLO SPEECH
Let me begin with the Monticello speech because I find
myself with some specific thoughts on this question of "a nation
of immigrants." The thoughts have been provoked by my teaching
experience -- it is astonishing how little our young people
appreciate the uniqueness of the immigrant experience in this
country, and I'm sure their elders are no more enlightened.
This uniqueness is revealed in two extraordinary facts:
(1) The United States is, to my knowledge, the only
nation in history which, during most of its existence, permitted
unrestricted immigration. The boldness of this policy has been
insufficiently appreciated -- we gambled that we could take in
anyone, from anywhere, and that simply by reason of their ex-
perience in America these people would become loyal, law-abiding,
productive citizens. The gambles worked. And the success of
this enterprise reveals both the universality of the political
ideals on which the U.S. was founded, and their realism.
(2) The U.S. is, to my knowledge, the first nation, and
still remains one of the very few nations -- it may even be the
only one: check it out! --- which makes the acquisition of
citizenship an automatic proceeding. The conditions for becoming
a citizen are specific, and those who fulfill these conditions
have a right to citizenship -- one which the government cannot
deny. In all other countries I am familiar with, citizenship
is regarded as a privilege, not a right, and the political
-2-
authorities have final discretion as to whether to bestow or
withhold it.
(3) The reason behind both of these phenomena is the
fact that the United States is unique among nations in being
founded, not on race, not on kinship, not on language, not on
religion, but on political values. To be an American is to
subscribe to these values. We are uniquely a political community,
as distinct from an ethnic community, a religious community,
a racial community, or any other kind. Our two key political
values are individual liberty (i.e., limited government) and
civic liberty (i.e., self-government). Our experience with
mass immigration demonstrates that these are not parochial
values, not peculiar to Americans, but rather reside in the
hearts and minds of men and women all over the world.
ROSTOW
MONTICELLO
CONTRIBUTION FOR THE BICENTENNIAL SPEECHES
One of the most powerful feelings of the Founding
Fathers, and especially of Thomas Jefferson among them,
was that the United States was something new on earth, a
Republic among the monarchies, a vision whose message
extended far beyond our own boundaries. Their dream in
this regard has been fulfilled. The idea of the United
States is a living part of Western Civilization with a
compelling and altogether special history which belongs
not only to us but to all who cherish human liberty.
America is more than a superpower. Jefferson and Lincoln
are not revered throughout the world because the United
States has been concerned, as every state must be concerned,
with the balance of power in world politics as the ultimate
assurance of its safety. The memory of what the great
American leaders said and did remains a force in the trad-
ition of freedom. The ultimate mission of our foreign policy is
not order alone, but peace -- not simply a balance of terror,
but a world in which the values embodied in the United Nations
charter are respected by all the states and peoples of the
world. The essence of Jefferson's vision was that peace is
necessarily an achievement of law. Just as the Founding
Fathers devised the Constitution to achieve a state of
-2-
domestic tranquility governed by the principles of
liberty, SO they conceived of international peace as
a condition of tranquility governed by the principles
of international law. ; This condition of peace, was the
only alternative to anarchy on the one hand and tyranny
on the other. In this regard, their dream is more
compelling today than it was in the turbulent age in
which they lived.
(GOLDWIN)
Speech 6. MONTICELLO
Kristol's suggestions for this speech are very good
and definitely should be used. (I did something like it, on
the theme of Joseph's coat, for Ron Nessen in March, but to
the best of my knowledge it was not used. Copy attached.)
I would suggest adding a foreign-policy theme, somewhat as
follows.
What we established for ourselves 200 years ago, we
:
were sure we were doing not only for ourselves but for all
mankind. Our hopes for the spread of political liberty
have not been fulfilled, but the ideas are still powerful and
attractive to men and women all over the world. There are
not many free governments in the world, but the longing for
freedom is still strong.
There are some who think that political liberty can
be achieved only by certain kinds of people with certain
kinds of ethnic and racial characteristics, but I disagree.
Americans know from experience that there is no race or
nationality incapable of self-government, given the opportunity
to practice it.
I find it hard to believe, all Americans find it hard
to believe, that other peoples do not want political freedom,
free elections, free discussion of political issues , a
free press, protection against political arrest and detention
without charges and trial in open court, and freedom to
-2-
choose one's own occupation.
