I speak of the men of the past partly that they may be honored by our praise of them, but more that they may serve as examples for the future. I care for the great deeds of the past chiefly as spurs to drive us onward in the present. No man is worth his salt in public life who makes on the stump a pledge which he does not keep after election and, if he makes such a pledge and does not keep it, hunt him out of public life. A broken promise is bad enough in private life. This is true everywhere but, O my friends, it should be truest of all in political life. In name we had the Declaration of Independence in 1776 but we gave the lie by our acts to the words of the Declaration of Independence until 1865 and words count for nothing except in so far as they represent acts. It was the result of the struggle in Kansas which determined that our country should be in deed as well as in name devoted to both union and freedom that the great experiment of democratic government on a national scale should succeed and not fail.
Now, with this second period of our history the name of John Brown will forever be associated and Kansas was the theatre upon which the first act of the second of our great national life dramas was played. It was you who crowned Washington’s work, as you carried to achievement the high purpose of Abraham Lincoln. If this Republic had been founded by them only to be split asunder into fragments when the strain came, then the judgment of the world would have been that Washington’s work was not worth doing. There have been two great crises in our country’s history: first, when it was formed, and then, again, when it was perpetuated and, in the second of these great crises-in the time of stress and strain which culminated in the Civil War, on the outcome of which depended the justification of what had been done earlier, you men of the Grand Army, you men who fought through the Civil War, not only did you justify your generation, but you justified the wisdom of Washington and Washington’s colleagues. That is why the history of America is now the central feature of the history of the world for the world has set its face hopefully toward our democracy and, O my fellow citizens, each one of you carries on your shoulders not only the burden of doing well for the sake of your country, but the burden of doing well and of seeing that this nation does well for the sake of mankind. Our country-this great Republic-means nothing unless it means the triumph of a real democracy, the triumph of popular government, and, in the long run, of an economic system under which each man shall be guaranteed the opportunity to show the best that there is in him. We come here today to commemorate one of the epoch-making events of the long struggle for the rights of man-the long struggle for the uplift of humanity. Read President Obama's speech here and read President Roosevelt's new nationalism speech below. At stake is the very survival of a country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home, and secure their retirement. In his speech, the President talked about how this is a make-or-break moment for the middle class, and all those who are fighting to get into the middle class. Today President Obama traveled to Osawatomie to talk about some of the very same things. He stood by fair play under the rules of the game ensuring the rules made opportunity available to everyone.
He declared that anyone who worked hard should be able to provide for themselves and their family, and that no one person was more entitled to special privileges than another. In the speech, he called for the end of special protections for businesses in government. On August 31, 1910, President Theodore Roosevelt visited Osawatomie, Kansas and laid out his vision for what he called a "new nationalism."
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