0:01 golden age for our country.
0:01 As we say, we're marshaling
0:03 every resource we have to make
0:05 America safer and stronger and
0:07 more prosperous than ever
0:09 before.
0:09 And I'm very bullish on the
0:11 prospects of doing that.
0:11 We must do this because we know
0:13 those hostile to the west and to
0:16 our shared values are engaging
0:18 an increasingly sophisticated
0:20 forms of subversion and
0:24 espionage.
0:24 We see China, Russia and Iran
0:26 grow more aggressive and
0:28 emboldened as they intensify
0:29 their efforts to exert economic,
0:33 political and military influence
0:33 around the world.
0:35 We see a callous disregard for
0:38 basic human rights, new
0:39 provocations and even the theft
0:41 of intellectual property on a
0:44 scale like we have never seen
0:46 before.
0:46 Clearly, president trump is
0:48 taking seriously the modern and
0:49 dynamic threats that China and
0:50 Russia pose to our global
0:52 security, especially and in
0:54 focus the last few days as it
0:56 relates to the arctic.
0:57 And while we can have thoughtful
0:58 debate about among our friends
1:00 about how best to counter these
1:02 threats, we all certainly agree
1:04 they must be countered.
1:06 We ignore these threats at our
1:09 peril.
1:10 And I want to hasten to express
1:10 our gratitude to the U.K. And to
1:12 all of you for joining us and
1:14 some of our most recent actions
1:16 to deter these hostile regimes,
1:18 including the recent seizure of
1:19 a black market vessel seeking to
1:21 circumvent oil sanctions.
1:23 That was a big help to us, that
1:24 kind of open dialog and
1:26 partnership is a great example
1:27 of how we can work together to
1:28 ensure our collective defense
1:30 around the world.
1:31 It isn't objective an obvious
1:34 truth that a strong America is
1:36 good for the entire world and a
1:38 strong uk is as well.
1:42 At the same time, it's also
1:43 obvious that we have to take
1:44 care of our own houses.
1:45 So to speak, before we take care
1:46 of the neighborhood.
1:48 And let's be honest, among
1:50 friends here and both of our
1:52 nations, there is a need today
1:53 to fortify our houses against
1:54 internal challenges as well.
1:56 In the west, if we make an
1:58 honest assessment, we must
2:00 acknowledge that our long term
2:02 prosperity and security are
2:03 currently being undermined by,
2:05 let's call it a crisis of
2:07 self-doubt.
2:09 It's been developing now for
2:10 years.
2:11 Elite institutions today tell
2:13 the young and impressionable
2:13 that our story is one of
2:15 oppression and hypocrisy.
2:17 See and failure.
2:19 Our brightest minds are too
2:20 often taught to view our history
2:22 only through the lens of its
2:24 sins.
2:24 And we see the work of
2:26 international organizations and
2:28 transnational bodies hinder the
2:30 very spirit of creativity and
2:34 industriousness and daring that
2:35 our nations were built upon.
2:37 We have faced this in America,
2:39 just as you have here, a truly
2:43 menacing skepticism towards
2:43 history and our national
2:45 institutions.
2:45 And it's even come to the point
2:49 where even great heroes like sir
2:51 Winston Churchill are questioned
2:51 for their legacy.
2:53 What has taken hold is a mindset
2:55 that defines itself not by what
2:57 it loves and seeks to preserve,
2:59 but instead by what it condemns
3:01 and seeks to tear down.
3:03 And this growing disaffection we
3:04 see particularly among our
3:06 younger citizens, is a serious
3:08 threat to the health of both our
3:10 nations.
3:10 If the next generation is never
3:12 exposed to the deeper wisdom of
3:15 the western world or the
3:17 enduring tradition of the
3:18 British parliament or the genius
3:20 of America's model of Republican
3:23 self-government, then why would
3:24 they feel any obligation to
3:26 defend it or preserve them?
3:28 Fortunately, history teaches us
3:31 an important lesson.
3:32 Just over half a century after
3:34 American Independence, our
3:35 country faced a moment of
3:37 reckoning.
3:38 It was 1838, and for the first
3:40 time in our short history,
3:42 America's founding fathers, the
3:42 men who had led us through the
3:44 turbulent years of our young
3:46 nation, were no longer there to
3:48 guide us.
3:48 A growing disregard for the rule
3:50 of law had taken hold at that
3:52 time, and the cries of mob rule
3:54 threatened to every part of our
3:55 country.
3:56 A young legislator at that time
3:58 concerned by what he saw as
3:58 America's deteriorated regard
4:01 for its past, charged his
4:04 countrymen with an important
4:06 choice.
