Details
HARDING, Warren G. Autograph quotation signed ("Warren G. Harding"), n.p., [ca. 1921]. 1 page, 8vo (7 5/8 x 5 7/8 in.), slight browning, minor evidence of mounting on verso.
HARDING AFFIRMS ISOLATION AND DEMOCRATIC VALUES IN FOREIGN RELATIONS: "THIS REPUBLIC CAN NOT, WILL NOT FAIL"
A bold statement of America's foreign policy objectives made in the wake of World War I. Harding entered the White House, in part, because of the negative public reaction to his Democratic predecessors efforts to involve the United States in a League of Nations and the popular aversion to the horrors of the world war. His inaugural stressed an international role for the United States, but one based upon the preferred status of isolation: "We are ready to associate ourselves with the nations of the world...but every commitment must be made in the exercise of our national sovereignty. Since freedom impelled, and independence inspired, and nationality exalted, a world supergovernment is contrary to everything we cherish and can have no sanction by our Republic. This is not selfishness, it is sanctity. It is not aloofness, it is security."
Here, Harding writes a quotation, probably from another speech, which succinctly states America's position in the world: "Our greatest assurance at home lies in a virile, intelligent, resolute people, in a land unravaged by war, at enmity with no people, envying none...seeking no territory, striving for no glories which do not become a righteous nation, this republic can not, will not fail, if each of us does his part."
HARDING AFFIRMS ISOLATION AND DEMOCRATIC VALUES IN FOREIGN RELATIONS: "THIS REPUBLIC CAN NOT, WILL NOT FAIL"
A bold statement of America's foreign policy objectives made in the wake of World War I. Harding entered the White House, in part, because of the negative public reaction to his Democratic predecessors efforts to involve the United States in a League of Nations and the popular aversion to the horrors of the world war. His inaugural stressed an international role for the United States, but one based upon the preferred status of isolation: "We are ready to associate ourselves with the nations of the world...but every commitment must be made in the exercise of our national sovereignty. Since freedom impelled, and independence inspired, and nationality exalted, a world supergovernment is contrary to everything we cherish and can have no sanction by our Republic. This is not selfishness, it is sanctity. It is not aloofness, it is security."
Here, Harding writes a quotation, probably from another speech, which succinctly states America's position in the world: "Our greatest assurance at home lies in a virile, intelligent, resolute people, in a land unravaged by war, at enmity with no people, envying none...seeking no territory, striving for no glories which do not become a righteous nation, this republic can not, will not fail, if each of us does his part."