We find it difficult to believe, in fact inconceivable,
that people in other countries would not choose these things for
themselves in place of what they have: staged elections
with no real choices, no freedom of dissent, a government-
controlled press, secret police, prison camps filled with
political prisoners held indefinitely without having charges
brought against them, secret trials, and a controlled
economy with workers assigned to jobs and places to work
and live.
We cannot believe, we do not believe, that the peoples
of the world who are not free do not long for the freedom
we have and take too much for granted. We know that they
would choose freedom if they were given a choice. But they
are not given that choice because their leaders are afraid of
the consequences.
There is in the world still a powerful latent force
for freedom. So long as this nation and the other free nations
preserve essential freedoms, we keep alive the hopes of
oppressed peoples everywhere. We owe it to them to stand fast
for freedom. We are still, after 200 years, mankind's
best hope for freedom and decency on earth.
(Goldwin)
3/15/76
THE BEAUTY OF JOSEPH'S COAT
As a very young child, I learned in Sunday school that the
beauty of Joseph's coat is its many colors. Perhaps the
lesson of that story has remained so vivid in my memory
because, through the decades of my life in public service,
it has seemed more and more appropriate as a lesson for this
nation and its people: The strength of America has always
been the diversity of our people--one people out of many.
The peoples of many other nations are so uniform in their
origin, religion, habits, and thoughts that their progress
is held back by unchanging traditions and static ideas.
-2-
Some times they save themselves from smothering in uniformity
by seeking abroad for new ideas and stimulating thoughts, as
a way of adding variety in their lives.
But from the very beginning of the settlement of America,
this country has had such a multiplicity of national, religious,
and racial sources that promoting diversity has never been a
problem for us. We were born in diversity; unity is what we
had to struggle to achieve.
We become discouraged at times by the strife among us and
discrimination against one or another minority, but we have
not given up the struggle to learn to live together in
harmony and justice. We- should not be surprised at how
difficult the task is. If we put the problem in its true
perspective, we see that the American people are attempting
something absolutely unprecedented in history.
If our territory were smaller, or if there were less diversity,
the task would be demanding, but manageable. And if we had
no concern for liberty and equality, achieving unity would
be much, much easier: With unlimited power and a ruthless
-3-
will, a dictator can impose on hundreds of millions of
persons the unity and equality of the penitentiary.
But no nation before us has ever tried to unify as one
people over so vast a territory, out of such a large and
diverse population, with such a multiplicity of nationalities,
religions, and races, under a government founded on the
principles of liberty and equality.
The Declaration of Independence, whose 200th Anniversary we
celebrate this year, describes us as "one people," but that
was for a long time more of an aspiration than a reality.
Even today, although we have made truly great advances, we
have not yet finished the task.
We may be the only nation that has a word like "Americanization," ET
that is, a word to describe the process of adopting great
numbers of people who are outsiders and making them fully
part of ourselves.
Sixty, eighty, a hundred years ago, wave after wave of
foreigners reached our shores, by the millions. We took
them in not as foreigners but as new Americans. Our view
was that what would make these newcomers American was not
nationality as ordinarily understood, but allegiance to our
founding principles, the principles of liberty, equality,
justice, and representative government.
There was a fear on the part of many that such huge numbers
of persons could not be assimilated, that they could not
become sufficiently Americanized, that their loyalty to the
ways of "the old country" would endanger or weaken the
commitment of loyalty to America. President Theodore Roosevelt,
for example, insisted that there was no room for hyphenated
Americans, that it was necessary for all American citizens
to become "American--and nothing else. "
But decades of experience have shown us that it is possible
to be American and something else, to be completely loyal to
American political principles and still retain attachment to
the traditions, language, religion, music, foods, fashions,
and customs of a distant homeland. These have persisted for
generations, through family and neighborhood influences,
even among third and fourth-generation Americans who may
never have seen, with their own eyes, "the old country."
For decades we fought against this tendency. We deplored
foreignness. Children were ashamed of their immigrant
parents, and tried to be "100 per cent American.'
But those attitudes seem misguided today. Now we have a
growing appreciation for variety among us. Living samples
of the whole world dwell in our midst, foreign and American
at the same time. Tulip festivals in Michigan rival those
of the Netherlands. Polish sausage in Chicago tastes like
Warsaw's. More than 450 foreign language newspapers and
periodicals are published in 40 languages. There is little
in the world that is not native to us.
