[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 27 (Monday, July 9, 2001)]
[Pages 1009-1011]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at an Independence Day Celebration in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

July 4, 2001

    Mr. Mayor, thank you very much. I appreciate so much your 
hospitality. Laura and I are honored to be here in Philadelphia. It's 
the perfect place to celebrate our Nation's birthday.
    I told the mayor in front of the country when I addressed the 
Congress that I was coming to Philadelphia to celebrate the wonderful 
missions that take place in this grand city. Mr. Mayor, thank you for 
allowing me to come, and thank you for your gracious hospitality. Same 
to the Governor of this great State, our close friend Tom Ridge and his 
wife, Michelle. Thank you all very much for your hospitality.
    It's an honor to be on the stage with the senior Senator, who 
married quite well, himself. [Laughter] I appreciate you being here, 
Senator, and the honorable--it's an honor to be on the stage with 
leaders of the faith community in Philadelphia.
    Distinguished guests, my fellow citizens, thank you for your warm 
welcome.
    And thank you, Mr. Mayor, for your lovely gift. Laura and I will 
make a special place for it at the White House.
    Today we celebrate American independence in the place of America's 
birth, close to a symbol of American liberty. As millions know, to see 
the Liberty Bell is a moving experience. In America, we set aside 
certain places and treasures like this to protect them from the passing 
of the years. We grant them special care to mark a moment in time. Here 
in Philadelphia, these markers are all around us, reminders of our 
history.
    This is a dynamic and modern city. Yet if the Founders, themselves, 
were here, they would know the place. Benjamin Franklin and his wife 
could still find their way from here to the corner where they first saw 
each other, at Market and 4th. John Adams could make his way to City 
Tavern and show us the spot where he first shook the hand of George 
Washington. Thomas Jefferson would still find waiting for him the room 
where he drafted the Declaration of Independence. And each of the 
Founders, coming here, would know the ring of the Liberty Bell. It rang 
to announce the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence 
225 years ago.
    Those new citizens of a nation just 4 days old heard inspiring words 
but not original thoughts. Our Founders considered themselves heirs to 
principles that were timeless and truths that were self-evident. When 
Jefferson sat down to write, he was trying, he said, to place before 
mankind ``the common sense of the subject.'' The common sense of the 
subject was that we should be free, and though great evils would linger, 
the world would never be the same after July 4, 1776.
     A wonderful country was born, and a revolutionary idea sent forth 
to all mankind: Freedom, not by the good graces of government but as the 
birthright of every individual; equality, not as a theory of 
philosophers but by the design of our Creator; natural rights, not for 
the few, not even for a fortunate many but for all people in all places, 
in all times.
    The world still echoes with the ideals of America's Declaration. Our 
ideals have been accepted in many countries and bitterly opposed by 
tyrants. They are the mighty rock on which we have built our Nation. 
They are the hope of all who are oppressed. They are the standard to 
which we hold others, and the standard by which we measure ourselves. 
Our greatest achievements have come when we have lived up to these 
ideals. Our greatest tragedies have come when we have failed to uphold 
them.
    When Abraham Lincoln wondered whether civil war was preferable to 
permanent slavery, he knew where to seek guidance. Speaking in 
Independence Hall he said, ``I have never had a feeling, politically, 
that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the

