Mr. President. across the years of my public life. the idea has often occurred to me that the foundation stones of the Christmas spirit are to a very great extent made of the same elements as those upon which the founding fathers so solidly set the Declaration of Independence. the Constitution. and the Bill of Rights. No American should ever forget the forces responsible for the coming of the Pilgrims to these shores. or of the social. political and economic in-* justices of the Old World from which issued every subsequent stream of immigration to our benevolent hills and valleys. The relative absence of opportunity to rise in the economic order. the lack of occasion to advance in public service. the nonexistence of a spiritual order allowing the worship of God in harmony with the individual conscience. racial antagonisms conceived in narrowness of mind and personal greed and satisfied in the hells of human tears. suffering. misery. and deathall these are the constituent features of those backgrounds intimately and directly responsible for the steady flow of men. women. and children to our shores. seeking in our America that peace and contentment symbolized by the immortal declaration that the Creator has endowed all men with the right of "life. liberty and the pursuit of happiness." In line with the experience of every American. I have been a disturbed witness to all forms of human intolerance. to a form of conduct which has been so aptly described as "mans inhumanity to man." In my studied opinion. it is absolutely impossible to think of a condition more contrary. or more categorically opposed to the very essence. the veritable marrow. of our form of government. than intolerance. be it racial. religious. political. social. or economic.
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immigration