American democracy – Speech by Styles Bridge-1940

American democracy is based upon the belief that man, as a child of God, is capable of self-perfection; that he is therefore endowed with certain sacred rights; and that government is instituted of man to protect these rights and to free him that he may attain the destiny that is his. It is man's quest for liberation—physical, mental and spiritual— not only from the bondage of oppression, but from the human weaknesses of hatred, greed and fear. It is his quest for self-fulfillment, born of the conviction that every individual has some contribution to make to the enrichment of life, and that the progress of human civilization and culture lies in the release of the creative of men.