immmmmmim'':^ •K LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ODDDaasflflST ^' '.^' •^^0^ ,V ' ^ "•% . .0^ vV ,0' ■>'' ^^. ^oV 4q, v<^ .. <>. o > <^^ ^ ^ %■'& '^'^0^ ^'^ .X o_ OUR GREAT INHERITANCE AN ADDRESS BEFORE THE Daughters of the American Revolution Sons of the Revolution and the Sons of the American Revolution ON FEBRUARY 22nd, 1919 B^ David J a^e Hill National Association For Constitutional Government 716-717 COLORADO BUILDING Washington, D. C. OUR GREAT INHERITANCE Mr. President and Compatriots: It is the high privilege of patriotic men and women in the United States, at least once a year, to recall the mem- ory of Washington; once again to lift up our eyes from the perplexities of our national life, to contemplate that majestic figure, so stately in its moral proportions, so well poised in its im- perturbable calm, so high above all petty cavils and the rivalries of his own and of every time. To enjoy such a privilege as this, to possess in our annals such a lofty and irreproachable character, to whom we may come repeatedly for new cour- age and new inspiration, is in itself a safeguard of liberty. Should a time ever come in the shifting scenes of his- tory when the American people cease to reverence the attributes which dis- tinguished and ennobled Washington, it will be a period of national degra- dation and universal calamity, which would foreshadow the completion of that moral and intellectual decay which has so often threatened the human race; and which has been averted only by some great crisis in which the lapse into forgetfulness and indifference has been arrested by the shock of a dread- ful catastrophe. It is with more than usual interest that we turn, at this moment, to con- template the great founder of our Re- public, without whose courage, self- devotion, and constancy it might never have existed, because we ourselves . 2 . have, in the last four years, passed through a time of trial and testing not yet brought to its completion, in which the whole future of our nation — per- haps even the whole future of civiliza- tion — hung upon our decision. At first we were very far, indeed, from responding to the situation in the spirit of Washington. We had be- come so immersed in the pursuit of our personal interests, so neglectful of the great traditions of the past, so un- mindful of the price at which our lib- erties had been bought and our security attained, so regardless of the obligation to provide for the common defense, that even when a solemn treaty obli- gation, made to ourselves as well as to others, was violated by the outrage upon Belgium, we nursed our neutral- ity as if it were a virtue; turned a deaf ear to an appeal for at least an expres- sion of our disapprobation, coolly wit- nessed the murder of our fellow-citi- zens on the high seas, when their right to life was disputed by the diplomatic agent of the assassin in our own cap- ital, where he was still received and honored; and were preparing to com- pound the slaughter of our men, wom- en, and children by the payment of a money indemnity ; and we were finally saved from the permanent degradation of our national character only by the persistence of the brutal policy of our enemy, which was as clearly illegal in the beginning as it was intolerable in the end. Why, it may be asked, should we make this confession now? We should make it, because it is desirable for our posterity to know, that, much as we hate bloodshed, we consider a righte- ous war always more honorable than a shameful peace. We should make it, because we have no right once more to approach the pure shrine of Wash- ington, to honor and praise him as the great hero and founder of our Repub- lic, until in contrition and penitence we have confessed our fault and demand- ed pardon for our delinquency. In blood, and tears, and deep sacri- fice we have, as a people, endeavored to expiate that fault. Tens of thou- sands of graves in America and in France, tens of thousands of saddened homes, where American mothers and wives mourn an irreparable loss, mark the extent of that expiation. Deep as our shame has been, O Washington, we lift up our faces to thee once more today, proud to give assurance that thy spirit has not departed from us; to tell thee that millions of our sons and brothers have crossed the ocean to wipe out the stain of our forgetful- ness; and that the Republic, though menaced from within as well as from without, still endures, and still honors, in good faith and loyal devotion, thy glorious memory! In all the years of the past, Mr. President and Compatriots, there has never been a period when the Ameri- can people could not turn with profit to the life, and labors, and teachings of Washington. The reason for this is not to be found merely in his skill and success as a general, nor even in his decisions as a statesman. It would be easy to extract from his writings a precious breviary of wise statesman- ship; but the life of a nation is too vast, too varied, and too complicated to be entirely foreseen by any mortal 4 mind. Far more useful than any casual counsels exalted to the dignity of universal maxims is the underlying conception of the true nature of the