Address at Meeting Sponsored by the Republican National Committee

My Fellow Republicans:

It is a grand feeling to know that I am among friends. As you may be aware, following any Presidential address, a flood of messages pour in at the White House. Among a very large group today, I am glad to say preponderantly, overwhelmingly, favorable, there were a few sturdy souls who expressed themselves differently.

One man from California started out, "I am disgusted." And he said, "Never again will I vote for this Party. To think that such a Party would allow itself to be led by a weakling, persuaded by his business friends, his rich business friends, to crucify the farmers of the United States." He ended up by saying, "What you should do is kick out Secretary Benson and follow him yourself as fast as you can."

I really felt I would like to have answered that man, for this one reason: He was right; I have many, many business friends, and some of them sent me messages. But every message I had from the business men--and some of them old and dear friends-said, "Please sign the bill." So I think, just in defense of "terrible" business men, I should answer that one man.

Now tonight, even this early in 1956, we seem to find ourselves in the midst of a Presidential campaign--though neither Party has yet nominated its candidate for the office.

At stake in the contest will be more than public office, more than the elation of success or the gloom of defeat, more even than the fortunes of a great political party.

Next November, America will decide the course our Republic shall take through a four-year span of inescapable problems and mighty challenges; of many dangers for the timid and the weak; of rewarding opportunities for the courageous and wise.

On that four-year course--on the policies that guide it, on the character and attitudes of those chosen to direct it, on the spirit which animates the Republic during it--depends the continuance of our advance in prosperity, the strengthening of our security, the progress we shall make toward a just peace among the nations.

My fellow Republicans, the campaign before us is concerned with those things which count most--people and principles.

The campaign is concerned with people, for the mission of our Party is to help 167 million Americans build a nation stronger spiritually and materially. To describe the nation I mean, permit me to quote myself: "a nation whose every citizen has reason for bold hope, where effort is rewarded and prosperity shared, where freedom expands and peace is secure."

People are made in the image of God. They are divinely endowed with aspirations and talents. Their political organizations must reflect this truth. Therefore, the Republican Party must be inspired by a concern for the rights of every citizen regardless of his station; that sets up no walls of birth or creed; that ranks all men and women of decency and good will as equal in their dignity.

The campaign is concerned with principles because they provide the only sound base for policies and practices. Policies not based on principle retreat to expediency. They become--as we have seen them become in the past--surrenders to pressure, bribes for support, escapes from responsibility. Because expediency is a betrayal of America's trust, the Republican Party in this campaign will be, as always, dedicated and inspired by principles, by political integrity.

But an evident concern for people and an incontestable concern for principles are not of themselves automatic guarantees of success in an election campaign.

These two elements must be demonstrated in a consistent program, understood by all our people.

Our Party must be an organized crusade of men and women who preach and exemplify our concern and dedication. Republican men and women must be tireless in winning new friends to the Party. They must be sustained by a high morale that is rooted in personal conviction.

To such a Party any American could be proud to belong.

I am. I think none of us can be a member of a meeting of this kind without sensing, at least subconsciously, something of our traditions and the spirit of our first and greatest leader, Abraham Lincoln. One of the simplest and greatest facts of his life was that long before he became President, he espoused a principle. He expressed it first publicly in his speech of the divided house. He said, "I do not expect a house to fall, but it will become all one or all the other." And from that moment on, he became dedicated to one ideal, one principle: to serve this country with all his might, to preserve it. To preserve the dream and the vision of our founding fathers, well knowing that a cut up, divided national existence on this continent would be ruin for us all.

Everything he did from then on, the insults he took from his own Cabinet, the sarcasm he endured, the way he was almost abused by a general, to the great horror of his aides. And he refused to resent it, saying merely, "If the man will win a battle, I will hold his horse." He dedicated himself heart and soul, and completely, to one thing: the good of the United States of America, which was its unity.

Even at that day, as he pondered the great Emancipation Proclamation, it was done as a war measure, for its influence on keeping this nation one.

A party which in all its gatherings senses, hovering in a room such as this, that spirit, that history, that tradition, can never go far from the beaten path. Dedication to service, not to self-glorification.

I am often asked why I entered political life as a Republican.

Now no Party has a monopoly on brains or idealism or statesmanship. We--Republicans and Democrats alike--are motivated by the same loyalty to the Flag; by the same devotion to freedom and human dignity; by the same high purposes for the nation's security and its people's welfare. Within our hearts and minds, in all things that are vital to the Republic, we cannot be partisans. We are all Americans. But in the practical pursuit of national objectives, we differ in our methods, in our traditions, in our philosophy of government's responsibilities.

I am a Republican, because I share our Party's deep-lying trust in what free men can do--a fundamental trust in the nature and capability of individual human beings.

