On this date, April 12, 1958, Senator John F. Kennedy visited Dickinson State College as part of the Theodore Roosevelt Symposium, held to mark the centennial year of Roosevelt’s birth.

Speaking on that early spring morning, Kennedy invoked the spirit of the Roughrider President to call on those in attendance to work towards a “government with moral and spiritual foundations – a government with men dedicated to a better life and a better nation.” Directing his attention to the students of Dickinson State College, Kennedy issued another challenge, urging the students to enter the political field and apply their “talents to the public solution of the great problems of our time.”

Perhaps during this 2008 election cycle it is important to remember these words of John F. Kennedy; an East Coast Democrat who traveled to the Midwest to celebrate a Republican President. Words that challenge us to live up to our “responsibilities as American sovereigns” and “implement, not ignore, the moral and spiritual foundations of our government.”

Written by Lane Sunwall

Sources
Kennedy, Senator John F., Dakota Portraits: A Sentimental Journal of Pictorial History, Marion J. Piper (1964)

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