THIS house is your house, this house is the house of all the people of this land. This office I hold is your office, it is the office of all the people of this country.
In this spirit, I asked you to come here today and I am proud to welcome each and every one of you.
I do not know your politics. I do not care about your partisanship. I do know, and I do care, and I do need your leadership.
If we are to remain a great nation, we must be led by great people. That means leadership at every level, in every section of this great country, in every segment of our great society.
America is not, America must never be, led by one man alone. Leadership is a first duty for all 190 million Americans--whether private citizen or public servant.
Today we are all challenged to stand up and be counted. In our cities and communities, as well as in our country, we are summoned to stand up and be counted as leaders for American unity, and for American understanding. America's progress you have heard reviewed. That progress must be continued.
We are prosperous today--more prosperous than any people have ever been at any time.
We are prepared today--better prepared than ever before in all of our history.
In the last 4 years the American people, through the American Congress made up of both parties, have appropriated from $40 to $50 billion more for defense and space alone than would have been appropriated if we had appropriated for each one of those 4 years the same amount we did in 1960. So we increased the yearly expenditure. For defense and space alone we upped it by $10 billion. Today we have the best preparation that we have ever had and it is a result of the very heavy expenditures that our taxpayers have permitted through their Congress.
We are at peace today--and we are more determined to preserve peace than ever before in our life.
Now I do not need to tell you, but you know, and I know, that we live in a world of peril.
Our success, the strength and unity of our society, are the targets of every tyrant in the world.
If tyrants are to work their will upon the world, the first thing they must do is to spoil America's success; the next thing they must do is to subvert America's strength; and, above all, they must divide us before they conquer us.
That is our challenge. That is yours and mine.
That is why, since I assumed the office of President, I have not indulged in any name calling. And no single statement of mine has been calculated to array class against class or race against race or the rich against the poor or color against color or religion against religion because we need all the strength and all the power that all the diversity of our people will permit.
The great strength of our Nation is that we have been a melting pot. And we have drawn upon the best from many lands and we have brought them here and demonstrated that these men can and do work shoulder to shoulder, side by side for a strong, freedom-loving country.
Abraham Lincoln once said: "If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we must live through all time or die by suicide."
I am determined that America shall stand, I am determined that America shall live, through all time.
That is why I have called you here today to ask your help in the work of preserving American unity.
Wherever you live, whatever your station in life, there is much work to do. We must answer the voices of hate with works of love. We must meet the shrill cries of faction with the steady and sober voice of reason.
We must make it dear, to all abroad and to all at home, that America will never permit itself to be divided. Creed will not be set against creed; color will not be set against color; origin will not be set against origin; native born will not be set against foreign born; section will not be set against section.
I know this is the kind of America that our forefathers intended. I know that it is the kind of America that you want, and I believe that it is the kind of America that the members of your organizations want.
This is the spirit that motivates the work of your organizations.
You have ministered to the needy in times of need. You have provided scholarships and educational opportunity for those that are hungering to learn. You have given hospital and medical services to the sick and to the aged. You have brought pleasure and happiness to many Americans who have not always had access to the fullest measure of the blessings of men.
On this principle the great organizations that you represent have grown and prospered in America. Since the first of your organizations were begun a century ago you have now grown to more than two hundred in number that make up the invitation list here today.
Today you insure the lives of more than 10 million people--1 out of every 19 in this country--for almost $12 billion. You invest the assets of more than $3 billion in the economy of this country.
You make America stronger because you care about the lot and the life of the people who live here.
That is the real spirit of our land, and that is the kind of a spirit that we must never lose.
Compassion never corrupts a nation. Compassion has always been, and must always be, a vital part of the strength of America.
We must care about the rights of our fellow man as much as we care about the rights of our own. For none of us is free unless all of us are free; none is strong unless all are strong; none of us can live in dignity unless all of us live in decency.
Our Nation's motto--E Pluribus Unum-means "From Many, One." It is in this spirit--this constant striving to build one nation and one people from many nationalities-that has made our land what it is as we leave here this afternoon.
Woodrow Wilson once said: "I hope we shall never forget that we created this nation, not to serve ourselves, but to serve mankind."
And that is what I hope you will take home from this meeting today: that this Nation was not born just to serve ourselves; it was born to serve all mankind.
So today I call upon you to answer your Nation's challenge, to answer it by being leaders for a united America, united and indivisible under God. For he whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad. And, we might add, they next divide.
It's been wonderful to have you here this afternoon. I hope that you can come into the next room, that I can meet each one of you individually. I would be very happy to have any suggestions that you would care to communicate to me any time.
I believe that you feel as I do that we have a wonderful country, that we cannot just take things for granted and sit in a rocking chair and let the rest of the world go by. We have much to preserve, much to 'protect-and eternal vigilance is necessary.
Note: The President spoke in the late afternoon in the East Room at the White House. Before speaking he introduced Averell Harriman, Under Secretary of State, Douglas Dillon, Secretary of the Treasury, and Kermit Gordon, Director, Bureau of the Budget, each of whom spoke briefly on a phase of Government work in their individual agencies. The President also introduced Luther H. Hodges, Secretary of Commerce, John A. Gronouski, Postmaster General, Anthony J. Celebrezze, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, Raymond F. Fartell, Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization, LeRoy Collins, Director, Community Relations Service, Department of Commerce, G. Mennen Williams, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, and Michel Cieplinski, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Administrative Affairs.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks to a Group of Representatives of Fraternal Organizations. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/241370
