My Country 'Tis of Thee (1950)

Marvin Miller: Narrator

Quotes 

• [first lines] 

  Abraham Lincoln : Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

  Narrator : Upon that proposition, this great land of liberty was founded. And to this day the persecuted, the oppressed, the weary look upon our shores with eyes of hope.

• Narrator : The war was coming back to the enemy now. Hitler had said, "no bomb will ever drop on German soil!" But they were falling like rain, and like thunder!

• Narrator : As the widening circle of death spread over Hiroshima, the Atomic Age was written into the history of Man.

• Narrator : We are a bigger, a stronger, a greater America than ever before. We have been victorious in six bitter wars in defense of our birthright. Let those who would destroy us read our history well and take warning.

• Narrator : By 1630 nearly a thousand immigrants had followed the path of freedom to land at Boston Harbor, in Massachusetts Bay. Yes, the colonies were growing! The Indians looked on with distrust and alarm, as they watched the white man inhabit their hunting grounds. Indians on the warpath! But, all this was part of a job that had to be done, in this land that had to be settled, so a nation could be born. And after awhile, the Indians knew the white man would always be here. So, they made peace or moved further west.

• Narrator : But again storm clouds were gathering over our republic, as the northern and southern states of our union took issue... The truth was self-evident, the United States of America were no longer united. Fort Sumter was fired upon. And the sad news came to a great good man. This was no war of foreign aggression. Both the North and the South believed their cause to be just. The final victory fell to the North. But the people at home had little heart for jubilation. They were only thankful that the weary struggle was at an end.

• Narrator : And we believed that war was a war to end war. And we started to build, bigger than ever before. America - rising in miraculous monuments of stone and steel. The tallest buildings in the world. Bridges spanning whatever waters we wanted to cross. Mighty dams bringing life to arid wasteland and power to a nation. Roads and highways - a million miles of them. Oil derricks crowning the arteries of black flowing gold. Farmers plowing with tractors. Cities - a symphony of motor cars.

• Narrator : The Navy, the Marines, the Army, and the Air Force! Fighting together - an all American team!

• Narrator : In distant Africa, our men were fighting side-by-side with the British and the French. In Italy too, we were battling the hated hordes of Mussolini. In Germany, those in the concentration camps heard the ever increasing roar of the big bombers flying high over the Reich.

• Narrator : And what was to be done? What could we do to protect ourselves and future generations from man's inhumanity to man? Well, the United Nations Charter was signed in San Francisco.

• Narrator : Today, in a country of 150 million people, we still hold to the principles on which our nation was founded. We have 50,000 altars of all religions. We are still governed by the Constitution. The Bill of Rights is still working for the people. We think, we speak, we act - freely. But ever mindful that our precious privileges shall not be misused as a mask for treason.

• [last lines] 

  Narrator : It is written in the blood of our heroes, that freedom...

  Abraham Lincoln : Shall not perish from the earth.