Committee on American Citizenship, “Our Citizenship Creed.”[928]

1. I am living under a government—and am myself a part of such government—wherein at least an elementary knowledge of the nature and principles of this Government must be generally diffused among the great mass of its citizens. I therefore believe it to be my duty to inform myself on American history, the foundations of our Government as embodied in the United States Constitution, and the application of the principles therein contained to present-day problems.

2. Since ours is a government of, for, and by the people, it is by the very same token a government of and by public opinion. It is, therefore, my duty, as a good American citizen, to help form public opinion in the community in which I live in order that all citizens may hold intelligent, just, and humane views on governmental questions and endeavor to have such views embodied in our laws.

3. Since popular government is shaped in the first instance by the exercise of suffrage, it is one of my primary duties as a good American citizen to cast my ballot in all local, state and national elections and to urge my fellow-citizens to do the same.

4. Since ours is “a government of laws and not of men,” and since an orderly government can exist only through laws justly administered and impartially enforced, I declare it to be my duty as a good citizen to serve as a juror whenever summoned, and to use my influence in every proper way to the end that lawyers, judges and jurors so conduct the administration of justice as to entitle the law and the courts to popular approval and support.

5. I believe that we Americans have the best government that has ever been created—the freest and the most just for all the people—and that it is my duty to uphold and defend this Government at all times. I believe that just as the “Minute Man of the Revolution” was ready upon a moment’s notice to defend his rights against foreign usurpation, it is my duty as a patriotic American to be a “Minute Man of the Constitution,” ready at all times to defend the long-established and cherished institutions of our Government against attacks, either from within or without, and to do my part in preserving the blessings of liberty for which my revolutionary forefathers fought and died.

6. I believe that as a good American citizen I must maintain continuously a civic consciousness and conscience; that my country needs my active service in times of peace no less than in war; that patriotism must be a constituent part of my religion; that no prouder boast can emanate from my lips than truly to declare, “I am an American citizen,” and that as an American citizen the Constitution of the United States ought to be as actual a part of my life and of my religion as the Sermon on the Mount.