rpose. For the hour and the day
and the time are here to achieve progress without strife, to achieve
change without hatred--not without difference of opinion, but without
the deep and abiding divisions which scar the union for generations.

THE AMERICAN BELIEF

Under this covenant of justice, liberty, and union we have become a
nation--prosperous, great, and mighty. And we have kept our freedom. But
we have no promise from God that our greatness will endure. We have been
allowed by Him to seek greatness with the sweat of our hands and the
strength of our spirit.

I do not believe that the Great Society is the ordered, changeless, and
sterile battalion of the ants. It is the excitement of becoming--always
becoming, trying, probing, falling, resting, and trying again--but
always trying and always gaining.

In each generation, with toil and tears, we have had to earn our
heritage again.

If we fail now, we shall have forgotten in abundance what we learned in
hardship: that democracy rests on faith, that freedom asks more than it
gives, and that the judgment of God is harshest on those who are most
favored.

If we succeed, it will not be because of what we have, but it will be
because of what we are; not because of what we own, but, rather because
of what we believe.

For we are a nation of believers. Underneath the clamor of building and
the rush of our day's pursuits, we are believers in justice and liberty
and union, and in our own Union. We believe that every man must someday
be free. And we believe in ourselves.

Our enemies have always made the same mistake. In my lifetime--in
depression and in war--they have awaited our defeat. Each time, from the
secret places of the American heart, came forth the faith they could not
see or that they could not even imagine. It brought us victory. And it
will again.

For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and
the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest
sleeping in the unplowed ground. Is our world gone? We say "Farewell."
Is a new world coming? We welcome it--and we will bend it to the hopes
of man.

To these trusted public servants and to my family and those close
friends of mine who have followed me down a long, winding road, and to
all the people of this Union and the world, I will repeat today what I
said on that sorrowful day in November 1963: "I will lead and I will do
the best I can."

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