Chief Justice Earl Warren - Eulogy For John F. Kennedy lyrics

As we gather here today bowed in grief, the heartfelt sympathy of Members of the Congress and of our people are extended to Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy and to Amba**ador and Mrs. Joseph P. Kennedy and their loved ones. Their deep grief is also self-shared by countless millions of persons throughout the world, considered a personal tragedy, as if one had lost a loved member of his own immediate family. Any citizen of our beloved country who looks back over its history can-not fail to see that we have been blessed with God's favor beyond most other peoples. At each great crisis in our history we have found a leader able to grasp the helm of state and guide the country through the troubles which beset it. In our earliest days, when our strength and wealth were so limited and our problems so great, Washington and Jefferson appeared to lead our people. Two generations later, when our country was torn in two by a fratricidal war, Abraham Lincoln appeared from the ma** of the people as a leader able to reunite the Nation. In more recent times, in the critical days of the Depression and the Great War forced upon us by Fascist aggression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt--later, Harry S. Truman--appeared on the scene to reorganize the country and lead its revived citizens to victory. Finally, only recently, when the Cold War was building up the supreme crisis of a threatened nuclear war capable of destroying everything--and everybody--that our predecessors had so carefully built, and which a liberty-loving world wanted, once again a strong and courageous man appeared ready to lead us. No country need despair so long as God, in His infinite goodness, continues to provide the Nation with leaders able to guide it through the successive crises which seem to be the inevitable fate of any great nation. Surely no country ever faced more gigantic problems than ours in the last few years, and surely no country could have obtained a more able leader in a time of such crises. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy possessed all the qualities of greatness. He had deep faith, complete confidence, human sympathy, and broad vision which recognized the true values of freedom, equality, and the brotherhood which have always been the marks of the American political dreams. He had the bravery and a sense of personal duty which made him willing to face up to the great task of being President in these trying times. He had the warmth and the sense of humanity which made the burden of the task bearable for himself and for his a**ociates, and which made all kinds of diverse peoples and races eager to be a**ociated with him in his task. He had the tenacity and determination to carry each stage of his great work through to its successful conclusion. Now that our great leader has been taken from us in a cruel d**h, we are bound to feel shattered and helpless in the face of our loss. This is but natural, but as the first bitter pangs of our incredulous grief begins to pa** we must thank God that we were privileged, however briefly, to have had this great man for our President. For he has now taken his place among the great figures of world history. While this is an occasion of deep sorrow it should be also one of dedication. We must have the determination to unite and carry on the spirit of John Fitzgerald Kennedy for a strengthened America and a future world of peace.