I believe the Republican Party, in its methods and traditions and broad philosophy:

Offers the best hope of preserving the self-reliance and vigorous independence of individual Americans;

Best serves the nation in the search for peace with justice and freedom;

Best fosters a competitive enterprise economy whose purpose is a wider prosperity fairly shared;

Best keeps economic decision-making in the hands of the people and out of the hands of government;

Best answers the concerns of people for the meeting of their human needs;

Best assures our children, and their children's children, the heritage of an America rich in all the resources of nature, dynamic in great traditions and ideals and purposes.

I so believe because the Republican Party remains true to its heritage.

Our Party was born to vindicate the equal dignity of all men, their equal right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The dedication of its earliest days still animates our Party in this age when world-wide corrosion eats away at freedom, and justice and opportunity for men.

The Republican Party has fostered the development of an economy, dynamic in its power to release men's energies. Vast, unfettered production for vast, unfettered consumption is the economic expression of our political belief: All who work to produce should share equitably in the fruits of their labor.

Today, under the policies of the Republican Party, our economy is more immense than ever before in its productivity, more bountiful in its widespread benefits, more dependable and more creative.

The Republican Party, by all its traditions, is committed to support men's aspirations and convictions as individual citizens. We reject any attempt to treat them merely as members of pressure groups or as serial numbers in the files of a government office. The individual in his God-given talents, in his limitless potential--is the source of every advance in the material and intellectual good of humanity.

That fundamental principle in the Republican credo has a corollary--every American is equal before the law and the conscience of government.

In the philosophy of the Republican Party, the role of government requires a faithful stewardship of the heritage received from our forebears, that heritage is to be transmitted--enriched and enlarged--to our descendants. Heedful to the wishes and the needs of the day, the Republican Party will not be false to itself by despoiling our children for a present, transitory advantage.

So believing, all of us must work to have the American people more clearly know the principles of the Republican program for America tomorrow, next year--a generation hence.

Now these principles, to my thinking, are several in number. They are implicit in the personal testament I have just made to you. But I should like to present some of them to you explicitly--for your examination, or correction, or amplification.

The first is this:

The individual is of supreme importance. You, your family, your neighbors, the people down the street--people everywhere-every American of every race and creed should enjoy equally the rights and privileges of free citizens in a free nation.

And the second:

The spirit of our people is the strength of our nation. The ultimate values of mankind are spiritual. These values include liberty, human dignity, opportunity, and equal rights and justice. These are our heritage and birthright. Our common efforts to preserve and strengthen them must be inspired by things of the spirit--by national pride, by self-respect, by an eagerness to meet our responsibilities as free men, by humility in our recognition of the debt we owe generations of men and women who built this nation.

The third, in my opinion, is:

No section or group in America can permanently prosper unless all groups and sections so prosper. More jobs and better jobs, a flourishing agriculture, happier living for every family, peace and plenty for all people--these call for a strong, growing, private-enterprise economy in which there are ever-increasing opportunities.

The fourth principle is surely this:

Government must have a heart as well as a head. We must concern ourselves with basic human problems. Americans are committed to the alleviation of misfortune and distress among their fellow citizens. Government should increase and strengthen personal and family security without impairing the self-respect, the initiative, and the incentive of the individual to provide for his own.

The fifth:

Courage in principle, cooperation in practice makes freedom positive. Our people's eagerness to compete is matched only by their willingness to cooperate in a common cause.

A great Frenchman defined liberty as the right of self-discipline. In a nation such as ours, indeed in any social order, there is a great need for performance of certain jobs in which people must work together. In other forms of government this group work is produced under the orders of a dictator, or of a central government that is all-powerful. Free government gives us the right to do it by spontaneous cooperation. When that readiness to cooperate with others in the performance of these great problems disappears, then it will not be America. I deem it one of the great missions of the Republican Party, to keep alive, to help to grow, to enrich the idea that every citizen must forever be eager to perform his obligations to the country when it is needed. Farmers, laborers, businessmen, veterans, all parts of our American community deserve the concern and support of government in making their contribution to our national well-being.

The sixth principle, as I see it, is:

The purpose of government is to serve, never to dominate. There has never been a better, clearer explanation of this principle than one I have often quoted from Abraham Lincoln. "The legitimate object of government," he said, "is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves--in their separate, and individual capacities. But in all that people can individually do as well for themselves, government ought not to interfere."

And here is the seventh principle I suggest:

To stay free we must stay strong. Though we must recognize that peace cannot be gained by arms alone, yet we must gird ourselves with sufficient military strength to discourage resort to war and to protect our nation's vital interests; moreover, we must help to strengthen the collective defense of free nations against those who would seek their ends through aggression. Our own and our allied strength must be spiritual, intellectual, scientific, material.

