Adlai Stevenson: “What page in our history tells of deeds so fraught with blessings to the generations of men as the discovery of America?”

If Franklin, Wilson, Sherman, King, Randolph, Rutledge, Mason, Pinckney, Hamilton, Madison, and their associates had rendered no public service other than as builders of the Constitution, that alone would entitle them to the measureless…

Only those who believe attempt the seemingly impossible and, by attempting, prove that one with God can chase a thousand and two can put ten thousand to flight.

From the establishment of the Government the question of human slavery was the one perilous question,--the one constant menace to national unity, until its final extinction amid the flames of war.

This coming together is no idle ceremony, no unmeaning observance.