man. And if it was physically brave, the moral courage of the document
is almost infinitely beyond the physical. They had the courage not only,
but they had the almost infinite wisdom, to declare that all men are
created equal. Such things had occasionally been said by some political
enthusiast in the olden time, but for the first time in the history of
the world, the representatives of a nation, the representatives of
a real, living, breathing, hoping people, declared that all men are
created equal. With one blow, with one stroke of the pen, they
struck down all the cruel, heartless barriers that aristocracy, that
priestcraft, that kingcraft had raised between man and man. They struck
down with one immortal blow, that infamous spirit of caste that makes
a god almost a beast, and a beast almost a god. With one word, with one
blow, they wiped away and utterly destroyed all that had been done by
centuries of war--centuries of hypocrisy--centuries of injustice.

What more did they do? They then declared that each man has a right to
live. And what does that mean? It means that he has the right to make
his living. It means that he has the right to breathe the air, to work
the land, that he stands the equal of every other human being beneath
the shining stars; entitled to the product of his labor--the labor of
his hand and of his brain.

What more? That every man has the right to pursue his own happiness in
his own way. Grander words than these have never been spoken by man.

And what more did these men say? They laid down the doctrine that
governments were instituted among men for the purpose of preserving the
rights of the people. The old idea was that people existed solely for
the benefit of the state--that is to say, for kings and nobles.

The old idea was that the people were the wards of king and priest--that
their bodies belonged to one and their souls to the other.

And what more? That the people are the source of political power. That
was not only a revelation, but it was a revolution. It changed the ideas
of people with regard to the source of political power. For the first
time it made human beings men. What was the old idea? The old idea was
that no political power came from, nor in any manner belonged to, the
people. The old idea was that the political power came from the clouds;
that the political power came in some miraculous way from heaven; that
it came down to kings, and queens, and robbers. That was the