The eighth, and in this day requiring special emphasis, is:

Under God, we espouse the cause of freedom and justice and peace for all peoples. The peace we want will be the product of understanding and agreement and law among nations. It will reflect enlightened self-interest. It will foster the concentration of human energy for the advancement of human standards in all the areas of mankind's material and spiritual life.

I believe that the Republican platform, presented to America at the National Convention in August, will in substance be the expression of these principles applied to the human problems of today and tomorrow. It will therefore be a program for the good of all Americans, whether they work in field or factory or office. Faith in America and in God will be its inspiration. Courage and optimism will hearten it. Integrity will characterize it. The welfare of all the people, the security of the Republic, the peace of the world will be its objectives.

It is our conviction that, for Americans who cherish eternal principle and high purpose, that document will chart the path to a better America, a nation ever growing in material and in spiritual strength. The Republican platform will be a program of principle around which all Americans--Republicans, Independents and sound-thinking Democrats--can rally. We welcome them all.

Tomorrow you return to your homes in every State and territory of the Republic, and on the islands of the Caribbean. You go as leaders, chosen to lead by those who know best your fitness for the responsibilities of leadership. To help prepare yourselves for the campaign ahead, you have, during the past two days, talked over the problems and the anxieties of our time, the strategy and the tactics of the campaign, the priorities of your various tasks and missions.

Permit me a word of counsel to you on the eve of your departure. I offer my observations with real temerity, because I want to talk a moment about leadership and organization, and I realize that every individual in this room has had real experience in these fields.

You have already entered a vigorous campaign, and the first point to remember is: There is no such thing as an easy battle. The purpose of the present battle is to win the hearts and minds of men and women--Republican recruits to assure the party's right to carry on the business and functions of government.

Above all, it is our hope to appeal to youth because, once won to our side, the young citizen will, each year throughout a life much longer than most of us will have, attract other men and women to the Party.

The good fighter takes nothing for granted. It is not enough that you march under the Republican banner--a banner of which we are so proud because of the ideals and the principles for which it stands. You must look well to your organization and to the leaders you will assemble to direct its efforts.

Many long years in the service of our country brought me into contact with men whose qualities as leaders were unsurpassed. From them I learned many valuable lessons in organization. Among their immediate associates--that is, among the generals and the high-ranking staff officers--the great leaders surrounded themselves with the wisdom that comes from long study, from work, and experience. But they made certain, those great leaders did, that each lower echelon of leadership would in its composition, respond to the need for youth, for the idealism, the vigor, the enthusiasm of youth--in carrying out the hard and detailed work always necessary to victory.

As long as I am back in my military life for a second, I should like to observe one thing about leadership that one of the great has said--Napoleon. He said, the great leader, the genius in leadership, is the man who can do the average thing when everybody else is going crazy.

I think this is important in a political campaign, because I recall the incident one night when a great many people on my train, and certainly half of California, were suddenly upset, and they saw the election lost in California, therefore the nation, and things were going to the bad place in a hand basket.

One man walked into the room and he said to this group of very excited people, "You might as well go on home, not even your worries and your fears and your trepidations can lose California." And, he said, "I know because I am going to speak for the Republican ticket, and I have asked the Committee to send me into 17 other States, not here, I am not needed." And he was right.

So if you can just keep your head when the pressures are on, that is one of the marks of the real leader.

Moreover, the best leaders never lost an opportunity to visit their own front-line men--to see, to learn, but above all to establish that spirit of comradeship that would withstand any temporary reverse.

So it must be with any organization that strives to influence millions of people into a particular line of action. The wisdom of experience is necessary, and this you provide, each for your own organization. But it is not alone sufficient.

To weld your organization into an effective instrument for a political campaign, each of you must visit and must intimately know those who, under your direction, are carrying the daily burdens of the fight.

Moreover, to attract the young recruit, the mechanism of leadership that you set up must itself search out and employ the young. Our aim must be to convince every American newly arrived at voting age, that the Republican Party, by its principles and by the quality and appeal of its personnel, is the Party through which young citizens' aspirations for their country can be achieved.

Moreover, we must convince them that it is the Party in which their own qualities of leadership will be recognized and employed.

So shall we go before the country with a program that is concerned with those things which count most: people and principles.

Let us stand on a record that reflects only desire of the Republican Party to serve America honestly and earnestly, a record that is unimpeachable in its concern for people and principles.

We will win if, from the moment of your arrival home, you work to build a crusading organization of inspired morale, determined to interpret Republican principles, and the Republican program to all the people.

Victory will be the product.

Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for your kind attention.