Liberty does not consist, my fellow-citizens, in mere general declarations of the rights of man.  It consists in the translation of those declarations into definite action.  Therefore, standing here where the declaration was adopted, reading its businesslike sentences, we ought to ask ourselves what there is in it for us.  There is nothing in it for us unless we can translate it into the terms of our own conditions and of our own lives.  We must reduce it to what the lawyers call a bill of particulars.  It contains a bill of particulars, but the bill of particulars of 1776.  If we would keep it alive, we must fill it with a bill of particulars of the year 1914.

The task to which we have constantly to readdress ourselves is the task of proving that we are worthy of the men who drew this great declaration and know what they would have done in our circumstances.  Patriotism consists in some very practical things—­practical in that they belong to the life of every day, that they wear no extraordinary distinction about them, that they are connected with commonplace duty.  The way to be patriotic in America is not only to love America but to love the duty that lies nearest to our hand and know that in performing it we are serving our country.  There are some gentlemen in Washington, for example, at this very moment who are showing themselves very patriotic in a way which does not attract wide attention but seems to belong to mere everyday obligations.  The Members of the House and Senate who stay in hot Washington to maintain a quorum of the Houses and transact the all-important business of the Nation are doing an act of patriotism.  I honor them for it, and I am glad to stay there and stick by them until the work is done.

It is patriotic, also, to learn what the facts of our national life are and to face them with candor.  I have heard a great many facts stated about the present business condition of this country, for example—­a great many allegations of fact, at any rate, but the allegations do not tally with one another.  And yet I know that truth always matches with truth and when I find some insisting that everything is going wrong and others insisting that everything is going right, and when I know from a wide observation of the general circumstances of the country taken as a whole that things are going extremely well, I wonder what those who are crying out that things are wrong are trying to do.  Are they trying to serve the country, or are they trying to serve something smaller than the country?  Are they trying to put hope into the hearts of the men who work and toil every day, or are they trying to plant discouragement and despair in those hearts?  And why do they cry that everything is wrong and yet do nothing to set it right?  If they love America and anything is wrong amongst us, it is their business to put their hand with ours to the task of setting it right.  When the facts are known and acknowledged, the duty of all patriotic men is to accept them in candor and to address themselves hopefully and confidently to the common counsel which is necessary to act upon them wisely and in universal concert.