The Spirit of Democracy
Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, distinguished members of Congress, I know what a rare privilege it is to address a joint meeting of your two houses. Thank you for inviting me. The concept so simply described by Abraham Lincoln as government by the people, of the people, for the people, is fundamental to our two nations.
Your Congress and our Parliament are the twin pillars of our civilizations, and the chief among the many treasures that we have inherited from our predecessors. We like you are staunch believers in the freedom of the individual and the rule of a fair and just law. These principles are shared with our European partners and with the wider Atlantic community.
They are the bedrock of the Western world. Some people believe that power grows from the barrel of a gun. So it can, but history shows that it never grows well, nor for very long.
Force in the end is sterile. We have gone a better way. Our societies rest on mutual agreement, on contract, and on consensus.
A significant part of your social contract is written down in your Constitution. Ours rests on custom and will. The spirit behind both, however, is precisely the same.
It is the spirit of democracy. These these ideals are clear enough, but they must never be taken for granted. They have to be protected and nurtured through every change and fluctuation.
I want to take this opportunity to express the gratitude of the British people to the people of the United States of America for their steadfast loyalty to our common enterprise throughout this turbulent century. The future is, as ever, obscure. The only certainty is that it will present the world with new and daunting problems.
But if we continue to stick to our fundamental ideals, I have every confidence that we can resolve them. Recent events in the Gulf have proved that it is possible to do just that. Both our countries saw the invasion of Kuwait in just the same terms: an outrage to be reversed both for the people of Kuwait and for the sake of the principle that naked aggression should not prevail.
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