How much is all this worth?… – Sunday, July 03, 1960
Many years ago, Daniel Webster recalled a question: “How much is all this worth?”1 As to liberty, or the lack of it, whatever the price, it is priceless, and the difference cannot be calculated. How much is all this worth? How much is it worth to live where one wishes? to work at what one wishes? to worship as one wishes? How much is it worth to have the right to live with loved ones? to listen to the laughter of children? to be unafraid of approaching footsteps? to walk home and find the welcome of loved faces unafraid? How much is it worth to own personal property? to have personal privacy? How much is it worth to preserve human dignity? How much is it worth to choose leaders? to vote in an open and honest election? to have a voice in making and administering the laws of the land? How much is it worth to come and to go, to live and to choose, to think and to speak, to read and to search? to have an education offered everyone? How much is it worth freely to express an opinion, fearlessly to move from place to place, with an openness, of life, a free ranging of the mind; and enjoyment of the great and goodly earth that God has given, with peace of mind and quiet conviction?
Despite all encroachments on freedom, and all unwise relinquishment of some rights, still blessed beyond belief, still precious beyond price, is the freedom our forebears paid for—he freedom which is God given, which yet, paradoxically, has to be everlastingly earned and deserved over and over again, and can never safely be permitted to become common place. How much is all this worth?
All this must be worth the willingness to work, the willingness to defend, the willingness to give allegiance, the willingness to be a participating part, the willingness to live with honor, justice, and respect for law, and the willingness to keep the commandments—For “No free government,” wrote Andrew Jackson, “can stand without virtue in the people and a lofty spirit of patriotism:”2 Thank God for liberty and for the privilege of preserving it at any price.
1Daniel Webster (quoted by Joseph Roswell Hawley in an address titled On the Flag and the Eagle, 1874)
2Andrew Jackson, Farwell Address.
“The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station KSL and the CBS Radio Network, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, July 3, 1960, 11:30 a.m. to 12.00 noon, Eastern Time. Copyright 1960
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July 03, 1960
Broadcast Number 1,611