"Black is beautiful" was a motto of genius, and it had a
powerful effect on us all. Once America got over the shock
of that bold and true pronouncement, there began to be a
realization by other Americans that so is Irish beautiful,
so is Slavic beautiful-- and Italian, and Spanish, and Jewish,
and German, and Chinese, and Japanese, and so on and on in
an almost endless list.
I want to guard against making things sound rosier than they
-6-
are. Not all Americans love differentness. There is a
growing danger in this country of conformity of thought and
taste and behavior. In my speeches I have warned repeatedly
against the powerful forces that tend to push us in that
direction: mass media, mass education, big government, big
business, big labor, and mass production, mass distribution
and mass consumption. They generate a tendency to overwhelm
individual differences, individual liberties, individual
rights, individual tastes, and, ultimately, individual self-
respect.
We need protections and encouragement of individuality, and
some of the best have proved to be, I think, the cultural,
ethnic, religious, and racial differences I have been talking
about. The sense of belonging to a group that stands for
something decent and noble, so long as it does not become
confining or hostile to others, bolsters individual self-
assurance. That is one good reason for protecting and
encouraging the multiplicty of groups of all sorts within
our society.
Americans must face candidly the bitter and unhappy truth about
ourselves that as a nation we have often been harch, even
-7-
ruthless, in our treatment of new Americans. The way we
treated the Irish, for example, a hundred years ago, was a
national disgrace. Subsequently, many others have suffered
similarly: the Chinese, the Italians, the Jews, the Slavs --
and during World War II, the Japanese. In their history--
and many others there is a sorrowful record of suffering
from prejudice and cruelty.
The story would be too ugly, we would be unable to hold up
our heads as a nation claiming to be based on principles of
equal justice, if it were not also true that, to a large
extent, these peoples have fought their way clear, and have
achieved respect and equality and a place of deserved honor
in our land, as an integral part of the American people.
But the worst stain on the national honor of the United
States is the oldest and most persistent, and that is our
treatment of black Americans. Almost 150 years of human
slavery was followed by another century of abuse, intolerance,
and discrimination.
Perhaps the first great step was ending segregation in the
-8-
armed forces. But in 1954, the Supreme Court, greatly to
their credit, took the step that began the process irrevocably,
of opening the way for black Americans to achieve what
scores of other identifiable groups have achieved for themselves
in America. The Supreme Court struck down the hypocritical
"separate but equal" school doctrine, which had kept schools
racially separate but not equal. That decision made it
possible for blacks Americans to begin freely "to assume,"
to paraphrase the Declaration of Independence, "the separate
and equal station" among the American citizenry that every
other racial, religious, or ethnic group is entitled to--to
be fully and equally a distinguished part of the unity of
the "one people" who constitute America.
As important as the black-white problem has been for hundreds
of years, we nevertheless make a serious mistake in thinking
of ourselves strictly in terms of black and white. There is
diversity among blacks; there are millions of Americans who
are neither white nor black; and white Americans are not one
homogeneous group, but an incredible multiplicity of ethnic
and religious groups.
-9-
The American population is made up of groupings, voluntarily
bound together by shared origins, or interest, or religion,
or tastes, or customs. These things they share and value
make them want to be in each other's company. They want to
live near each other, near parents and other relatives, go
to church together, join clubs together, vacation at resorts
together, listen to music and dance together, eat together,
donate to charity together, and in general jointly separate
themselves from others, by choice, for many--but definitely
not all--of their important activities.
Most of our major cities have ethnic neighborhoods of long
standing. These ethnic groups may have been herded together
originally, however long ago, by the hostility of others,
but after the prejudice abated, they remained together by
preference. They bought homes, built neighborhoods, established
shops, and made a distinctive way of life. And even when
these groups grow affluent, studies show that they tend to
move together to the suburbs.
YIt is also true that many individuals of these groups have
exercised their freedom to leave the old neighborhoods, to
live elsewhere, to give up the old traditions, and not to
teach their children the language and ways of the old country.
-10-
Still others have accomplished a kind of combination, cutting
loose and coming back, from time to time, at will. They may
still think of themselves as Italian-Americans, Lithuanian-
Americans, or Greek-Americans, but they are indistinguishable
in their dress, their homes, their speech, their civic
activities, from other Americans whose forebears have been
here so long that the national origins are either completely
mixed or else lost to memory.
This picture of a great multiplicity of distinct groups is
an accurate depiction, I think, of the American people. As
President, I have met with hundreds of such groups. I know
it is an oversimplification to think of white Americans as
all cast in the same mold. The diversity that existed
before we were a nation has persisted and increased.
