The Power of Spiritual Force

DEMOCRACY CANNOT SURVIVE IN ISOLATION

By PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

Delivered at the birthplace of Woodrow Wilson at Staunton, Va., May 4, 1941

Vital Speeches of the Day, Vol. VII, pp. 457

WE are meeting here today to dedicate a new shrine of freedom. By this action we are bearing true witness to the faith that is in us—simple faith in the freedom of democracy in the world.

It is the kind of faith for which we have fought before, for the existence of which we are ever ready to fight again.

I can think of no more fitting place in all the land for Americans to pledge anew their faith in the democratic way of life than at the birthplace of Woodrow Wilson. In this quiet Presbyterian manse first saw the light of day one whose whole active life was dedicated to the cause of freedom, to the conquest of fear and to the liberation of the eternal spirit of man from every thralldom imposed by force.

Woodrow Wilson was fortunate in his birthplace and favored in his parentage and environment. This was a home of plain living and high thinking and wherever the family moved in the migrations incident to the religious calling of the father they carried with them ideals which put faith in spiritual values above every material consideration.

In the tragic conflict which the world witnesses today and which threatens everything we have most loved as a free people, we see more clearly than ever before the unyielding strength of things of the spirit. All of recorded history ears witness that the human race has made true advancement only as it has appreciated spiritual values. Those unhappy peoples who have placed their sole reliance on the sword have inevitably perished by the sword in the end.

Physical strength can never permanently withstand the impact of spiritual force.

Woodrow Wilson's whole career was a triumph of the spiritual over the sordid forces of brute strength. Under his leadership this country made great spiritual progress.

Of Woodrow Wilson this can be said, that in a time when world councils were dominated by material considerations of greed and gain and revenge he beheld the vision splendid.

That selfish men could not share his vision of a world emancipated from the shackles of force and the arbitrament of the sword in no wise detracts from its splendor. Rather does the indifference of hostile contemporaries enhance the beauty of the vision which he saw and enlarge the glory of the world he sought to rebuild.

He will be held in everlasting remembrance as a statesman who, when other men sought revenge and material gain, strove to bring nearer the day which should see the emancipation of conscience from power and the substitution of freedom for force in the government of the world.

It is good for America that this house in which Woodrow Wilson was born will be preserved for us and for many future generations. In this valley of Virginia it will remind America that his ideals of freedom were wide enough to support democracy in all the world. He taught that democracy could not survive in isolation. We applaud his judgment and his faith.