Franklin Roosevelt "Four Freedoms" (1941)

I address you, the members of this new Congress, at a moment unprecedented in the history of the union.

And, fortunately, only one of these the four-year war between the States ever threatened our national unity.

Today, thank God, 130,000,000 Americans in 48 States have forgotten points of the compass in our national unity.

We have even engaged in two wars with European nations and in a number of undeclared wars in the West Indies, in the Mediterranean and in the Pacific, for the maintenance of American rights and for the principles of peaceful commerce.

We have even engaged in two wars with European nations and in a number of undeclared wars in the West Indies, in the Mediterranean and in the Pacific, for the maintenance of American rights and for the principles of peaceful commerce.

We have even engaged in two wars with European nations and in a number of undeclared wars in the West Indies, in the Mediterranean and in the Pacific, for the maintenance of American rights and for the principles of peaceful commerce.

What I seek to convey is the historic truth that the United States as a nation has at all times maintained opposition clear, definite opposition to any attempt to lock us in behind an ancient Chinese wall while the procession of civilization went past.

What I seek to convey is the historic truth that the United States as a nation has at all times maintained opposition clear, definite opposition to any attempt to lock us in behind an ancient Chinese wall while the procession of civilization went past.

Today, thinking of our children and of their children, we oppose enforced isolation for ourselves or for any other part of the Americas.

That determination of ours, extending over all these years, was proved, for example, in the early days during the quarter century of wars following the French Revolution.

While the Napoleonic struggles did threaten interests of the United States because of the French foothold in the West Indies and in Louisiana, and while we engaged in the War of 1812 to vindicate our right to peaceful trade, it is nevertheless clear that neither France nor Great Britain nor any other nation was aiming at domination of the whole world.

While the Napoleonic struggles did threaten interests of the United States because of the French foothold in the West Indies and in Louisiana, and while we engaged in the War of 1812 to vindicate our right to peaceful trade, it is nevertheless clear that neither France nor Great Britain nor any other nation was aiming at domination of the whole world.

Except in the Maximilian interlude in Mexico, no foreign power sought to establish itself in this hemisphere.

Except in the Maximilian interlude in Mexico, no foreign power sought to establish itself in this hemisphere.

We need not harp on failure of the democracies to deal with problems of world reconstruction.

We should remember that the peace of 1919 was far less unjust than the kind of pacification which began even before Munich, and which is being carried on under the new order of tyranny that seeks to spread over every continent today.

I suppose that every realist knows that the democratic way of life is at this moment being directly assailed in every part of the world assailed either by arms or by secret spreading of poisonous propaganda by those who seek to destroy unity and promote discord in nations that are still at peace.

I suppose that every realist knows that the democratic way of life is at this moment being directly assailed in every part of the world assailed either by arms or by secret spreading of poisonous propaganda by those who seek to destroy unity and promote discord in nations that are still at peace.

I suppose that every realist knows that the democratic way of life is at this moment being directly assailed in every part of the world assailed either by arms or by secret spreading of poisonous propaganda by those who seek to destroy unity and promote discord in nations that are still at peace.

I suppose that every realist knows that the democratic way of life is at this moment being directly assailed in every part of the world assailed either by arms or by secret spreading of poisonous propaganda by those who seek to destroy unity and promote discord in nations that are still at peace.

During 16 long months this assault has blotted out the whole pattern of democratic life in an appalling number of independent nations, great and small.

And the assailants are still on the march, threatening other nations, great and small.

Armed defense of democratic existence is now being gallantly waged in four continents.

We must always be wary of those who with sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal preach the "ism" of appeasement.

We must always be wary of those who with sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal preach the "ism" of appeasement.

Even if there were no British Navy, it is not probable that any enemy would be stupid enough to attack us by landing troops in the United States from across thousands of miles of ocean, until it had acquired strategic bases from which to operate.

But we learn much from the lessons of the past years in Europe particularly the lesson of Norway, whose essential seaports were captured by treachery and surprise built up over a series of years.

The necessary strategic points would be occupied by secret agents and by their dupes and great numbers of them are already here and in Latin America.