We have to rethink what it means to be an integrated nation,
to be "one people.' " I do not think there is harm in having,
as we do, natural groupings of people as long as they are
voluntary groupings. Some voluntary separation of people
according to their bonds of special affinity is actually
beneficial--with two very important provisos: that all of
the people are bound together by an overarching allegiance
-11-
to the principles of liberty and equality, and that these
groupings are not used as an excuse for abusing the rights
and opportunities of others.
It follows, then, as a matter of public policy, that public
officials should do nothing that would have the consequence
of breaking up groups that desire to remain together, and do
nothing that favors members of one group over another.
Official action should not deprive or unfairly assist any
individual in his efforts to share in a good thing simply
because he is, or is not, part of some group.
Our love of diversity is one of our best defenses against a
drab, suffocating uniformity, provided that we all firmly
adhere to the fundamental political principles that bind us
together as a nation. We must never become so dazzled by
the splendid colors of Joseph's coat that we forget that
their beauty is the result of their being combined in a
harmonious and integrated pattern.
The beauty of Joseph's coat is its many colors, but it is
one coat. Diversity is a blessing only among a unified
people.
(Budistin)
RTTL
June 11, 1976
SECOND DRAFT
O.C.
PRESIDENT'S BICENTENNIAL TELEVISION MESSAGE, 1976
America's Bicentennial is a time for celebration. But
it should be much than that between Beyond the parades speeches
more and the fireworks,
we
beyond the joyousness of our two hundredth birthday, Americans should take pailse
time and to consider what their our country means to us to our themselves and to it the means world.
virtues
The qualities of strength and of patriotism, of freedom and
self sacrifice have been shared to in varying degrees by many orten nations, past andposent.
America's Bicentennial year is a is good a time for time us to to step think ba and and shout look consider at what ask
ourselves what
is unique about our experience the American adventure.
The hallmark of the American adventure has been an
willingness lagerness to explore the unknown. Americans have never hesitated to
face the unfamiliar whether it lay across an ocean or a continent, across
the vastness of space or the frontiers of human knowledge,
Americans have always been ready to try new and untested
enterprises -- in government, in business, in the arts and sciences, and in
human rights. relations,
FORD is LIBRARY GERALD
-2-
While reaching for the unknown, Americans have also kept
this Dad wisdom and experience of the past X
their faith in human traditions. Colonists and immigrants brought with them
Cherished values
and culture, in
,mixed with the
familiar objects and ideals in religion, law and learning which/have which/have
ative American ways, game us our rich American heritage.
given us rich itance.
It is this unique combination of the tried and the untried,
the known and the unknown, which has been the foundation for American
liberty. The true meaning of that liberty, embodied in our Declaration of
individuals can
helpless
Independence, is that people may be masters rather than victims of their
E
all
destiny. The purpose of our government, of embodied in our Constitution,
as
is to preserve this liberty.
now
We must ensure that all our fellow citizens share this personal
freedom, and that americans all have the opportunity to make the most of their lives.
long for liberty,
And to all people throughout the world who share our ideals,
anderly freedom, the continuing goal of
we must extend our invitation to share in the American adventure. In this
and strong
way we will keep America young as we enter our third century.
#
#
#
FORD & LIBRARY DERALD
(FRIEDMAN)
FIRST DRAFT
JUNE 17, 1976
R.O..
OC
A HAVEN OF OPPORTUNITY -- - - PRESIDENT'S REMARKS AT
MONTICELLO, CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA JULY 5, 1976
I am proud to welcome you as new Americans who now
share our common challenge' and our common glory.
The common challenge is to continue the quest for responsive
self-government which began 200 years ago.
The common glory is our legacy of the past which must
constantly be applied to the circumstances of the present.
Two hundred years ago, all Americans were new Americans.
A torrent of individual energies was unleashed by the American system.
Just as new ideas built America, new Americans built America.
Today's proceedings represent the finest Bicentennial gift
that you, new Americans, could possibly bestow. You offer us yourselves --
your faith in America, your patriotism, your love, your courage, your
energy, your determination, and your ability. You are showing the world
and all of your fellow citizens how much you believe in America.
-2-
You have chosen United States citizenship in preference
to that of any other nation. You have chosen well. I congratulate you.
Too many Americans now take our national heritage for
granted. Oor real treasures are not our great cities or material
achievements, but the freedom and dignity America accords to every
citize n.