state and the nation. It is in Washing- ton's firm grasp and faithful advocacy of this conception that his real great- ness as a framer of national policies is to be found. It is, in fact, the em- anation of his own brave, just and generous personal character as a man. Here was the origin of his estimate of the essential worth and dignity of a free and responsible human being, who needs the guarantees of law to secure his liberty and to develop his responsi- bility. In Washington's conception, the na- tion is a just and strong union of purpose to secure this liberty and to bear this responsibility. To him gov- ernment involves the idea of the moral freedom of the individual citizen, as the most precious content of the na- tional hfe; but also the responsibility of every citizen for the security and well-being of the nation. Any govern- ment that does not respect and secure liberty to the citizen is, in his view, a usurpation, ajid will soon become a despotism. A person who will not sus- tain a government of just and equal laws, as a means of securing organized liberty, is an enemy of mankind. Ex- pressed in a single formula: the right to liberty is the true foundation of government, and a government of just and equal laws is the essential guar- antee of liberty. This is the basic idea that runs through all of Washington's thinking, acting and writing. To realize favor- able conditions for the existence and 5 security of a free, responsible, law- abiding human being — that is what Washington was always aiming at and striving for. How was it to be accomplished? First of all, by getting rid of arbi- trary power based on force, in every form ; whether of a monarch, a foreign parliament, or any particular single class of the population. Here is the spirit of the Declaration of Independ- ence, the primary philosophy of the Revolution. But, seeing how, after independence had been won, many in- dividual citizens were using their free- dom selfishly and without honor or re- sponsibility, demanding immediate dis- charge from their monetary obliga- tions, asking for free issues of paper money with which to pay their just debts, and living without respect to law; and how the thirteen states were centered upon themselves, unwilling to pay their federal taxes, setting up their own custom houses at the state frontiers, disregarding their treaty ob- ligations, and bringing discredit upon the whole Confederation, rendering it impotent at home and contemptible abroad, he saw the necessity for estab- lishing a general government under the Constitution of the United States; which happily saved independence from causing the utter ruin of the country, which was rapidly becoming a disunited and internally hostile group of struggling communities, fit to be- come the easy prey of the foreign powers by which they were still sur- rounded. I am far from attributing to Wash- ington an original or profound politi- cal philosophy. His value as a leader 6 lay in no scheme of theoretical think- ing, but in plain common sense sup- ported by public spirit and indomitable courage. As masters of political the- oi*y, Hamilton and Madison were vast- ly his superiors. But Washington was the ideal citizen, clear in his apprehen- sion of what the rights of a good citi- zen are, of the duties that correspond to them, and both valiant in the defense of his rights and indefatigable in the performance of his duties. But, rising above even this high standard of citi- zenship, he crowned it by a deep and watchful solicitude for the well-being of the whole countr}% a solicitude that was as active and vigilant in the years of his retirement as it was faithful in the periods of his official responsibil- ity. Presiding with dignity over the Constitutional Convention of 1787, he exercised a stimulating influence, and yet preserved a becoming reticence. Leaving to others, better qualified, as he thought, the working out of details, he steadily pointed to the great ends to be accomplished. There was a moment in the course of the convention when it was sug- gested that it would be well to adapt the proposed Constitution to the av- erage wishes of the people ; which, of course, would take into account the very tendencies which it was desirable to overcome. Here, for the only time during the convention, Washington personally intervened. "Americans," wrote Gouvemeur Morris, in recording this incident, of which he was a witness, "let the opin- ion then delivered by the greatest and 7 best of men be ever present to your remembrance. He was collected with- in himself. His countenance had more than usual solemnity, his eye was fixed, and seemed to look into futurity. 