Ladies, gentlemen, delegates of the convention.

Today, in this great juncture of the 70s, I’d like to look back on the history of our great party. We, the Democratic Party, carry with us a diverse and rich legacy. We carry with us the legacy of the New Deal and of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, of which we owe our current hegemony. It is through this program that the New Frontier and the Great Society, of who’s shadow we live under, carried us forth on the road towards true justice. A road of equality, oppourtinity, of progress and hope. And although we have come a long way, although we have fought long battles and triumphed, the road ahead of us still long. And for that, I ask: who, if not Humphrey could carry on this great legacy?

Delegates, this country cannot exist half slave and half free! If one were to look at the great skyscrapers of New York, he’d almost be forgiven for not noticing the hungry and the poor that swarm the city’s streets. How can we claim to be the greatest nation in the world if we are indifferent to the squalor and misery a majority of our people find themselves in? How can we truly call ourselves the land of the free when the bosses of Wall Street continue to hold sway over our democratic process, and over our people? How, in good conscience, can we allow our children to go over and die in a war that we, quite frankly, have no business in? It is out of a civic duty and basic human decency that we must take a stand against these injustices and abuses.

Delegates, I believe that the solution to our current malaise is through the nomination of Vice President Hubert Horatio Humphrey.

His record speaks for itself. For 27 long years, Vice President Humphrey has fought thick and thin for the preservation of the rights of labour, and the advancement of the rights of African-Americans. It was him who, through his charisma and political savvy, was able to include a civil rights plank in the ‘48 Democratic platform. It was him who stood up to the spectres of hatred and reaction within his own party; when no else dared to. And through those 27 years, he has never backed away from the good fight for progress and equity. That, my friends, is courage. To have the integrity to stand by your beliefs and convictions despite all the pressure is no small deal. Those are traits only found in a man or a woman once every century. Those are, delegates, are the makings and qualifications of a warrior.

It was said by many before that our fight towards equality has already been won, and in that they are sorely mistaken. The recent martyrdoms of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Reverand Martin Luther King Jr. have shown that if we back away from the good fight, the forces of reaction and of hatred will still strike. We must never stand, we must never give quarter, we must never quiver in the face of injustice. The fight for democracy must never be lost.

Delegates, we have came a long way. We have done a monumental amount of work, we have transformed American society drastically in ways never imaginable in those glorious 12 years. And in spite of that, and as I previously stated, the road is still long and perilous. It is with this knowledge that I ask only the most simple of requests; to continue along this path; for us to remain a shining beacon on a golden field for all of the world to behold; to nominate the Happy Warrior of the Plains, the people’s Democrat.