Although you have been citizens for only a few minutes, you
can teach us many things. You can explain the real meaning of America
to those who see only hypocrisy and frustration in our own nation and
only good in nations with other systems.
The United States of America remains the one nation
which more than any other in the world symbolizes man's request
for political freedom, religious liberty and economic prosperity.
The concepts of our Republic are constantly renewed by infusions of
new faith and new strength such as you, our newest citizens,
give us today.
-3-
America has given a home to millions. In giving,
we received the qualities and energies that made us unique among the
nations of the world.
You are now free to exercise all the rights-of free
Americans. You have also assumed the responsibilities that
accompany those rights.
To qualify for naturalization, you have shown an
understanding, as required by law, of the fundamentals of the
history and the principles of our government. After 200 years, there
is still something very wonderful about being an American. This
continues to be the land of miracles. We continue to change, to
grow, to improve, to demand more and more of the good things
of life, to solve economic and employment problems, and to
fervently believe that there is no problem that Americans cannot and
will not solve.
-4-
The United States, distinct from other societies,
began with a philosophic statement: "That all men are created
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
This creed does not stipulate how men shall use their lives and
liberty, nor how they shall define happiness. All that, in the finest
American tradition, is left to individuals, with an important qualification.
The idea that rights are granted by a "Creator" introduces
a basis for restraint, a framework of order and purpose to limit
liberty and impose bounds upon the pursuit of happiness.
Thomas Jefferson was explicit on this point. "Men may
be trusted, 11 he said, "to govern themselves without a master. 11
He referred to political government. Yet he was deeply aware of other
restraints, including moral and ethical guidelines. He knew that liberty
had its limits.
-5-
As America marched to the Pacific, technology expanded.
Knowledge, wealth, and power surged forth. A torrent of indivi dual
energies was unleashed by the American system.
Our system became a marvel of world history -- its impact
reaching every corner of the earth. Life on this planet was never
again the same. Within two hundred years, mankind moved from
apathy to activism, from resignation to hope. And America's example,
the working of our system, was a powerful influence in this transformation
to a new age.,
The American system is essentially a network of limits,
true to the spirit of the Founding Fathers. They were practical men --
farmers, lawyers, and me rchants. They had no utopian illusion that
men and women were so naturally good and reasonable that the
removal of all restraints would automatically produce the happiest
results.
-6-
Even Jefferson, the most libertarian of our founders,
was no anarchistic utopian. He spent his life not only in protest
movements and revolution, but, more importantly, in constructing
and operating an effective government.
In recent years, our nation has been wrenched by
upheavals as test after test was made of the outer limits of the
American system. There was crime and corruption at the highest levels
of government -- as well as in the streets. There was test after
test of how much could be gotten away with, of how much radical
change the system could stand, of how many responsibilities could be
abandoned and of how many rights could be exaggerated.
Today we face a situation in which public confidence in
government -- legislative, judicial, and executive -- and all
institutions of society has eroded. This takes place at a time when
individual demands and expectations have escalated. Candidates for
office promised more and more of what they were less and less
able to deliver.
We have now reached the limits of a national binge that
included the government as well as those governed. Our Bicentennial
marks a new realism. It can bring a new meaning to our lives --
and to the fulfillment of our aspirations.
The time has come for a new reality in our view of the
Constitution of the United States. My view calls for emphasis on
the principle of limitation to balance the endless pursuit of special
privileges. I see a tendency running through every segment of
American society to encourage the growth of multiple centers of
power, initiative,
knowledge, and action -- and to contain
the conflicts among them by checks and balances and other devices
of limitation and c ooperation.
Abraham Lincoln said the Founders meant "to set up a
standard maxim for free society which should be familiar to all and
revered by all; constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even
though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, thereby
constantly spreading and deepening its influence and augmenting the
-8-
happiness and value of life to all people of all colors everywhere."
The main reason that the "perfect maxim" can be "never perfectly
attained" is that we keep raising our sights.¹ That is as it should
be.
But just as unrestrained pressures can strain even
the strongest economy, so the surge toward new "rights", which
only yesterday were merely glimmers of hope, can outrun the practical
possibilities of legal innovation. Most progress can only be achieved
in an orderly, step by step manner, not by instant demands for
total change. There must be rational restraints based upon feasibility --
whether in our school system or any other institution of American life.
