414 State Papers and Addresses

duty indeed, if they failed to give their very best efforts, their abilities, towards
the preservation all that we hold near and dear in America.

You have a chance in this generation to throw your weight in the balance,
and help determine the survival of those ideals which for the last three hundred
years have given dignity to life in the western world, that have brought hope
to oppressed peoples everywhere. No more gallant a crusade ever was offered
to valorous knights of old! No more soul-stirring a goal was ever sought by
suffering humanity in all the years of recorded history.

If you are worthy descendants of those doughty pioneers who dared and
fought that democracy might be enshrined upon this Western Shore, then, in-
deed, will you welcome the opportunity to joust in the cause of a free humanity.
If the will for freedom burns as brightly within your breasts, as in the hearts
of those who hewed this mighty Nation from the primeval wilderness, then,
truly, will you be ready to embark on the high adventure of making freedom
secure for evermore.

Knowing full well the manner and quality of education that has been yours,
I know full well what your response will be—must be—should the call to action
come.

Whatever the future may hold for you, go forth secure in the knowledge
that you have been well prepared. And may God go with you wherever your
path may lead.