The united American : a magazine of good citizenchip., December 01, 1926, Page 4, Image 4

THE UNITED AMERICAN
Page Four
December 1926
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Americanizing Confessions of Faith in Citizenship
[In collecting a few outstanding expressions
of devotion to the ideals that are distinct gems
in the American creed of patriotic devotion,
we have had in mind the busy man, who has little
time to read long documents to find the kernel
of thought that will aid him, in a measure, to live
his citizenship. These little chapters, containing
essential thoughts of devotion and dedication to
American ideals, are from the lips of men and
women who have LIVED their citizenship. These
excerpts from their speeches and writings are of
especial value to the newer and older citizens who
feel the urge to live their citizenship according to
that American standard of thought that made us
a nation, when men from many countries, together,
laid the foundation and wrought the marvelous
national structure we know as America.
—The Editor]
THE AMERICAN’S DECLARATION
OF INDEPENDENCE
By Thomas Jefferson
XA7E HOLD these truths to be self-evident:
That all men are created equal;
That they are endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable rights;
That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness;
That to secure these rights, governments are in­
stituted among men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed.
THE AMERICAN CREED
By William Tyler Page
“T BELIEVE in the United States of America as
x a Government of the people, by the people,
for the people, whose just powers are derived
from the consent of the governed; a democracy
in a republic; a sovereign nation of many sover­
eign states ; a perfect union, one and inseparable ;
established upon those principles of freedom,
equality, justice and humanity for which Ameri­
can patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.
“I, therefore, believe it is my duty to my
country to love it; to support its Constitution; to
obey its laws; to respect its Flag, and to defend
it against all enemies.”
THE MEANING OF THE AMERICAN FLAG
By Woodrow Wilson
(~)UR FLAG means universal education—light
for every mind, knowledge for every child. We
must have but one flag. We must also have but
one language. This must be the language of the
Declaration of Independence.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
“T PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE to the Flag of the
- United States of America and to the Republic
for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all.”
JUST A PLAIN AMERICAN
Anon.
Just today we chanced to meet—
Down upon the crowded street;
And I wondered whence he came,
What was once his nation’s name.
So I asked him, “Tell me true,
Are you a Pole or Russian Jew,
English, Scotch, Italian, Russian,
Belgian, Spanish, Swiss, Moravian,
Dutch or Greek or Scandinavian ?”
Then he raised his head on high,
As he gave me this reply :
“What I was is naught to hie,
In this land of liberty,
In my soul, as man to man,
I am just a plain American!”
AMERICA IS YOU AND I
(< AMERICA is not the magic scenery
■^Washed by sunrise and sunset sea.
No, nor yet the prairies dark with herds,
Or land lakes of the Western grain, nor yet
Wonder cities white towered, nor the peaks
Bursting with metals, nor the smoky mills,
But AMERICA, is you, and you, and I.”
ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S
GETTYSBURG ADDRESS
KOURSCORE and seven years ago our fathers
-
brought forth on this continent a new nation,
conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the propo­
sition that all men are created equal. Now we are
engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that
nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated,
can long endure. We are met on a great battle­
field of that war. We have come to dedicate a
portion of that field as a final resting-place for
those who here gave their lives that that nation
might live. It is altogether fitting and proper
that we should do this. But, in a larger sense
we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we
cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, liv­
ing and dead, who struggled here, have conse­
crated it far above our poor power to add or de­
tract. The world will little note nor long re­
member what we say here, but it can never for­
get what they did here. It is for us, the living,
rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished
work which they who. fought here have thus far
so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here
dedicated to the great task remaining before us
—that from these honored dead we take increased
devotion to that cause for which they gave the
last full measure of devotion; that We here highly
resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain;
that this nation, under God, shall have a new
birth of freedom; and that government of the
people, by the people, for the people, shall not
perish from the earth.
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