The strongest element in our society is not our institutional
framework, public or private. It is the people themselves. As people
acquire more power, more responsibility falls upon them. And if
the people are unwilling to place reasonable limits on their own actions,
the system will bog down.
-9-
Individuals are today aware of the power of institutions --
including all the branches of the Federal government, But they are
less aware of their own power. Today, American power has moved
from the White House into the hands of 215 million power
brokers. The Bicentennial challenge lies in how that power will
be used. Will individuals demand more of the system -- or demand
more of ourselves?
Our system has accomplished miracles in 200 years
in terms of the unfolding of the human spirit. Yet we cannot assure
a better life for our children or their children. They will have
to take responsibility for themselves. Every generation of Americans
will live in a new episode of a suspense story. As freedom expands
and action is stimulated to change life, America will put ever -new
burdens on the intelligence and moral fibre of individual men and women.
As Bicentennial President, I have confidence in you
and in all our people. You will meet the challenge.
#
#
#
#
(FREDMAN)
FIRST DRAFT
JUNE 17, 1976
A HAVEN OF OPPORTUNITY - - PRESIDENT'S REMARKS AT
MONTICELLO, CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA JULY 5, 1976
I am proud to welcome you as new Americans who now
share our common challenge and our common glory.
The common challenge is to continue the quest for resp onsive
self-government which began 200 years ago.
The common glory is our legacy of the past which must
constantly be applied to the circumstances of the present.
Two hundred years ago, all Americans were new Americans.
A torrent of individual energies was unleashed by the American system.
Just as new ideas built America, new Americans built America.
Today's proceedings represent the finest Bicentennial gift
that you; new Americans, could possibly bestow. You offer us yourselves --
your faith in America, your patriotism, your love, your courage, your
energy, your determination, and your ability. You are showing the world
and all of your fellow citizens how much you believe in America.
07V830
You have chosen United States citizenship in preference
to that of any other nation. You have chosen well. I congratulate you.
Too many Americans now take our national heritage for
granted. Our real treasures are not our great cities or material
achievements, but the freedom and dignity America accords to every
citize n.
Although you have been citizens for only a few minutes, you
can teach us many things. You can explain the real meaning of America
to those who see only hypocrisy and frustration in our own nation and
only good in nations with other systems.
The United States of America remains the one nation
which more than any other in the world symbolizes man's quest
for political freedom, religious liberty and economic prosperity.
The concepts of our Republic are constantly renewed by infusions of
new faith and new strength such as you, our newest citizens,
give us today.
-3-
America has given a home to millions. In giving,
we received the qualities and energies that made us unique among the
nations of the world.
You are now free to exercise all the rights of free
Americans. You have also assumed the responsibilities that
accompany those rights.
To qualify for naturalization, you have shown an
understanding, as required by law, of the fundamentals of the
history and the principles of our government. After 200 years, there
is still something very wonderful about being an American. This
continues to be the land of miracles. We continue to change, to
grow, to improve, to demand more and more of the good things
of life, to solve economic and employment problems, and to
fervently believe that there is no problem that Americans cannot and
will not solve.
The United States, distinct from other societies,
began with a philosophic statement: "That all men are created
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. "
This creed does not stipulate how men shall use their lives and
liberty, nor how they shall define happiness. All that, in the finest
American tradition, is left to individuals, with an important qualification.
The idea that rights are granted by a "Creator" introduces
enoble
a basis for restraint, a framework of order and purpose to limit
liberty and impose bounds upon the pursuit of happiness.
Thomas Jefferson was explicit on this point. "Men may
be trusted," he said, "to govern themselves without a master # "
He referred to political government. Yet he was deeply aware of other
restraints, including moral and ethical guidelines. He knew that liberty
had its. limits.
As America marched to the Pacific, technology expanded.
Knowledge, wealth, and power surged forth. A torrent of indivi dual
energies was unleashed by the American system.
Our system became a marvel of world history -- its impact
reaching every corner of the earth. Life on this planet was never
again the same. Within two hundred years, mankind moved from
apathy to activism, from resignation to hope. And America's example,
the working of our system, was a powerful influence in this transformation
to a new age.
The American system is essentially a network of limits,
true to the spirit of the Founding Fathers. They were practical men --
farmers, lawyers, and me rchants. They had no utopian illusion that
men and women were so naturally good and reasonable that the
removal of all restraints would automatically produce the happiest
results.
