My Countrymen:

WHEN one surveys the world about him after the great storm, noting the
marks of destruction and yet rejoicing in the ruggedness of the things
which withstood it, if he is an American he breathes the clarified
atmosphere with a strange mingling of regret and new hope. We have seen
a world passion spend its fury, but we contemplate our Republic
unshaken, and hold our civilization secure. Liberty - liberty within
the law - and civilization are inseparable, and though both were
threatened we find them now secure; and there comes to Americans the
profound assurance that our representative government is the highest
expression and surest guaranty of both.

Standing in this presence, mindful of the solemnity of this occasion,
feeling the emotions which no one may know until he senses the great
weight of responsibility for himself, I must utter my belief in the
divine inspiration of the founding fathers. Surely there must have been
God's intent in the making of this new-world Republic. Ours is an
organic law which had but one ambiguity, and we saw that effaced in a
baptism of sacrifice and blood, with union maintained, the Nation
supreme, and its concord inspiring. We have seen the world rivet its
hopeful gaze on the great truths on which the founders wrought. We have
seen civil, human, and religious liberty verified and glorified. In the
beginning the Old World scoffed at our experiment; today our
foundations of political and social belief stand unshaken, a precious
inheritance to ourselves, an inspiring example of freedom and
civilization to all mankind. Let us express renewed and strengthened
devotion, in grateful reverence for the immortal beginning, and utter
our confidence in the supreme fulfillment.