Diplomats -- United States -- Biography; Morgenthau, Henry, 1856-1946; United States -- Foreign relations -- 20th century
It has been a great mission of the Jewish people, through their
religious faith, to teach the whole Western world that there is one
God. The great moral and spiritual mission of the American people,
in my opinion, is to teach the world that there must be one
brotherhood of humanity. I hold that it has been nothing short of
providential in the history of the human race to have had America
preserved as an undeveloped continent until this later period. We
are making it the experimental station for the intergrafting of
various peoples. The ideal of America is, through freedom and equal
opportunity, to permit the complete physical, intellectual, and
spiritual development of all our citizens. The American people are
not the descendents of the original English, French, Dutch, or
Spanish settlers. The American people to-day are composed of every
inhabitant within our borders who loyally supports the principles
which form the roots of our national life and well-being. To me it
seems clear that the principles embodied in the Declaration of
Independence, the Constitution, the laws and, above all, in the
moral attitude of mind which marks the true American, require much
of us. Above all, they require mutual service, equality as regards
the highest as well as the less important goods of life, and, high
above all, complete toleration and mutual respect. These are the
veritable foundations of human brotherhood. This is America’s
fundamental contribution to the world’s civilization. It is not
essential in this connection, even if space permitted, for me to
indicate and emphasize the part which the Hebraic laws, Hebraic
morals, and the Hebraic religion, through the Old and New
Testaments, have had upon the American mind and the American soul.
I leave that to the historian. I am here referring to the present
and the future, rather than to the past.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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