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Show itirlrltCrtTirerilirCrtrCririrUir THEY BELIEVED IN AMERICA One hundred and forty years ago some half-hundred half-hundred men, sent by their communities to concert con-cert measures for securing their "rights as Englishmen," Eng-lishmen," became convinced that these could not be obtained snve by ceasing to be "British subjects" sub-jects" and declaring themselves "American citizens." citi-zens." Let us look behind the formal phrases of the Immortal Declaration to the faith of these men and of the people for whom they spoke. What was the faith that made vital their appeal for the Justice of their cause and the righteousness of their undertaking? They believed in themselves; In their ability to do right and justice. They believed In the competence com-petence of stalwart manhood to govern itself and to provide for the common welfare. They believed be-lieved they could make better arrangements in government than men had made before them. They believed in themselves. In their people, in America. Americans of late have done a great deal of fault-finding with America. There is not so much now as a year or two ago. The spectacle across the Atlantic tends to hush It. and to give new " point to the saying that "other countries" are what make Americans so proud of their own. In the light of that spectacle and of our own history let all true Americans today highly resolve re-solve on a new birth within their own souls of the faiths of those men 140 years ago, of faith in themselves and of faith in America. |