The Wilmington morning star., 1941-01-21

women Joined together in a COM
mon enterprise-an enterprise un-
fdertaken and carried through by
the free expression of a free ma
jority.
We know it because democracy
alone, of all forms of government,
enlists the full force of mems en-.
lightened will.
We know it because, if we look
below the surface, we sense it
still spreading on every continent
for its is the most humane, the
most advanced, and in the end
the most unconquerable of all
ferns of human society.
We know it because democracy
alone has constructed an unlimited
civilization capable of infinite pro-
gress in the improvement of human
life.
Still Spreading
A nation, like a person, has a
body-a body that must be fed
and clothed and housed, invigo-
rated and rested, in a manner. that
measures up to the detectives of
our time.
A nation, like a person, has a
mind-a mind that must be kept
informed and alert, that must know
itself, that understands the hopes
and the needs of its neighbors-
all the other nations that live with
in the narrowing circle of the
world.
And a nation, like a person., has
something deeper, something more
permanent, something larger than
the sum of all its parts. 1t is that
something which matters most to
its future-Which calls forth the
most sacred guarding of its pres
ent.
1t is a thing for which we find it
difficult - even impossible - to hit
upon a single, simple word.
We All Understand
And yet we all understand what
it is-the spirit-the faith of Ameri-
ca. 1t is the product of centuries.
1t was born in the m%ultitudes of
those who came from many lands
some of high degree, but mostly
plain people-Who sought here, ear
ly and late, to find freedom more
freely.
The democratic aspiration is nc
mere recent phase in human his.
tory. 1t is human history. 1t per.
meated the ancient life of early
peoples. It blazed anew in the
middle ages. 1t was written in
Magma Carta.
In the Americas its impact has
been irresistible. America has been
the new world in all tongues. =
all peoples, not beca"se this con
t1nent was a neW-found land, but
because all those who came here
believed they could create upon this
continent a new life-a life that
should be new in freedom.
Its vitality was written into our
own Mayflower compact, into the
Declaration of Independence, into
the Constitution of the Unite d
States, into the Gettysburg Ad-
dress.
Those who first came here to
carry out the lodgings of their spirit
and the millions who followed, and
the stock that sprang from them
all have moved forward constantly
and consistently toward an ideal
which in itself has gained stature
and clarity with each generation.
Far to Go
We know that we still have far
to go; that we must more greatly
build the security and the oppor.
tunlty and the knowledge of every
citizen, in the measure justified by
The resources and the capacity OF
the land.
But it is not enough to achieve
these purposes alone. 1t is not
enough to clothe and feed the body
OF this nation, and instruct and in.
form its mind. For there is also
the spirit. And of tie three, the
greatest is the spirit.
Without the body and the mind,
as all men know, the nation coulG
not live.
But If the spirit of America were
killed, even though h e nations
body and mind, CONSTRUCTED in an
alien world, lived on, the America
we know would have r.rished.
That spirit-that faith-speaks to
us in our daily lives in ways often
unnoticed, because they seem SO
obvious. 1t speaks to us here in
the capital of the nation. It speaks
to us through the processes of gov
ernlng in the sovereignties of forty
eight states. 1t speaks . us in our
counties, in our cities, in o u r
towns, and in our villages. 1t speaks
to us from the other nations of the
hemisphere, and from those across
the seas-the enslaveG, as well as
the free. Sometimes we fail to
hear or heed these voices of free
dom because to us the privilege OF
our freedom is such an old, old
story.
1.-THE Preservation
The destiny Of America was pro-
claimed in words in prophecy
spoken by u first President in
his first inaugural in 1789-words
almost directed, it would seem, to
this year of 1871: The preserva-
ton of the sacred fire of liberty
and the destiny of the republican
model of government r justly
considered deeply final