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Tonight, my friends, we are gathered here to do honor to these
young men and women who have successfully pursued their course or
study, and on this occasion are stepping from the classroom which has
been their world into the world which will now be their classroom.
I know full well that their thoughts, and yours, are winging into the
future, and that they and you are making plans and dreaming dreams.
It is important, it seems to me, that they go away from this
graduation ceremony strong in the knowledge that they do not walk
alone; that they are surrounded by a host or those who have dedicated,
yes, and given, their lives that these young people might live and
work and dream in freedom and security.
We are today the leading nation or the world which exalts the
dignity of the individual, but even in this great country we cannot,
and would not if we could, live in a vacuum. We are selves in an
environment. We are, to an extent, creatures of the schools we attend,
the churches of which we are members, the communities of which we are
a part, or the homes from which we spring. In a larger sense we are
creatures of the nation to which we pledge allegiance. In as is
poured the blood or those who have died "that this nation, under God,
shall have a new birth or freedom, and that government or the peeple,
by the peop1e, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
We are the spiritual heirs of Francis Drake, John Cabot, Vasca da
Gama, Fernando Magellan, Hernando de Soto, ChristOpher Columbus. There
be those in this audience tonight who have in their veins the blood
of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Robert Livingston, George Washington,
Thomas Paine, or even Thomas Jefferson.
Who can hear the story or Thomas Jefferson without a thrill of
pride in our common heritage, a prayer of gratitude for his contribution
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to the blessings we now enjoy? The story of a youth who was so devoted
to the cause of freedom that he engraved upon a prized signet ring
these words: "Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." When still
a young man Jefferson stood as a member of the HOuse of Burgesses in
Virginia and heard Patrick Henry make his immortal plea: Is life
so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains
and slavery. Forbid it, Almighty God. I know not what course others
may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death." At the age
of 32 Thomas Jefferson was elected to the second Continental Congress,
and there selected as chairman of a distinguished group which penned
those immortal words: 'Me hold certain truths to be self evident; that
all men are created free and eQual. That they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these are life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It was such men as those, and such spirit as this, that made this
nation possible. But being born in blood and sacrifice and idealism
was not enough. It was necessary then, as it is today, that the peOple
work, and work together, for the comon good. George Washington,
retiring to his Church immediately after his inauguration, lifted up
his voice and prayed: "Almighty God, we make our earnest prayer that
Thou wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit
of subordination and obedience to government; to entertain a brotherly
affection and love for one another and for their fellow citizens of the
United States at large."
Nor was prayer enough. Old Ben Franklin said "God helps those who
help themselves." and "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man
healthy, wealthy and wise." I wonder tonight if there has been any one
thing which has contributed to cur nation, our position and our national
ideals more than those words of Poor Richard.
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Down through the years from those days to these have marched an
army of men and women: John Quincy Adams, James Munroe, Andrew Jackson,
and Robert Fulton; Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson; 811 Uhitney,
Alexander Graham Bell, Cyrus heCormack, Thomas A. Edison, Henry Ford,
Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Hilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt.
I wish I could draw for you tonight, for those of yOu who have
not seen it, a picture of rows upon rows of white crosses in a foreign
land. Imagine, if you can, an island so small you can stand anywhere
on it and see blue water in every direction. And you can see, too,
from wherever you stand, a plot of ground covered with row upon row of
white crosses, and in the background an American Flag fluttering in
the breeze. Stop for a moment and think of those beys and the sacrifices
they made--of the loves they had and lost-~of the families to which
they will never return.
No, my friends, we do not walk alone. Nor are we self made peeple.
He owe a vast debt to the past, and can pay it only to the future. We
are selves in an environment, and part of the environment is a glorious
past.
Who can say that the road for them was easier than it is for us?
Who can say that they had more Opportunity than have we? What were
their frontiers compared with ours? It has been written in Our generation
that
The world stands out on either side
No wider than the heart is wide
Above the world is stretched the sky
No higher than the soul is high.
The heart can push the sea and land
Farther away on either hand
The soul can split the sky in two
And let the face of God shine through.
As you go frOm this graduation ceremony tonight I earnestly pray
that you carry in your secret heart a firm conviction that the only
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limits to your opportunity, the only obstacles in yOur path, the only
ceilings on your soul, are those which you place there. You spring
from a nation which has irresistably and continuously fought its way
upward toward a final realization of the innate dignity and worth of
mankind. This, then, is our sacred past; and our solemn debt. Let us
have faith that right makes night; and in that faith let us to the and
dare to do our duty as we understand it.
80 night is grandeur to the dust
80 hear is God to man
When duty whispers low "thou must"
The youth replies "I can."
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