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Declaration of Independence. The Declaration,'' Lincoln said, ``gave 
promise that in due time the weight would be lifted from the shoulders 
of all men and all should have an equal chance.''
    From the ideals in the Declaration came the laws and the 
Constitution, including the free exercise of religion. The Liberty Bell 
was originally cast to mark the 50th anniversary of William Penn's 
Charter of Privileges, the first guarantee of religious freedom in this 
Commonwealth. Now, exactly three centuries after William Penn's charter, 
the Founders would be pleased to see that we have respected this right 
of the people and the limitation on the Government. They knew what 
dangers can follow when Government either dictates or frustrates the 
exercise of religion.
    Our Founders would also be pleased to walk these streets again and 
to find, amid the problems of modern life, a familiar American spirit of 
faith and good works. They would see the signs of poverty and want but 
also acts of great kindness and charity. They would see addiction and 
the wreckage it brings, but they would also see in the works of the 
religious groups and charities throughout this city, the power that can 
rescue abandoned hopes and repair a broken life.
    In a world very different from theirs they would see different kinds 
of hardships, fears, and suffering. Yet, they would also recognize the 
brotherly love that gave this city its name.
    Your mayor and I have just come from an Independence Day celebration 
in north Philadelphia, organized by a great American named Herbert Lusk. 
Herb first came into prominence as an athlete. Today, he is pastor of 
Greater Exodus Baptist Church, and his parishioners still like him. 
[Laughter] Herb's church is one of the hundreds of churches and 
synagogues and mosques in this city where worship of the Almighty is 
expressed in service to neighbors in need.
    In every part of Philadelphia, caring people are doing the work of 
compassion. They teach boys and girls to read, as in a program called 
Youth Education for Tomorrow, where more than 20 faith-based literacy 
centers are producing great results for your city's children.
    At the Jesus School in north Philadelphia, little Aneeisha Graham 
came a year ago, not knowing any letters of the alphabet. Today, at age 
7, she reads at the fourth grade level. Aneeisha is with us today. It's 
great to see you, darling. Thank you for coming.
    Other faith-based groups in this city operate shelters for the 
destitute and the homeless. They bring kindness and understanding to 
young women facing domestic violence or crisis pregnancies. They give 
time and attention to the children of prisoners. These are the kinds of 
citizens every society needs, citizens who speak for the voiceless and 
feed the hungry and protect the weak and comfort the afflicted.
    America's founding documents give us religious liberty in principle; 
these Americans show us religious liberty in action. Religious liberty 
is more than the right to believe in God's love; it is the right to be 
an instrument of God's love. Such work is beyond the reach of government 
and beyond the role of government. And those who hold positions of power 
should not be wary or hostile toward faith-based charities, or other 
community groups which perform important and good works. We should 
welcome their conviction and contribution in all its diversity.
    So today I call on the United States Congress to pass laws promoting 
and encouraging faith-based and community groups in their important 
public work and to never discriminate against them. These soldiers in 
the armies of compassion deserve our support. They often need our 
support, and by taking their side, we act in the best interests and 
tradition of our country.
    Without churches and charities, many of our citizens who have lost 
hope would be left to their own struggles and their own faith. And as I 
well know, they are not the only ones whose lives can be changed and 
uplifted by the influence of faith in God.
    The founding generation discerned in that faith the source of our 
own rights, a divine gift of dignity, found equally in every human life. 
Our Nation has always been guided by a moral compass. In every 
generation, men and women have protested terrible wrongs and worked for 
justice, for the abolition of slavery, the triumph of civil rights, for 
the

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end of child labor, the equal treatment of women, and the protection of 
innocent life.
    Not every reformer in our history has been religious, but many have 
been motivated by a scriptural vision in which ``justice rolls down like 
waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.''
    We welcome religion in our common life because it leads millions of 
Americans to serve their neighbor and because it leads countless others 
to speak for justice, from African-American churches to Catholic 
bishops. ``Religious people,'' said Dr. Martin Luther King, ``should not 
be the servant of the state nor the master of the state but the 
conscience of the state.''
    In my Inaugural Address, I asked Americans to seek a common good 
beyond their comfort, to serve their Nation, beginning with their 
neighbor. Today I urge Americans to consider what contributions we all 
can make, and there's plenty work for us all. Every person can find 
another to help. Nearly every community of conscience and faith has more 
to share, and corporate and foundation America can give more and give 
wiser.
    In this way, we all become more responsible citizens. And by 
extending to all the promise of America, we show an important kind of 
patriotism. Seventy-five years ago our 30th President, the only 
President born on Independence Day, spoke words that apply to our time. 
Calvin Coolidge said, ``We live in an age of science and of abounding 
accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. 
Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first.''
    On this Fourth of July, 2001, a great anniversary of our Nation's 
birth, and a great anniversary of religious liberty, we remember the 
ideals of America and the things of the spirit that sustain them.
    The Liberty Bell has been mostly silent for two centuries. And 
during the Revolution, it was unseen, hidden under the floorboards of a 
church in Allentown. Yet even in silence, it has always borne one 
message, cast for the ages with the words of the Old Testament: 
``Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants 
thereof.''
    In this place of history, we honor the first generation of Americans 
who followed those words, and we give thanks to the God who watched over 
our country then and who watches to this very day.
    Thank you, all. And may God bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 4:30 p.m. at Independence Historic National 
Park. In his remarks, he referred to Mayor John F. Street of 
Philadelphia.