It is the memory of all these eager seeking millions that makes this one of
America's places of great romance. Looking down this great harbor I like to
think of the countless numbers of inbound vessels that have made this
port. I like to think of the men and women who, with the break of dawn off
Sandy Hook, have strained their eyes to the west for a first glimpse of the
New World.
They came to us-most of them-in steerage. But they, in their humble
quarters, saw things in these strange horizons which were denied to the
eyes of those few who traveled in greater luxury.
They came to us speaking many tongues-but a single language, the
universal language of human aspiration.
What does Roosevelt mean by universal?