We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...

The second great document is the Constitution of the United States, the preamble to which reads: 

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

DEMOCRACY A GOAL STILL TO BE REACHED

It is not to be supposed that our government and our laws are perfect.  They cannot be perfect as long as they are made and operated by imperfect people.  It is possible, for example, that the boys of the city had a just complaint against the government for not permitting them to play ball in vacant lots, unless the community at the same time provided them with another suitable place for the game—­for every community should protect the right of its boys and girls to play.  We are far from having attained complete democracy.  It is a goal toward which men are struggling, and have been struggling for centuries—­since long before our Revolutionary War, and in other countries as well as in our own.  The great world war which began in 1914, and which the United States entered in 1917, was a war to establish more firmly in the world the principles of democratic government.  Whether these principles shall be carried out in practice, and whether our governments—­local, state, and national—­shall fulfill the purposes so clearly stated in the preamble to the Constitution, depends upon the extent to which each citizen understands these purposes, and cooperates with his fellow-citizens and with his governments in support of them.

The “Right idea of it”

It is said that in one of the training camps during the war an officer addressed a squad of new recruits as follows: 

Boys, I want you to get the right idea of the salute.  I do not want you to think that you are being compelled to salute me as an individual.  No!  When you salute me, you are simply rendering respect to the power I represent; and the power I represent is you.  Now let me explain.  You elect the President of the United States, and the President of the United States grants me a commission to represent his authority in this army.  His only authority is the authority that you vest in him when you elect him President.  Now, when you salute an officer, you salute not the man, but the representative of your own authority.  The salute is going to be rigidly enforced in this army, and I want you boys to get the right idea of it.  I want you to know what you salute and why.