'It is,' he said, 'too probable that no plan we propose will be adopted. Perhaps another dreadful conflict is to be sus- tained. If to please the people, we of- fer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Lei us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God." For a hundred and thirty years the "wise and the honest" have repaired to that standard. During that long period, it has sheltered our liberties and made us a great, a prosperous and a united people. Without its broad provisions for the common defense, we could not have taken a successful part in the Great War which chal- lenged our intervention. Without it, indeed, we should not even be a na- tion, but a group of conflicting and mutually defiant communities; if, in fact, we were so fortunate as to have escaped reduction to the condition of colonial dependencies of the Great Powers of Europe, some of which we have recently aided by our co-opera- tion in preserving from absolute ex- tinction. And today, the American Republic, honored everywhere where honor is esteemed, is the source of in- spiration for the most advanced peo- ples of four continents; no longer an experiment, no longer a junior in the family of nations, but actually the old- est of the unchanged governments now existing upon the earth. Looking over this long period, we may truly say that wherever the spirit of Washington has prevailed, wher- ever his principles of national life and character have been applied, both at home and abroad, there are freedom, safety and peace; and wherever they have been departed from, there are op- pression, danger and strife. In the meantime, great constitution- al governments have developed, great free democracies have come into be- ing, in partial imitation of the consti- tutional system of the United States. France would probably today not be a republic if the American Republic had not furnished an example. The Brit- ish Empire, which now prefers to be called the British Commonwealth, would not be the great free democracy it is if the American Revolution had not taught Great Britain how to gov- ern her colonies. But the chief lesson of all this development is, that civiliz- ation has been built up, and has recent- ly been rescued, by free nations — free nations bound by no covenant, except their common love of liberty, of jus- tice, and of law. What then has been the part played by America in this period of progress? Inspired by the counsels of Wash- ington, we have given our first thought to the protection of our own republic- an institutions, leaving the rest of the world free to follow our example. We have avoided needless complication in the quarrels and rivalries of other na- tions, and have extended a hand of protection against invasion and con- quest to the younger republics of our own continent. As late as 1907, our uniform and unswerving policy was enunciated at the Second Hague Con- ference, when the Convention for Ar- bitration was signed, in the following words : "Nothing contained in this Conven- tion shall be so construed as to require the United States of America to de- part from its traditional policy of not intruding upon, interfering with, or entangling itself in the political ques- tions or policy or internal administra- tion of any foreign State; nor shall anything contained in the said Con- vention be construed to imply a relin- quishment by the United States of America of its traditional attitude toward purely American questions." This statement is usually associated with the name of Monroe; but the doc- trine is that of Washington, and of every leading American statesman since the foundation of the Republic. It is the one settled and permanent policy of the country, and has been ac- cepted as such by foreign countries. The most important element in it is not, shall we permit others to meddle with our affairs, but shall we in the future meddle with the affairs of other continents ? It is now proposed that the limita- tions contained in this statement should henceforth be abandoned; that we should abruptly and permanently break with this honorable and success- ful past. We are urged to assume a joint trusteeship with other nations for regulating, by our own appoint- ment, the affairs of all mankind; mak- ing ourselves responsible for the peace. 10 and harmony, not only of the nations with which we are to be associated, but of the entire world. That we should faithfully perform our part in the preservation of peace among the nations and in defense of the great principles of International Law, no patriotic American, I am sure, would for a moment doubt. Nor can it be assumed that occasions may not arise — for one has already arisen — when it may become our duty as a na- tion to send armies to distant lands, in order to suppress a common enemy. Such a course, when there is a specific reason for it, is fully justified. But this does not require our entering into an unlimited obligation in all circum- stances to assume the protection of dis- tant peoples; to enter into their dis- putes ; to place our resources at the dis- posal of a central authority that may at some time be dominated by a com- bination of interests adverse to our own; to submit to foreign control our standards of life, our conditions and rewards of labor, and even power over our fortunes and our lives. There is no good reason why we should com- mit our posterity to such unnecessary hazards. They might have much to lose, and certainly nothing to gain by it. We do not need or desire the in- tervention of Europe, Asia, or Africa in the affairs of our hemisphere. Why then should we intervene in the re- organization of those continents? The American people will. I think, consider well before they