4:07 Would they uphold their duty and
4:09 preserve the blessings for which
4:09 their fathers pledged their
4:11 lives, their fortunes, and their
4:13 sacred honor?
4:13 Or would they continue on the
4:15 path of decline and
4:16 self-destruction?
4:17 The answer was simple, he said.
4:19 This experiment in liberty could
4:22 not survive unless the
4:24 principles enshrined in the
4:24 declaration and
4:26 institutionalized in our
4:28 constitution became their shared
4:30 civic faith.
4:30 That rising statement.
4:33 He was just 28 years old at the
4:34 time, would one day become
4:36 president and he would be called
4:37 to confront the greatest stress
4:39 test of the American experiment.
4:41 Yet his likeness stands just a
4:43 few feet away from here, where
4:44 we're gathered today, watching
4:46 over parliament square.
4:47 Abraham Lincoln, of course,
4:49 wisely understood that the
4:52 philosophy of the schoolroom and
4:53 one generation is the philosophy
4:55 of government in the next.
4:57 He knew that our national
4:59 renewal would not come from
5:01 repudiate in our past, but
5:03 rather from renewing and
5:06 recommitting to our best
5:07 principles, to appealing to the
5:10 better angels of our nature.
5:12 The struggle of Lincoln's time
5:14 shows us that the America may be
5:15 250 years old.
5:16 The question of how best to
5:18 steward this grand experiment
5:20 has always been with us and age
5:22 old questions require age old
5:24 wisdom in the west.
5:26 Today, we see faith in our
5:28 foundations, in our shared
5:30 inheritance weakening and what
5:32 we have to do is channel the
5:33 wisdom of our predecessors to
5:35 chart our own renewal.
5:38 So what does renewal require?
5:40 Just a few things.
5:41 Well, first, it requires
5:42 remembrance.
5:43 This is a biblical admonition.
5:44 In fact, were to remember our
5:46 blessings and from where we
5:49 came.
5:49 And the great British
5:50 philosopher G.K. Chesterton
5:52 warned every high civilization
5:54 decays by forgetting the obvious
5:58 things, things like the dignity
5:58 of the individual, the
6:01 stabilizing role of the family,
6:03 the human yearning for meaning
6:03 and purpose, and the
6:05 indispensable relationship
6:07 between freedom and virtue.
6:09 In short, we have to remember
6:11 our foundations and we have to
6:13 describe what they are because
6:15 the generation behind us seems
6:17 not to understand this.
6:19 As chesterton observed, America
6:21 was founded on a creed that was
6:23 set forth, he said, with
6:25 dogmatic and theological
6:26 lucidity.
6:27 In the second paragraph, the
6:29 declaration of Independence, we
6:30 hold these truths to be
6:31 self-evident, that all men are
6:33 created equal, endowed by their
6:36 creator with certain inalienable
6:37 rights, that among these are the
6:38 rights of life, liberty and the
6:40 pursuit of happiness.
6:41 That profound acknowledgment of
6:44 obvious and undeniable truth
6:45 shook the foundation of western
6:47 democracy.
6:47 And with it the course of human
6:49 history.
6:50 Our founders recognized that all
6:52 of us are made in the image of
6:54 god, and because of that, every
6:57 single person has inestimable
6:59 dignity and value, and our
7:01 values are not related in any
7:02 way to the color of our skin or
7:04 what town or village we hail
7:06 from, what our talents are, etc.
7:09 Our value is inherent because it
7:11 is given to us by creator.
7:13 We built an entire nation upon
7:15 that premise.
7:17 And just as our citizens are
7:19 endowed with god, given an
7:20 unalienable rights, all nations
7:21 and all people should adhere to
7:23 the obvious laws of nature and
7:25 of nature's god, as our
7:26 documents say.
7:27 In his farewell address, the
7:28 father of our country, George
7:30 Washington, gave all of his
7:31 advice that echoes down to his
7:33 countrymen even today.
7:35 And echoes down through the
7:36 generations and reminding us how
7:38 we would keep this republic, how
7:40 we would keep this grand
7:40 experiment in self-government.
7:42 And he said famously, of all the
7:44 dispositions and habits which
7:46 lead to political prosperity,
7:48 religion and morality are
7:50 indispensable.
7:51 Supports.
7:52 And John Adams is our second
7:53 president.
7:54 And he said famously, our
7:55 constitution is made only for a
7:57 moral and religious people.
7:59 It is wholly inadequate.
8:00 The government of any other.
8:02 The late prime minister Margaret
8:04 thatcher put it even more
8:06 simply.
8:06 Freedom, she said, will destroy
8:09 itself if it has no purpose.
8:11 Lady thatcher just like our
8:13 founders, understood that free
8:15 societies that lacked a shared
8:16 moral and civic foundation
