“Today, the United States witnesses the triumph of liberty over restriction. Today, the people of this land have abolished the poll tax as a condition to voting. By this act they have reaffirmed the simple but unbreakable theme of this Republic: nothing is so valuable as liberty, and nothing is so necessary to liberty as the freedom to vote without bans or barriers.

…

“There can now be no one too poor to vote; there is no longer a tax on his rights. The only enemy to voting that we face today is indifference—too many of our citizens treat casually what other people in other lands are ready to die for.”

“In these times, more than any other, the public life is a lonely life. The burden of every vote, of every decision, of every act, and, yes, even of every utterance, is too great to be shared and much too great to be borne alone.

“I find for myself, as I know men and women throughout this great Government of ours also find, a sustaining strength from the moments of prayer—whether we assemble together or whether we pray silently alone.

“What has become a tradition and practice in our time is actually one of the oldest public traditions of our national life. Long ago, when this country was struggling to come into being, there arose at the Constitutional Convention a discussion and a debate about holding prayers before each session at that Convention. The great Benjamin Franklin spoke up to speak his views. I believe it is appropriate and timely this morning to repeat and to endorse those words now.

“Dr. Franklin told the framers of our Constitution, and I quote him, ‘Without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel. We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a by-word down to future ages. And, what is worse,’ Dr. Franklin went ahead to add, ‘mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing government by human wisdom and leave it to chance and to war and to conquest.’

“Today, in our times, the responsibilities and the burdens imposed upon each of us are great and frightening and growing. On us—on each of us—on our decisions that we individually and collectively make—rests the hope of mankind throughout the world for a world that is not left to chance, or not left to war, or not left to conquest.”