Even Jefferson, the most libertarian of our founders,
was no anarchistic utopian. He spent his life not only in protest
movements and revolution, but, more importantly, in constructing
and operating an effective government.
In recent years, our nation has been wrenched by
upheavals as test after test was made of the outer limits of the
American system. There was crime and corruption at the highest levels
of government -- as well as in the streets. There was test after
test of how much could be gotten away with, of how much radical
change the system could stand, of how many responsibilities could be
abandoned and of how many rights could be exaggerated.
Today we face a situation in which public confidence in
government -- legislative, judicial, and executive -- and all
institutions of society has eroded. This takes place at a time when
individual demands and expectations have escalated. Candidates for no
office promise more and more of what they are less and less
able to deliver.
We have now reached the limits of a national binge that
included the government as well as those governed. Our Bicentennial
marks a new realism. It can bring a new meaning to our lives --
and to the fulfillment of our aspirations.
The time has come for a new reality in our view of the
Constitution of the United States. My view calls for emphasis on
the principle of limitation to balance the endless pursuit of special
privileges. I see a tendency running through every segment of
American society to encourage the growth of multiple centers of
power, initiative,
knowledge, and action -- and to contain
the conflicts among them by checks and balances and other devices
of limitation and c ooperation.
Abraham Lincoln said the Founders meant "to set up a
standard maxim for free society which should be familiar to all and
revered by all; constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even
though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, thereby
constantly spreading and deepening its influence and augmenting the
happiness and value of life to all people of all colors everywhere. 11
The main reason that the "perfect maxim" can be "never perfectly
attained" is that we keep raising our sights. That is as it should
be.
But just as unrestrained pressures can strain even
the strongest economy, so the surge toward new "rights", which
only yesterday were merely glimmers of hope, can outrun the practical
possibilities of legal innovation. Most progress can only be achieved
in an orderly, step by step manner, not by instant demands for
total change. There must be rational restraints based upon feasibility --
whether in our school system or any other institution of American life.
The strongest element in our society is not our institutional
framework, public or private. It is the people themselves. As people
acquire more power, more responsibility falls upon them. And if
the people are unwilling to place reasonable limits on their own actions,
the system will bog down.
-9-
Individuals are today aware of the power of institutions --
including all the branches of the Federal government. But they are
less aware of their own power. Today, American power has moved
from the White House into the hands of 215 million power
brokers. The Bicentennial challenge lies in how that power will
be used. Will individuals demand more of the system -- or demand
more of ourselves?
Our system has accomplished miracles in 200 years.
Yet we cannot guarantee
Ultimately,
a better life for our children or their children. they will have
to take responsibility for themselves. Every generation of Americans
will live in a new episode of a suspense story. As freedom expands
and action is stimulated to change life, America will put ever -new
burdens on the intelligence and moral fibre of individual men and women.
As Bicentennial President, I have confidence in you
and in all our people. You will meet the challenge.
#
#
#
#
REDMAN)
FIRST DRAFT
JUNE 17, 1976
A HAVEN OF OPPORTUNITY -- PRESIDENT'S REMARKS AT
MONTICELLO, CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA JULY 5, 1976
I am proud to welcome you as new Americans who now
share our common challenge and our common glory.
The common challenge is to continue the quest for resp onsive
self-government which began 200 years ago.
The common glory is our legacy of the past which must
constantly be applied to the circumstances of the present.
Two hundred years ago, all Americans were new Americans.
A torrent of individual energies was unleashed by the American system.
Just as new ideas built America, new Americans built America.
Today's proceedings represent the finest Bicentennial gift
that you; new Americans, could possibly bestow. You offer us yourselves
your faith in America, your patriotism, your love, your courage, your
energy, your determination, and your ability. You are showing the world
and all of your fellow citizens how much you believe in America.
2
You have chosen United States citizenship in preference
FRIEDMAN
to that of any other nation. You have chosen well. congratulate you.
You are now free to exercise all the rights of free
Americans. You have also assumed the responsibilities that
accompany those rights.
To qualify for naturalization, you have shown an
understanding, as required by law, of the fundamentals of the
FRIEDM E
history and the principles of our government. After 200 years, there
is still something very wonderful about being an American. This
continues to be the land of miracles. We continue to change, to
grow, to improve, to demand more and more of the good things
of life, to solve economic and employment problems, and to
fervently believe that there is no problem that Americans cannot and
will not solve.
