eople of the Colonies to resort to
arms, and without the guiding military genius of Washington, the
Declaration of Independence would be naught in history but the vision of
doctrinaires, a mockery of sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. Let us
never forget that it was that resolution and that genius which made it
the vitalizing force of a great nation. It takes service and sacrifice
to maintain ideals.

But it is far more than the Declaration of Independence that brings us
here to-day. That was, indeed, a great document. It was drawn up by
Thomas Jefferson when he was at his best. It was the product of men who
seemed inspired. No greater company ever assembled to interpret the
voice of the people or direct the destinies of a nation. The events of
history may have added to it, but subtracted nothing. Wisdom and
experience have increased the admiration of it. Time and criticism have
not shaken it. It stands with ordinance and law, charter and
constitution, prophecy and revelation, whether we read them in the
history of Babylon, the results of Runnymede, the Ten Commandments, or
the Sermon on the Mount. But, however worthy of our reverence and
admiration, however preeminent, it was only one incident of a great
forward movement of the human race, of which the American Revolution was
itself only a larger incident. It was not so much a struggle of the
Colonies against the tyranny of bad government, as against wrong
principles of government, and for self-government. It was man realizing
himself. It was sovereignty from within which responded to the alarm of
Paul Revere on that April night, and which went marching, gun in hand,
against sovereignty from without, wherever it was found on earth. It
only paused at Concord, or Yorktown, then marched on to Paris, to
London, to Moscow, to Pekin. Against it the powers of privilege and the
forces of despotism could not prevail. Superstition and sham cannot
stand before intelligence and reality. The light that first broke over
the thirteen Colonies lying along the Atlantic Coast was destined to
illuminate the world. It has been a struggle against the forces of
darkness; victory has been and is still delayed in some quarters, but
the result is not in doubt. All the forces of the universe are ranged on
the side of democracy. It must prevail.

In the train of this idea there has come to man a long line of
collateral blessings. Freedom has many sides and angles. Human slavery
has been swept