They defined with tolerable distinctness in what they
did consider all men created equal--equal in certain inalienable
rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness. This they said, and this they meant. They did not mean
to assert the obvious untruth that all were then actually enjoying
that equality, or yet that they were about to confer it
immediately upon them. They meant to set up a standard maxim for
free society which should be familiar to all--constantly looked
to, constantly labored for, and, even though never perfectly
attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly
spreading and deepening its influence, and augmenting the
happiness and value of life to all people, everywhere.
We are bound in honor to refuse to listen to those men who would make
us desist from the effort to do away with the inequality which means
injustice; the inequality of right, of opportunity, of privilege. We
are bound in honor to strive to bring ever nearer the day when, as far
as is humanly possible, we shall be able to realize the ideal that
each man shall have an equal opportunity to show the stuff that is in
him by the way in which he renders service. There should, so far as
possible, be equality of opportunity to render service; but just so
long as there is inequality of service there should and must be
inequality of reward.
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