I sometimes think he is fortunate if he has to
work only with his hands and not with his head. It is very easy to do
what other people give you to do, but it is very difficult to give other
people things to do. We cannot exempt you from work; we cannot exempt
you from the strife and the heart-breaking burden of the struggle of the
day--that is common to mankind everywhere. We cannot exempt you from the
loads that you must carry; we can only make them light by the spirit in
which they are carried. That is the spirit of hope, it is the spirit of
liberty, it is the spirit of justice.
When I was asked, therefore, by the Mayor and the committee that
accompanied him to come up from Washington to meet this great company of
newly admitted citizens I could not decline the invitation. I ought not
to be away from Washington, and yet I feel that it has renewed my spirit
as an American.
In Washington men tell you so many things every day that are not so,
and I like to come and stand in the presence of a great body of my
fellow-citizens, whether they have been my fellow-citizens a long time
or a short time, and drink, as it were, out of the common fountains with
them and go back feeling that you have so generously given me the sense
of your support and of the living vitality in your hearts, of its great
ideals which made America the hope of the world.
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