Our fathers and grandfathers who poured over the Midwest were self-reliant, rugged, God-fearing people of indomitable courage....They asked only for freedom of opportunity and equal chance. In these conceptions lies the real basis of American democracy. They and their fathers give a genius to American institutions that distinguished our people from any other in the world.

The New Day: Campaign Speeches of Herbert Hoover, 1928 (ed. Stanford University Press, 1929) - ISBN: 9780804740395