pledge them- selves to participation in future wars, and bind their sons and brothers to mihtary service in foreign lands, at 11 the dictation of any international con- clave whatever. And in reaching their decision, it should not be forgotten, that, in discussing international rela- tions, the realities with which we have to deal are not plans and theories, however attractive and reasonable they may seem, but the national interests, the economic rivalries, and the racial instincts of the peoples to whom these plans and theories are to be applied, I would not be understood as offer- ing offensive criticism of the plan for association with other nations to pre- serve the peace of the world which has been prepared at Paris, and is now before the country for its decision. There are in it many admirable feat- ures; but in its present form there are many grave constitutional objec- tions to accepting it. The Entente that has been formed to suppress German imperialism should be continued for the defense of law and justice; but, in view of complications that I believe are certain to arise, I would wish to qualify our participation in any com- pact by precisely the words that were employed in accepting the Hague Con- vention in 1899, and again in 1907, We must not, in promoting the as- piration for universal and permanent peace, overlook the concrete experience of the nations as recorded in history; and it is absurd to assume, that be- cause we desire peace, we have a war- rant for believing that national and racial motives no longer exist. For centuries compacts of peace have been made and broken, but the peoples have remained the same. 12 The test is in achievement, and what has thus far been actually achieved in making peace with Germany? In November, 1918, the German armies were defeated in the field, and an immediate, unconditional surrender could have been obtained, with a peace signed at Berlin. Three months later, after long negotiations by the five Great Powers among themselves at Paris regarding the permanent recon- struction of the world and arrange- ments for universal peace, no peace has been made, and no definitive terms of peace have been presented. In the meantime, Germany, rehabilitated under what professes to be a demo- cratic government, but which includes a large proportion of the old element of control, the army reorganizing and still possessed of arms, with the pros- pect of adding millions to the popula- tion by the accession of Austria, flings the defiance of her seventy million people in the face of the Conference at Paris, claims exemption from payment of indemnities on the ground that the terms of peace were agreed upon be- fore the armistice, and virtually says to the Entente Allies, when their armies are largely demobilized : If you intend to impose upon us terms to which we have not agreed, you will have to invade and conquer our coun- try! And now, when the German menace should have become a thing of the past, with no prospect of revival, that pseudo-republic rises in its potential strength to exercise its rehabilitated power in the midst of a sea of an- archy; with Poland not yet organized, 13 Bohemia separated from her kin and surrounded by hostile peoples, the new Serbia a mere project on the map, Italy- undecided and anxious, France fearful that she may yet be the ultimate vic- tim of the war, Great Britain wishing to place the conquered colonies of Ger- many in bond for fear of stultifying her democracy, and Japan reluctant to do likewise lest she compromise her expansion. On the other hand, we see Turkey still in possession of the straits, Russia raising and equipping great armies for the destruction of na- tionalism and the propagation of uni- versal anarchy, and a sympathizer with Bolshevism sent by the United States to negotiate with the Bolshe- visits in the Prince's Island. What then is the coming peace to be, and when will it be concluded? Who, in fact, are the victors? I shall not presume to say what Washington would think of this pro- cedure; but I am confident he would regard it as a time for this nation to put its trust in itself, and not too much in others. I think he would say to us : If you wish to be of real use in the world, be strong and reserve your strength for great decisions. A strong America, standing for justice, will be most effective when she has made no pledges. What she will do should de- pend upon the occasion. Let her re- main free. Then her voice will be heard, and may often prove decisive. She will be more potent for good when she is not bound than when she is loaded with obligations, impoverished with debt, and anxious to recover a position she has sacrificed and an abun- dance she has squandered. After what 14 she has done in the Great War, the nations will not doubt her capacity for self-defense or cease to court her favor and approval. I do not mean to say that Washing- ton would countenance a discontinu- ance of our loyal support of the En- tente Allies in making a just peace with our common enemy, or in mak- ing that peace secure. On the con- trary, he would think it most dishon- orable either to desert them now, or to abandon them in the future, or to impose