Happy Thanksgiving

There were 102 persons on the Mayflower. The little ship was not much bigger than Marble Collegiate Church. But 102 people got on that little boat and crossed the Atlantic Ocean.

A couple of times I crossed on the old Queen Mary. But there were nights when I would have given anything to get off the thing! It was tossed around by the mighty Atlantic as though it were an eggshell. Can you imagine what would happen to a little ship like the Mayflower?

Then when the Pilgrims got to Massachusetts, it was November. There was nothing but an impenetrable forest, full of wild animals and strange men. And the Pilgrims were short of food.

Before they landed they made a pact. There wasn’t a rich man among them, not a scholar; they were plain, simple, everyday people. But they were great people. They wrote out an agreement known as the Mayflower Compact, distilling in eight sentences the political and philosophical thinking of 300 years. They agreed that they would elect men to rule over them and would respect their rule. Thus began American democracy—government of the people, by the people and for the people. Foreshadowed in that little document were the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. They were rather smart people, the Pilgrims.

And they were tough. They had a stern philosophy of life and morality. You can not build a great nation on soft people. There are many pessimists today who contend that the United States is going to pieces. But I don’t believe it because the same sturdy breed is still among us.

Whenever I begin to get a little discouraged about America I go out into the Midwest or somewhere in New York City or down South or up into New England and I meet some old salty character. He knows the score, he knows what’s going on.
As long as we still have people like that in the United States, people who don’t take themselves too seriously; who don’t go around with a sour look on their faces; who still love this land—the good earth, the sky, the towering mountains, the rolling prairies and the great wonderful shining cities—we’ll survive all the current problems.

Positive things will come because Americans are what they are. We are dreamers, daredevils, adventurers. You and I are descendants of the men and women who built this nation. So on Thanksgiving Day let us count our blessings and keep the faith, for America is a land that was made by strong faithful people.