The united American : a magazine of good citizenchip., June 01, 1925, Page 24, Image 24

Page Twenty-four
THE UNITED AMERICAN
JUNE 1925
For Such is the Government of America
By HONORABLE HUGH M. MORRIS, Judge of the United States District Court of Delaware
I IBERTY, human liberty, liberty of body and mind, one’s own conscience and free speech marked the path­
liberty under law made by the people, is the most way to stake and scaffold. For all that humanity today
valuable and precious thing in the world. For humanity cherishes as its greatest gifts there was neither thought
to acquire it required centuries upon centuries of time. nor hope. Reason had no seat in the realms of govern­
It required war after war from the very dawn of civili­ ment. “The King wills it” was in all things an ulti­
zation until yesterday. It was brought about only by matum from which there was no appeal. So strong
the pain, the torture, the death of countless thousands were the bonds with which the mind, the soul and the
of men and women who asserted that men are by actions of man were fettered and shackled that the
nature free and independent and who denied the divine discovery of a new world was required to weaken them.
right of kings or the right of government of any sort Three centuries of life in that new world were re­
or kind to manacle and shackle at will the body and quired to break them. But when Jefferson and his
mind of mankind. The cost of liberty measured in colleagues wrote at Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, into
material wealth has been beyond the comprehension of that immortal document—the Declaration of Inde­
man. To secure and to make secure human liberty pendence—that all men are created equal and that they
constituted the sole reason for the creation of the —not kings—are endowed by their creator with inalien­
government of the United
able rights and that to se­
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States. That government
cure those rights govern­
was founded upon the de­
ments
are
instituted
I
N THE bench of the United States District |
nial of the divine right of
among men, humanity
|
Court
for
the
State
of
Delaware
sits
a
|
kings and upon the princi­
first stood at the dawn of
| judge, an American citizen, who has perceived |
ple that the sole purpose
its
emancipation.
Thru-
I it his duty to add something more than ju- |
of government is to secure
out the ages there had
I dicial sterness to the proceedings by which |
the natural rights of man,
| foreign-born people become naturalized, in |
been no proclamation so
his rights to life, liberty
| other words admitted into the temple of 1 bold, so daring, so fraught
and the pursuit of happi­
| American citizenship. A staunch champion I
with
human
freedom,
| of the cause of a higher citizenship standard, 1
ness. Should the Ameri­
human opportunity and
I
Judge
Hugh
M.
Morris
has
taken
an
active
|
can Government ever turn
That
I part in promoting and supporting the Ameri- I human happiness.
aside from that principle
I canization cause in Delaware to the end that | declaration was the crown­
and make those rights
| the people of foreign birth may obtain a more | ing achievement of the
wholly subject to its will
| thorough appreciation of the institutions of |
American Revolution. By
and grace, the struggles of
1 America before they formally pledge their I comparison, the mere sepa­
mankind throughout the
| fealty.
ration of the colonies from
ages to attain that which
E
On a recent occasion when a large number | the British Crown was but
was first accomplished by
| of immigrant people had been admitted into 1
a local incident. When a
America will have been in
| - citizenship, Judge Morris, in addressing the |
few years later the new
vain. America will have
| new entrants as “My fellow citizens”, |
American
Government was
missed the goal of her
I fashioned most feelingly into a brief welcome |
destiny and the guns of
I some of the cardinal principles in American | formed and made effective
the American Revolution
cn a grand scale for the
| citizenship, which he appealingly admonished |
will have marked but the
1 the new citizens to cherish. To all citizens of f
sole and only purpose of
i adoption Judge Morris’ talk to the naturalized f
last unclouded blaze of the
making secure those God­
I citizens of Delaware contains the same appeal |
final setting, and not the
given rights of life, liberty
| and the same admonition. Its reproduction I
rising, of the glorious sun
and the pursuit of happi­
| in the United American is therefore self- | ness, mankind emerged
of liberty.
1 explanatory.
—The Editor. |
from its night of terror
Force was the domi­
nant factor in the govern­
and darkness and stood at
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last under the life-giving
ments of the world when
Christ was born. Force was still the dominant factor rays of the rising sun of freedom. No longer was the
when Columbus set sail on his voyage that was to re­ conscience of man to be directed and controlled by the
sult in the discovery of a new world. The lash, the
state. Not again was the state to be master of man’s
thumbscrew, the wrack were the implements by which purse, man’s opportunties or man’s soul. Government
were subdued and stifled the longings of humanity for was to be in the hands of the people, and not the
an environment and a government in which the human people in the hands of a government in which they had
soul should be left free to shape, to make and to develop no part. No longer were the cries of humanity for
itself. Those were the instrumentalities by which the justice, for freedom of thought and action to be denied
mind of man was imprisoned and his thought and ac­ by that prostrating answer—“The King wills it.”
tions made to conform to the code of conduct prescribed Henceforth government should be what the people
by the King. They were the devices of torture by willed. The people were to establish their own rules
which the asserted divine right of kings was so long of conduct. They were at full liberty to do as they
upheld. Worshipping God according to the dictates of
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