Intelligent Quotes

The City Upon a Hill Speech

On January 9, 1961, eleven days before his inauguration, President-elect John F. Kennedy addressed a joint convention of the Massachusetts General Court at the State House in Boston. The speech, often remembered as the “City Upon a Hill” address, served both as a farewell to the state he had represented in Congress for fourteen years and as a statement of the standards by which he believed his incoming administration should be measured.

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Summary

Kennedy began the speech by acknowledging his lifelong ties to Massachusetts, noting that his grandparents had been born in the commonwealth and that it had remained his home throughout his service in London, Washington, and the South Pacific. He paid tribute to the state’s historical role in shaping the nation and quoted Pericles’ description of Athens: “We do not imitate—for we are a model to others.”

The speech’s central image was drawn from John Winthrop’s 1630 sermon aboard the Arbella, in which Winthrop urged the Massachusetts Bay colonists to consider themselves “as a city upon a hill—the eyes of all people are upon us.” Kennedy applied the same standard to American government at every level in 1961, arguing that the tasks of statecraft ahead were no less hazardous than those that had faced the early colonists.

He then proposed four questions by which the “high court of history” would judge public officials: whether they had shown courage, judgment, integrity, and dedication. Kennedy closed by asking the legislators for their help and prayers as he prepared to assume the presidency.

Quotes

“Today the eyes of all people are truly upon us—and our governments, in every branch, at every level, national, state and local, must be as a city upon a hill—constructed and inhabited by men aware of their great trust and their great responsibilities.”

John F. Kennedy

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Topics: Trust Responsibility Role Model

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