upon them terms that would be accepted by them with reluctance. Least of all would he tolerate an at- tempt to deprive them of the means of enforcing peace after it is made, either on land or sea. What he would, perhaps, regard with suspicion would be the estabhshment of an imperial syndicate to rule the world, and alone in the future to impose peace in its own way. But the proposal to subject the future course of the American people to the decisions of European nations, with an obligation to receive punishment if they were not accepted, in addition to taking a part in the quarrels and rivalries of these Powers in Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania, by becoming a judge and a divider over them — that would fill him with genuine alarm. Whatever future there may be for internationalism, it will have no secure foundation unless it is built on a firm, clear, and permanent conception of na- tional strength and integrity. It is the weak, the unstable, and the disinte- grating nations that are the greatest menace to the world's peace. Turkey 15 has been for centuries the carcass about which the eagles have gathered, and the debris of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkan Peninsula is the fertile seed-plot of modem wars. Russia, de- centralized, unorganized, without a truly national spirit, a congeries of subject peoples suddenly liberated and possessing no bond of unity, is today the possible prey and easy victim of a rehabilitated Germany and a veritable sword of Damocles over the head of the rest of Europe. At such an ill-chosen moment the demogogues of our own country are proposing a break with our past even in our own internal economy; some of them are urging upon us a complete reconstruction of our economic life by the public ownership of our great in- dustries under a bureaucratic regime; some of them undermining by popular decrees our representative form of government and our judicial system; and all of them, in some form, repudi- ating our constitutional guarantees of personal rights and restrictions upon governmental usurpation of power. If Washington could now break the silence of the tomb and speak to us in that clear, calm tone of caution to which he was accustomed, I can im- agine him saying to us : What you have been able to accomplish as a na- tion has been possible, because you have possessed the constitutional safe- guards you are now invited to throw away. You have been able to amass the wealth needed to build your navy and equip the great army you have sent overseas, because you have, in the past, encouraged individual enter- 16 prise on a large scale; have developed your own industries, instead of being dependent upon Europe for mechan- ical products; and have protected by constitutional guarantees the right to acquire, possess, enjoy and control pri- vate property, which by your industry, your economy, your prudence, your genius for invention, and above all your enterprise, you have created and preserved. Were it not for these guar- antees, you would be as fearful of producing anything of value as the un- happy Turk, who dares not seem rich, lest the omnipresent tax-gatherer de- spoil him; or the still more miserable middle-class Russian, who trembles for his life, because he has created a home, has engaged in a successful business, has laid aside something for the needs of old age. and therefore possesses that which a brutal proletar- iat wishes to take away and consume in idleness. That Washington would be con- cerned for justice to all honest men and women, and particularly in secur- ing a fair chance for every willing worker, I do not doubt. That he would be deeply impressed by the great changes that have occurred in our so- cial and economic development since his time, is certain. He would com- prehend how corporate enterprise, the factory system, the growth of great cities, the private appropriation of ag- ricultural lands, the inflowing tide of uninstructed peoples, and the vast progress in the mechanical arts, have combined to make the twentieth cen- tury indifferent from the eighteenth. But I cannot imagine that he would find in any or all of these changes a n ground for believing that there should be less respect paid to individual lib- erty, or less necessity of just and equal general laws, or less need for consti- tutional limitations upon the usurpa- tion of power by any particular class of men, and even by the Government itself. I think what would surprise Wash- ington more than anything else that has occurred in the last century and a quarter, would be the growth in the United States of the power of gov- ernment over the individual citizen. That such power is just and reason- able when directed against the tenden- cies of private persons and associa- tions to injure others, he would un- doubtedly be the first to affirm. When required by the necessities of the com- mon defense, in time of war, he would rejoice in the authority the Consti- tution grants, to employ all the re- sources of the nation, in so far as they are really contributory to suc- cess, for victory over our enemies; and no one could appreciate better than Washington the importance of this authority