But we can all remind ourselves that the richness of this country was not born in the resources of the earth, though they be plentiful, but in the men that took its measure. For that reminder is everywhere – in the cities, towns, farms, roads, factories, homes, hospitals, schools that spread everyone over that wilderness.We can remind ourselves that for all our social discord we yet remain the longest enduring society of free men governing themselves without benefit of kings or dictators. Being so, we are the marvel and mystery of the world, for that enduring liberty is no less a blessing than the abundance of the earth. Wall Street Journal
Part of several editorials published annually on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving since 1961 in the Wall Street Journal