 On a thousand street corners, in a thousand cities, on endless miles of country roads, laughing, talking, playing, are the hope of this nation. Here is America. In their name, this nation was born, and in their hands will lie its destiny. A new world will be born under their footsteps. A new nation will be built. The young, the energetic, the restless, strong, determined, unyielding are children of the proud inheritors of all that has gone before. They are born of our flesh. They grow through our toy. They mature with our guidance. And so to their generation, we will pass the dream that was planted on these shores long ago. That dream is embodied in the spirit of freedom. Over this ocean, 1607 Jamestown, 1620 Plymouth Rock, here was America, the sea, the sky, the virgin continent. We came in search of freedom facing unknown dangers rather than bend the knee or bow to tyranny. We came to these fertile fields, thick forests and great rivers to find freedom, and we built a nation of farms and factories, towns and cities. We came for more than the country. We came because of an idea, an idea bigger than the country. Without the idea, the country might have remained a wilderness. Without the country, the idea might have remained only a dream. We took an ax and out of the native oak and pine, we built a church, a watchtower, a log cabin. We cleared a field and there a colony of free citizens, prospered and grew. We carved new states out of the green wilderness. Virginia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Carolina. 13 colonies spread north, south, east and west. The dream took substance and the idea took form, but then came the first threat to that idea. It began in Boston and spread to Lexington and Concord. The shots heard round the world. The cause was oppression, the Stamp Act, the intolerable acts, the denial of representation, tyranny. We were outraged by England's disregard of the human rights of our own citizens and we resolved to fight. Their farms and businesses to fight the British at Bunker Hill, at New York and Trenton, at Valley Forge and Saratoga. Inexperienced and undisciplined, ill-equipped and underfed, our First Army held together. Defeat meant hanging, victory meant a nation where Americans ruled themselves and for this they endured. A new and revolutionary doctrine that had been expressed by men. All men are created equal. All men are entitled to the blessings of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Yorktown, 1781, six years after Lexington and Concord, three years after Valley Forge, we were a free and independent nation. The new idea had won its first test. Now we were faced with a task of passing it on to future Americans. We wrote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the sacred charter of we the people, the blood and sweat of we the people, the life, liberty and happiness of we the people. The people were to rule. Not some of the people, not the best people or the worst. Not the rich people or the poor. But we the people, all the people. In men of vision, we spread out and explored a vast new continent, the Susquehanna, the Ohio, the Monongahila, the Mississippi, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana. It was a big land. Rich and fertile, there was room for everyone. But for some, there was no hope. In 1808, Congress prohibited the importation of slaves, but refused to ban slavery itself. And so, in the halls of Congress and across the land, the debate dragged on. We were to learn the hard way that no nation founded on the principles of individual liberty could long endure the bondage of a few. The question of slavery had divided the nation. And by 1861, economic differences between the industrial north and the agricultural south had prevented any chances for compromise. The seeds of civil war had been sown. Atlanta, Chickamauga and Tito, 600,000 Americans were killed. Their blood was shed on a hundred battlefields in a thousand towns and villages across our land. John Brown's body lies a mold, is a molding in the grave. John Brown's body lies a mold, he died to make man holy. Peace was restored at Appomattox. The union had been preserved. Out of the bitterness of civil war, arose the understanding that our strength lay in one another and that a nation divided against itself could not stand. So out of the ashes emerged a new and a stronger country, ravaged by war yet dedicated to freedom. Troubled yet anxious to rebuild. They heard the wind blow through the buffalo grass, blow over the wild grape and briar. This was the frontier and this your house was frontier. Prince upon this hill and now men lie buried under. There was land, great wide land and a promise unfulfilled. Westward the wind beckoned the pioneers and a great flood of humanity spread out across the plains. A rolling, restless wave of seeking men, settling and planting, struggling over mountain chains, pushing up river valleys to the new ground, past the Rockies, past the Great Divide, across the Colorado and the Snake. On they pushed, on to find a promise, a hope, a dream. They made a road, they raised a house and finally there emerged a city. Yes we have come a long way since Jamestown and Plymouth Rock from log cabins and water mills. Over this ocean had come the first seeds of a new idea and as the idea had grown so had the land until by the turn of this century our nation stretched from one ocean to another. But to the east across this same ocean Europe was also caught up in change. Centuries of decaying alliances and intrigues had brought her to the brink of war. The world was shrinking fast and we could no longer turn our backs on what was happening beyond our horizon. And so we felt the first winds of ominous change, of a coming era of violence and upheaval, a century of war. A time that would pose the greatest threat to our way of life. When it was over it was called the war to end all wars. But it was only the prelude to coming disaster and even greater violence. The world rested in the uneasy peace while the first League of Nations struggled into existence. Americans felt the winds of yet another change, of big money and big times. It was the era of the boom, prices were up, stunts were big, laughing was good and the Charleston was in. It was a decade of Saturday nights, a time we would later call the Jazz Age, the good old days. But for every Saturday night there was a morning after. And when the hangover hit us it came with an economic crash heard round the world. The stock market fell. Suddenly we found ourselves plunged into the darkness of a world depression. Millions lost their jobs, businesses closed, thousands lost their homes, bread lines stretched for blocks. Yet in the midst of one of the bleakest hours of our history, we still believe in the future and in our democratic way of life. We picked ourselves up, began new programs and hoped for better times. But 5,000 miles away it was a different story. Once again the shadow of tyranny was darkening the face of the world. Once again innocent people would become victims of the madness of war. Once again the democracies would have to fight for survival. But this time, this time the sacrifice would be unparalleled in human history. Poland, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Holland, we tried to stay out of it but we too found that evil cannot be ignored except at a terrible price. December 7th, 1941. The tragedy of Pearl Harbor horrified the world and shocked us into action. Once again we had to fight to protect the idea that our country was built on. And on sea and in the air, American fighting men were spread around seven tenths of the world's surface. Africa, Italy, Sicily, the Philippines, Normandy, Iwo Jima. Once again we had to fight to protect the idea that our nation was built on. Once again we fought, suffered and died in the cause of freedom. And once again the tragic sacrifice horrified the world. The war had ended in the burnt out ruins of Berlin and Tokyo. It had wrought unbelievable devastation and death. The legacy of madness and dreams of power. Optimism could no longer cover the scars. There was only a sense of relief at its end and an apprehension about the future. The age of the atom was with us. The world was still not safe nor was it to be at peace. Now there were smaller aggressions, smaller evils which had to be stopped. Korea, Lebanon, Cuba, Berlin, Vietnam. The era of violence had not ended in the place of major wars. But there would be cold wars and wars of limited objectives. And through all of this we would watch another era come. An era of jets and rockets, television and traffic jams. By now we have conquered our land, the mountains, the fields from shore to shore. We have conquered the air and now reached beyond to space. America has never stopped growing. That is our most significant trait. We have always believed in the future and what it holds. We work for it, sweat for it and many have died for it. This is America, built by the toil and the sweat of the men from all nations. And so we look back and see how it was done. And remember the countless millions who left their mark on this great land of ours. Of the millions more who shed their blood on the battlefield to preserve the spirit of freedom. We remember them because they left a priceless legacy to the children who bear their names. The spirit of freedom is their heritage and our hope for the future.