True Americanism is this:
- To believe that the inalienable rights of man to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are given by God.
- To believe that any form of power that tramples on these rights is unjust.
- To believe that taxation without representation is tyranny, that government must rest upon the consent of the governed, and that the people should choose their own rulers.
- To believe that freedom must be safeguarded by law and order, and that the end of freedom is fair play for all.
- To believe not in a forced equality of conditions and estates, but in a true equalization of burdens, privileges, and opportunities.
- To believe that the selfish interests of persons, classes, and sections must be subordinated to the welfare of the commonwealth.
- To believe that union is as much a human necessity as liberty is a divine gift.
- To believe, not that all people are good, but that the way to make them better is to trust the whole people.
- To believe that a free state should offer an asylum to the oppressed, and an example of virtue, sobriety, and fair dealing to all nations.
- To believe that for the existence and perpetuity of such a state a man should be willing to give his whole service, in property, in labor, and in life.