WE SHOULD NEVER
Tao many Americans now take our national heritage for
granted. Our real treasures are not our great cities or material
FRIEOMAN
achievements, but the freedom and dignity America accords to every
citizen.
When our Delcaration of Independence was signed 200 years
ago, our founding fathers did more than break from the tyranny of
our mother country. They set out to make a home for you and all
others who believe in individual liberty.
JOHNSON
Jefferson, like the other giants of his time, saw this as a
land of opportunity and a land of security from oppression not
merely for those who were here, but for those who would come TOUS
down through the centuries.
WE OPENED OUR DOORS TO THE WORLD AND WHAT
existence there were no limitations What ensued was the greatest
mass movement of people in time history of the world. They came
here from everywhere with the strength and ruggedness to clear
SOHNSON
a new frontier. They gave us the knowledge and the know-how to
build factories, grow food, develop new tools and educate our
children. They brought us rich traditions, history and culture.
They made this land unique among nations.
AT TIMES
There was a fear on the part of many that such huge numbers
of persons could not be assimilated, that they could not
GOLDWN
become sufficiently Americanized, that their loyalty to the
ways of "the old country" would endanger or weaken the
commitment of loyalty to America.
But decades of experience have shown us that it is possible
to be American and something else, to be completely loyal to
American political principles and still retain attachment to
the traditions, language, religion, music, foods, fashions,
and customs of a distant homeland. These have persisted for
60CDWIN
generations, through family and neighborhood influences,
even among third and fourth-generation Americans who may
never have seen, with their own eyes, "the old country."
Living samples
of the whole world dwell in our midst, foreign and American
at the same time. Tulip festivals in Michigan rival those
of the Netherlands. Polish sausage in Chicago tastes like
Warsaw's. More than 450 foreign language newspapers and
periodicals are published in 40 languages. There is little
COLDWIN
in the world that is not native to us.
"Black is beautiful" was a motto of genius, and it had a
powerful effect on us all. Once America got over the shock
of that bold and true pronouncement, there began to be a
realization by other Americans that so is Irish beautiful,
so is Slavic beautiful--and Italian, and Spanish, and Jewish,
and German, and Chinese, and Japanese, and so on and on in
R.RT AROVE NLL so IS AMERICAN REAUTIFUL.
The United States of America remains the one nation
which more than any other in the world symbolizes man's quest
for political freedom, religious liberty and economic prosperity.
FRIEOMAN
The concepts of our Republic are constantly renewed by infusions of
new faith and new strength such as you, our newest citizens,
give us today.
You came as strangers among us and you leave here today
citizens, equal in stature, equal in rights, with an equal share in
the promise of the future.
You can make your fortune here. You can drink in all of
the knowledge and learning which we have accumulated. You can
enjoy our natural resources and feel welcome in our society. You
can fulfill your ambitions and turn your dreams into reality.
JOHNSON
We offer you the rights of citizenship and ask that you da
HONOR
not infringe on the rights of others. We offer you freedom and
ask that you involve yourself in the process of self-government.
We offer you our hand in friendship and ask that you extend it
to others.
BUT We ask all of those who come to these shores to remember
that we are no more than caretakers of this great land. Among
JOHNSON
the responsibilities of citizenship in America is the preservation
of what we have and the improvement of it.
The United States, distinct from other societies,
began with a philosophic statement: "That all men are created
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
KRIEOMAN
rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 11
This creed does not stipulate how men shall use their lives and
liberty, nor how they shall define happiness. All that, in the finest
the
To You ANDTOME.
American tradition, is left to individual with an important qualification
ARE VERY
Individuals are today aware of the power of institutions --
including all the branches of the Federal government. But they are
less aware of their own power REAC Today, American power has moved
THE
AMERICAS NPOWER IS IN
from the White House, into the hands of 215 million power
THE HANDS OF ITS 215 MILLION CITIZENS
FRIEDMAN
brokers, The Bicentennial challenge lies in how that power will
WE
be used. Will individuals demand more of the system -- or demand
more of ourselves?
Our system has accomplished miracles in 200 years but
Wecan ll
Bob-we cannot guarantes
the future
a better life for our children or Children, will
to talee seeponsibility for themselves Every generation of Americans
will live in a new episode of a suspense story.
Today I welcome you as our newest Americans,
to share our responsibilities, to share our sacrifices,
to share our rewards, and to share our future.
JOHNSON
Join us in our American adve inture.
I know that you and all who share this adventure will
meet the challenge. Thank you very much.
FREDMAN