When in the course of human events—or at least in the course of the calendar of American celebrations—it becomes necessary for statesmen, pundits, men of letters, and the common man to declaim the political principles which connect the birth of the American nation to the formation of the United States of America, and to the unprecedented power of the experiment of self-government, a decent respect and curiosity for the thoughts of our ancestors and heroes suggests that we avail ourselves of Google and digest the rhetoric and rationale which impelled them to renew their sense of national purpose and citizen identity.

There are, of course, perennial favorites that many a better pen has suggested: 

But a nation’s character, as JFK reminded his 1946 audience, “like that of an individual, is elusive. It is produced partly by things we have done and partly by what has been done to us.”

In the spirit of Kennedy’s subsequent comment that “it is well for us to consider our American character, for in peace, as in war, we will survive or fail according to its measure,” here are a few other treatments of the “self-evident truths” that inform the character of the American nation and its citizens.

On the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 1926, “Silent Cal” Coolidge waxed loquacious about American political principles and their successful passage of the test of time. A memorable section includes his thought that:

Ours is a government of the people. It represents their will. Its officers may sometimes go astray, but that is not a reason for criticizing the principles of our institutions. The real heart of the American Government depends upon the heart of the people. It is from that source that we must look for all genuine reform. It is to that cause that we must ascribe all our results.

With many more literary flourishes and much rhetorical aplomb, in 1851 Daniel Webster delivered a sizable statement on the occasion of the laying of the cornerstone of the addition to the Capitol. This year seems a good year for Pennsylvania Avenue and Capitol Hill to heed the three-time secretary of state’s words:

This anniversary animates, and gladdens, and unites all American hearts. On other days of the year we may be party men, indulging in controversies, more or less important to the public good; we may have likes and dislikes, and we may maintain our political differences…. But today, we are Americans all; and all nothing but Americans.

A local paper, the Keokuk Weekly, captured for posterity an impromptu, characteristically humorous speech by Mark Twain in 1865. Twain kept his remarks short, noting:

You have [already] heard the declaration of independence with its majestic ending, which is worthy to live forever, which has been hurled at the bones of a fossilized monarch, old King George the III, who has been dead these many years, and which will continue to be hurled at him annually as long as this republic lives.

Albeit not quite a traditional speech, but in a similar humorous, and yet poignant patriotic vein, is the roughly five-minute segment by Robin Williams as the American Flag from the 1982 “I love Liberty” two-hour special conceived by Norman Lear.

honestly I haven’t been getting out much lately
I guess it’s not very chic to put up the flag anymore, you know muffin
And I have a flag but
we haven’t found it for very long hey but
I look at it this way
Don’t look at it as saluting me
look at us saluting yourselves you know
hey I’m just a flag a symbol
you’re the people
if I may say so from here
Long may you wave

But finally, any round-up of thoughts on the American character would be incomplete without a mention of America’s traditional national pastime. While not specific to July 4th strictly speaking, the essays by the late gentleman Commissioner of Baseball, A. Bartlett Giamatti, should be required reading leading up to that most American celebration, the Midsummer Classic. In particular, check out “Baseball and the American Character,” a speech delivered in 1985. “What is baseball, and indeed so much of the American experience, about but looking for home?” he asks. 

But perhaps most particularly relevant for this year’s July 4th anniversary, Giamatti has this to say—about baseball, as about political regimes—“renewal has rhythms as old as decline.”