to the life of the na- tion. What would truly fill him with amazement, and even with alarm, would be the fact, that, by the Six- teenth Amendment to the Constitu- tion of the United States, absolute and unlimited power has been placed ir the hands of a few hundred men in Washington to take from the whole population of the nation, even in time of peace, any portion of their earnings and the proceeds of their business they may choose to take, and to use it for any purpose they may see fit. Hav- ing fought against the incipient abso- 18 lutism of a German King of England and a Parliament subject to his dicta- tion, in a matter relatively so inconse- quential as a slight tax on tea, he would be astounded that the American people had, without protest, and even without qualification, consented to a form of control over their lives, their liberties, and their means of happiness more absolute than any monarch of modern times has ever presumed to assert or demand. In view of the ease and freedom with which the average official finds it possible to expend other people's money, when it can be obtained in large quantities, how great — he might perhaps reflect — must be the confidence of the people in the wisdom, the pru- dence, and the honor of these few hundred men in Washington, of whom a simple majority can exercise such enormous power. And how wise, hov/ just, how prudent, and how virtuous must be the electorate that takes upon itself the responsibility of choosing a government of such omnipotence! "Thank God," Washington might well exclaim, "that it is still a government of the people, by the people, and for the people!" How deep would be his anxiety if there existed any shadow of a doubt that it would remain such! What so- licitude he would experience, if he were told, that in many of our col- leges, universities, and law schools there are teachers who deny that the people possess any natural, inherent, and inalienable rights, least of all any right of property; and who affirm that 19 the only rights which any one may claim are those which government chooses to grant him. Whence, then, Wasliington might well inquire, have these contradictions of our American philosophy of the state had their origin? And the an- swer would be : They are derived from the absolutist idea of the nature of the state against which you fought in 1770, the idea of the state's essen- tial omnipotence ; an idea brought to its logical conclusion in Prussia by the Hohenzollern dynasty, proclaimed by German professors under state appoint- ment, taught to American candidates for the doctorate of law in German universities, repeated by them in their American class-rooms, on the author- ity of this high official learning, and supported by the cult and propaganda of that school of political thinking in- itiated by Karl Marx — also imported from Germany — which is eager to make the state omnipotent, on condi- tion that their own class may control it. Sons and daughters of the Revolu- tion, do you realize what a battle is yet before you, if you would maintain the Republic your forefathers fought and bled to establish? The chief dan- ger to our country is not from with- out, but from within its own borders. The real enemy is now within our gates, and he is aided and supported by the enemy without. And what is our defense? First of all, we must ourselves com- prehend the political philosophy upon which our Republic was established; and then we must teach it to our chil- 20 dren and prepare them to maintain it. And what is the basis of that philos- ophy? It is that you, and I, and all of us, as human beings, have claims to just and reasonable treatment which are ours because we are human be- ings, independently of all legislative acts; inherent personal rights, which constitute the true foundation of all right government; and which, there- fore, cannot be the gift of govern- ment to us. Our fathers established our Republic on that basis, on the foundation of the inherent and inalien- able "Rights of Man." It was pro- claimed in the Declaration of Inde- pendence, erected into a fundamental law in the Constitution, and remains today our only protection against force, violence, and the conspiracy of the un- just against our liberties. But there is a second form of de- fense not less necessary. We require the effective organization of the law- abiding members of society. We must render the red flag of anarchy impos- sible anywhere in America. We must instantly deport every alien who dis- plays it, and intern every native who proclaims the principles of anarchy. And yet it is not open violence or open propaganda from which we have the most to fear. The most danger- ous enemy of our institutions is to be found in the silent, insidious, indirect assaults upon our fundamental law; which, once abolished, would cause the demolition of the whole structure of our Republic. Its enemies know this, and they strike at a vital part. There has been proposed a "Gateway Amendment" — 21 a most appropriate name — by which, if adopted, means would be secured of driving out of the Constitution of the United States every guar- antee, and forcing into it every decree, which might suit the