That is why every member of the executive branch of the government and every member of the Congress face great responsibility, great accountability.

The need of the moment is that our actions and our policy should be devoted primarily almost exclusively to meeting this foreign peril.

Just as our national policy in internal affairs has been based upon a decent respect for the rights and the dignity of all our fellow men within our gates, so our national policy in foreign affairs has been based on a decent respect for the rights and the dignity of all nations, large and small.

Secondly, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to partisanship, we are committed to full support of all those resolute people everywhere who are resisting aggression and are thereby keeping war away from our hemisphere.

Secondly, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to partisanship, we are committed to full support of all those resolute people everywhere who are resisting aggression and are thereby keeping war away from our hemisphere.

Third, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to partisanship, we are committed to the proposition that principles of morality and considerations for our own security will never permit us to acquiesce in a peace dictated by aggressors and sponsored by appeasers.

Third, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to partisanship, we are committed to the proposition that principles of morality and considerations for our own security will never permit us to acquiesce in a peace dictated by aggressors and sponsored by appeasers.

We know that enduring peace cannot be bought at the cost of other people's freedom.

The men in charge of the program represent the best in training, in ability, and in patriotism.

We are working day and night to solve the innumerable problems and to catch up.

To change a whole nation from a basis of peacetime production of implements of peace to a basis of wartime production of implements of war is no small task.

I shall ask this Congress for greatly increased new appropriations and authorizations to carry on what we have begun.

I also ask this Congress for authority and for funds sufficient to manufacture additional munitions and war supplies of many kinds, to be turned over to those nations which are now in actual war with aggressor nations.

Our most useful and immediate role is to act as an arsenal for them as well as for ourselves.

Taking counsel of expert military and naval authorities, considering what is best for our own security, we are free to decide how much should be kept here and how much should be sent abroad to our friends who, by their determined and heroic resistance, are giving us time in which to make ready our own defense.

Taking counsel of expert military and naval authorities, considering what is best for our own security, we are free to decide how much should be kept here and how much should be sent abroad to our friends who, by their determined and heroic resistance, are giving us time in which to make ready our own defense.

For what we send abroad we shall be repaid, repaid within a reasonable time following the close of hostilities, repaid in similar materials, or at our option in other goods of many kinds which they can produce and which we need.

In fulfillment of this purpose we will not be intimidated by the threats of dictators that they will regard as a breach of international law or as an act of war our aid to the democracies which dare to resist their aggression.

In fulfillment of this purpose we will not be intimidated by the threats of dictators that they will regard as a breach of international law or as an act of war our aid to the democracies which dare to resist their aggression.

Such aid is not an act of war, even if a dictator should unilaterally proclaim it so to be.

Those who man our defenses and those behind them who build our defenses must have the stamina and the courage which come from unshakable belief in the manner of life which they are defending.

Those things have toughened the fiber of our people, have renewed their faith and strengthened their devotion to the institutions we make ready to protect.

Those things have toughened the fiber of our people, have renewed their faith and strengthened their devotion to the institutions we make ready to protect.

Those things have toughened the fiber of our people, have renewed their faith and strengthened their devotion to the institutions we make ready to protect.

Certainly this is no time for any of us to stop thinking about the social and economic problems which are the root cause of the social revolution which is today a supreme factor in the world.

The ending of special privilege for the few.

The preservation of civil liberties for all.

These are the simple, the basic things that must never be lost sight of in the turmoil and unbelievable complexity of our modern world.

We should bring more citizens under the coverage of oldage pensions and unemployment insurance.

No person should try, or be allowed to get rich out of the program, and the principle of tax payments in accordance with ability to pay should be constantly before our eyes to guide our legislation.

That is no vision of a distant millennium.

That is no vision of a distant millennium.

That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so called “new order” of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.

To that new order we oppose the greater conception the moral order.

A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear.

Since the beginning of our American history we have been engaged in change, in a perpetual, peaceful revolution, a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly, adjusting itself to changing conditions without the concentration camp or the quicklime in the ditch.

This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women, and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God.