Remarks at Ceremonies Commemorating the Discovery of the Old Man of the Mountain, Franconia Notch, New Hampshire.

Governor Dwinell, Members of the New Hampshire Congressional delegation, distinguished guests and my fellow Americans:

Only a few moments ago, I had the first opportunity of my life to look at the Old Man of the Mountain. The natural question asked me was, "What did you think of it, Mr. President?" I answered, as anyone would in polite conversation, and said: "Remarkable. Wonderful. Interesting."

The real thought that crossed my mind was: what does the Old Man of the Mountain think of us?

He has been there through time. In his lonely vigil up at the top of that mountain--let us not try to go back to what he may have been thinking through those ages before our civilization first discovered him--150 years ago he saw great ox carts going through these roads where now we travel in an instant. He saw the fastest means of transportation--the horse. Finally he saw stage coaches. He saw only here and there a habitation, a sparsely settled wilderness.

He has seen mankind go from the sailing ship and from the horse and buggy to the jet airplane and the ability to cross the ocean in a few hours. He has seen the great sciences of radio and television come to us. He has seen every American have, with his morning breakfast, the day's news of the world. He has seen the great electronics industry--electric lights, telephones and telegraphy, and all the things by which we live today. All of these changes have come about.

But can you believe, as he stands up there, almost in infinite majesty, that he thinks it is of great concern that we travel at a rate that multiplies the speed of our forefathers?

I believe he thinks of something deeper than that. Possibly he recalls the words with which our Forefathers started the greatest of all human documents: "When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and assume among the powers of the earth that separate and equal status to which both the laws of nature and nature's God intended them, a decent respect for the opinions of mankind impel them to declare the reasons which have led to their separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

These immortal words must mean a great deal to the Old Man of the Mountain. He must contemplate them from time to time. I think we--with him--understand life. We know the instinct of self-preservation, and we know what living means to us, in our separate capacities, in our separate areas. We know what liberty is: the individual right to do as we please as long as we do not infringe upon similar rights of others.

But the pursuit of happiness--he must have noted that those writers did not create this government to give us happiness. Far better they knew than to try to define happiness for any one of us--the pursuit of happiness in liberty each according to his own desires, to the deepest aspirations of his own soul. Now, what have we done about it? Where do we find happiness? Possibly that is what he is wondering today.

We know certain things. We know we would like to be at peace. We do not want to send our boys off into the Armed Services to serve in foreign lands. We do not want to dwell in fear. We do not want to contemplate the horrible things that could happen to us in a new war.

At home we want to live comfortably. We want to be well-informed. We want to have neighbors around us that we like.

But as we pursue happiness, are we thinking only of these material things? Then how do we attain it?

If we attain money to do certain things, then we want more money. If we attain a high office, we want a higher one. If there is no higher one we would like to invent it. We always want something more.

Now, what is there more? Maybe the "more" is to try to discover what others around us find as their idea of the pursuit of happiness, what is it that mankind wants, instead of each of us separately? Can we integrate the desires, the aspirations, the hopes of our community, and then do our part to achieve that?

In so doing, I wonder whether the Old Man wouldn't approve of us more than he may at present? Because he well knows, if he has watched us, that each individual is made up of two sets of qualities. One we call the noble: courage, readiness to sacrifice, love for our families, respect for others.

And he knows also those other qualities, of selfishness and greed and ambition, and things that set men one against the other, and nations one against the other. He recognizes the right of a group, whether it be community, or whether it be nation, to protect itself, to make certain of its own security. But certainly he must applaud every effort we make to understand others, whether it be individuals, or cities, or States or nations, to understand others as we understand ourselves, and in this way bring somewhat closer, each by his own efforts, that great dream of mankind: a peaceful world in which each of us may continue to develop.

Whether we do it through church, or through our schools, through any kind of community enterprise, through the family, through our own reading, we do not seek knowledge for itself. We do not seek acquaintanceship with the classics merely that we may quote a line from it.

We seek the knowledge and the thinking of the past that we may bring it together--here today--and help forward, each in his own little fashion, that great progress that I am certain the Old Man of the Mountain yet hopes that mankind will achieve: that objective of peace on earth, goodwill to men.

I would not for a moment leave this stand with the thought that we may have these things merely by thinking, or hoping, or wishing. But behind every effort there must be an aspiration, there must be a devotion to a cause.

If we are sufficiently devoted to the cause of peace, to the kind of progress of which I speak, we will be strong, and then we will be able to cooperate with others, because only strength can cooperate--weakness cannot cooperate, it can only beg; we will be able to cooperate and to help lead the world toward that promised goal.

So I would say our best birthday present to the Old Man of the Mountain is that we make up our minds, each in his own fashion, to do his part in bringing about that hope for mankind that the Old Man must have.

Thank you a lot. It has been a great pleasure to meet you all. Goodbye.