purpose of those who propose it. What their main pur- pose is does not remain a secret. Its advocates affirm their wish — and some of them occupy high pubHc office — that any judge who declares any act un- constitutional should be immediately displaced from office. This blow is struck at the Constitution, because, as it stands, it is a law which legislators must obey, and establishes legal rights which they must respect. The real purpose of those who make this proposal, which claims to be al- ready supported by several millions of voters, is further revealed by their sympathetic association, in public meetings, recently held in Washington, with the open apologists and advocates of Russian Bolshevism. The peril to constitutional government is far deeper and more widespread than the general public yet imagines ; and it will require a national awakening, similar to that which aroused this country to its sense of duty in the Great War, be- fore the situation is adequately under- stood. It is for you, and for me, and for all true Americans, my Compatriots, to defend what our fathers have trans- mitted to us. I am confident, that when that duty is fuly realized, we shall not fail to perform our part. But we should realize it now. If civiliza- tion is not to go down in ignominy, we must first of all set and keep our own 22 house in order. We must enlighten our generation regarding the true meaning of constitutional liberty, re- main as a nation strong and ever ready for our own defense, and in our promises to preserve the peace of the world make no engagements which we cannot keep. Our plain duty lies immediately be- fore us; and we should not be cele- brating, we should be desecrating, this anniversary, if we forgot it. Our as- sociated societies should see to it, that, on Septhember 17th, the date on which Washington, as President of the Con- stitutional Convention of 1787, placed his signature to the draft of the Con- stitution, there shall be, in every vil- lage and hamlet of this country, a cele- bration of that event, with public ad- dresses explaining its significance. This custom, suggested, and in part put in practice, by one at least of the associ- ated societies represented here today, should be regarded as even more im- portant than the observance of the an- niversary of Independence; for "Con- stitution Day" marks the crowning achievement of the American Revolu- tion, the consolidation of its purpose, the realization of its aspirations, and the lasting glory of the great work of Washington — the dawn of a new era in the history and the destiny of man- kind. And it remains for us, my Com- patriots, in this moment of emergency, to preserve, for ourselves and our pos- terity, this great inheritance. 23 National Association for Constitutional Government 716-17 COLOKADO BUILDING WASHINGTON. D. C. The Aims of the Association ^ It is the object of the Association to propa- gate a wider and more accurate knowledge oi the Constitution of the United States, and of the distinctive features of constitutional gov- ernment as conceived by the founders of the Republic; to inculcate an intelligent and genu- ine respect for the organic law of the land; to bring the minds of the people to a realization of the vital necessity of preserving it unim- paired, and particularly in respect to its broad limitations upon the legislative power and its guarantees of the fundamental rights of life, liberty, and property; to oppose attempted changes in it which tend to destroy or impair the efficacy of those guarantees, or which are not founded upon the mature consideration and deliberate choice of the people as a whole; and to this end, to publish and circulate appro- priate literature, to hold public and corporate meetings, to institute lectures and other public addresses, to establish local centers or branches, and generally to promote the fore- going objects by such means as shall from time to time be agreed upon by the Association or by its governing bodies. Needs. To render the Association an efficient means of accomplishing its purpose, there is need, first, of adequate financial support in order that it may print and circulate desirable liter- ature, and second, of an extended membership which will be able to carry its influence into every community. As the aim of the Association is patriotic rather than partisan, it feels warranted in ap- pealing to all citizens who value the institu- tions inherited from our fathers. Membership. Citizens of the United States and those who have declared their intention to become such shall be eligible to membership in the Associa- tion. Annual Membership $ 2.00 Sustaining Membership 5.00 Life Membership 100.00 Membership entitles the holder to "The Con- stitutional" Review," a valuable quarterly pub- lished by the Association. If you cannot afford to be a member, send us your name and address as a Friend of the Constitution. 24 II S 4 )*.i^:.'. -> '■ 4^' "x"' .-^ '"^^^ V* » 1 • »' < * .0-' >' -I. ♦ iW •A ■^ •^ .^'•. ^^k< y ... v:^ "• ^-^^ ,5"^ * Vvt:?;?^ ■ ^0 ;#■■;> .(.^ *, <^ ->' ^. ':j^<>- '^, *VBRTE100KB[NDS^G JAN 1989, . GraaiviUe, PA ^. o^ ♦ r\ iii.i'iV.,'|''\:;!!i;il'\^5: m i;;;!;;i;i;!!''ii!i;;i'ii|lj.i^