Letter Extending Greetings to the Brotherhood Dinner of the National Conference of Christians and Jews.

[Released February 22, 1955. Dated February 19, 1955]

Dear Dr. Clinchy:

My greetings go to those attending the Brotherhood Dinner in Washington on February twenty-second, and to all who join in the observance of Brotherhood Week throughout America.

This observance, during the week of Washington's Birthday, emphasizes once again his words, "to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance."

The ardent belief of our Founding Fathers in human dignity and freedom--enduringly expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution--has sustained and guided our people toward the greatest possible fulfillment of the American dream--a people at peace, humble before their Creator, tolerant of differences, deriving from their very diversity strength to advance the common good.

Today Americans can be proud of the progress made toward realization of this ideal of brotherhood, proud of the answer thereby given to those who would bind people together in slavery.

Through such efforts as yours this progress will continue toward an America increasingly worthy of those by whose thought and courage and sacred honor our nation was "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."

Sincerely,

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER