We who are here can but—

Dimly guess what time in mists confounds;

Yet ever and anon a trumpet sounds

From the hid battlements of eternity.

As it did for our comrades. They answered it, not with their loins girded for war, but armored with their valiant faith, eager for the peace that passeth understanding.

We, who shared their last days under the dome of this Capitol, had witnessed again and again the manifestation of the faith which was their treasured heritage as Americans— faith in the logic of democracy; faith in their fellowmen, and in the supremacy of the spiritual force; faith in the essentially democratic ideal of the right of men everywhere to determine the conduct of their own affairs; faith in the ideal of the cooperation of peoples, in the same ideal which during almost eight score years welded together the individuals, who had their varied origins in the many hostile countries of the Old World, into an harmonious and united nation in the New World, where there is no place for communism, nazism, or fascism with their false interpretations of anthropology and biology.

It is not fitting that I should here attempt any controversial discussion, but I should lack the courage of those earnest advocates of democracy whom we are gathered to honor if I did not voice the plea that they would make today in this Chamber.

May God grant that the ideal of democratic cooperation which has been realized in this Republic-and of which this legislative body is at once a symbol and a proof-shall in our time join the now discordant peoples of the whole world into a permanent and united congress of nations.

Many years ago that great American, Charles Sumner, said: Not that I love country less, but humanity more, do I now and nere plead the cause of a higher and truer patriotism. I cannot forget that we are men by a more sacred bond than we are citizens— that we are children of a common Father more than we are Americans.

It is natural, too, that we, as Members of the Congress of the United States, should place the tie of humanity above that of nationality, for each Member represents diverse constituents descended from citizens of all the nations, constituents of all creeds and of all races-constituents who live in harmony with each other, and ask of us only that we legislate for the common good. Their protection is indeed in their fraternity, and the legislation enacted in these Halls for them by us, their representatives, is effective, not because of the perishable parchment upon which it is inscribed but because it expresses the will of the American people with its tradition of fair and honorable dealing, founded upon the principles of equality, first enunciated for us in the Declaration of Independence.

As my eminent and now deceased predecessor from the district which I have the privilege to represent, the Honorable James M. Beck, aptly stated:

The Declaration did not create us a people. We were potentially a great people before it was adopted. Declarations, constitutions, and governments do not create peoples, but peoples create governments and ordain constitutions.

There is today harmony among the varied citizens of these United States because theirs is the spirit of democracy, which safeguards their inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The human conscience, to which Jefferson appealed in his great state paper, rises higher than the selfish interests and prejudices of nations and races, and unerringly approves what is right and condemns what is wrong. His words gave unto men a new deed poll to liberty, and neither time nor change has clouded the title for the many who have since claimed their heritage on our shores.

Our national strength has increased in the same ratio as our spirit of solidarity has grown under the wise and fatherly government of the Republic. It has been well said that our whole system of law is in its essence only the enforcement of the reciprocal limitations of individual liberty.

Every man must limit his liberty by his brother's, and his brother must in turn realize that his freedom is not without the restraint that is upon every member of a family. Each law and each custom which constrains human conduct is justified insofar as it is necessary and appropriate for the preservation of the liberty of other men.

The keystone of American liberty has ever been freedom of speech-a happy heritage won by our forefathers by incalculable sacrifice-a sacred inheritance to be preserved only by perpetual vigilance. It must be maintained inviolate by the guardians of democracy whose sacred trust it is to watch it as zealously as the vestal virgins of ancient Rome guarded the fire of the empire.

The Members of the Congress must be militant to maintain liberty in the face of alien and corrupting influences that seek to undermine it within our borders, just as they must be vigilant to defend the integrity of those borders against military aggression from abroad.

This dual admonition has come down to us in the Farewell Address, wherein the Father of our Country reminded us that

In proportion as the structure of government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.

Wisely, he affirmed, that

Virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.

As he cautioned us:

Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all: Religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it?

With practical foresight, he counseled that we were to do these things:

Taking care always to keep ourselves by suitable establishments on a respectable defensive posture

And

Remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent greater disbursements to repel it.

The philosophy of Washington, blended with that of Monroe, has been clarified and revivified for the men of today by the President of the United States, as he eloquently declared:

To show our faith in democracy, we have made the policy of the good neighbor the cornerstone of our foreign relations. No other policy would be consistent with our ideas and our ideals. In the fulfillment of this policy we propose to heed the ancient scriptural admonition not to move our neighbor's landmarks, not to encroach on his metes and bounds.

We desire by every legitimate means to promote freedom in trade and travel and in the exchange of cultural ideas among nations. We seek no territorial expansion, we are not covetous of our neighbor's goods; we shall cooperate in every proposal put forward to limit armaments; we abhor the appeal to physical force except to repulse aggression, but we say to all the world that in the Western Hemisphere-in the three Americas-the institutions of democracy-government with the consent of the governedmust and will be maintained.

With his unfailing clarity of expression, the Chief Executive of our Nation has thus summarized the will of the American people, the determination of every representative who has ever been elected to serve in the Congress of the United States.

As the immediate representatives of the people, Members of the Congress were entrusted by the Federal Constitution with the sole right-yea, the solemn duty-to declare war. It is a happy commentary upon the patriots who served their country in this historic place-who daily devoted their living strength to the tasks of their sacred trust-that, throughout the century and a half that has intervened, there has marched a long and distinguished procession of men who have waged in this Chamber an unceasing battle to substitute for the arbitrament of war and death the reign of law, a valiant campaign to guarantee to the principles of democracy eternal validity.

Our colleagues who we mourn today were members of that militant procession whose fealty was to democracy, the

mother of peace. They had consecrated their manhood to a great cause, and in this place where we are met today they gave their lives as heroically as any soldier-knights who died in a crusade.

They are beyond the need of our prayers as truly as the martyrs who were baptized by blood. By their death there has been born in the hearts of each of us a desire to dedicate ourselves anew to the defense of democracy.

In the words of Cardinal Newman, we, who must carry on, humbly ask our Divine Father:

May He support us all the day long, till the shades lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done; then in His mercy may He give us a safe lodging and a holy rest, and peace at the last.

The Temple Quartet sang "The Strife Is O'er," by Palestrina.

Taps was sounded by Winfred Kemp, principal musician, United States Marine Band Orchestra.

The Chaplain, Rev. James Shera Montgomery, D. D., pronounced the Benediction:

Unto Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God, our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forever.

Now may grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost abide with you and keep you always. Amen.