We come here today in deference to the memory of those stalwart patriots who on July 4, 1776, pledged
their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to establish and defend the proposition that governments
are created by the people, empowered by the people, derive their just powers from the consent of the people,
and must forever remain subservient to the will of the people.
Today, 188 years later, we celebrate that occasion and find inspiration and determination and courage
to preserve and protect the great principles of freedom enunciated in the Declaration of Independence.
It is therefore a cruel irony that the President of the United States has only yesterday signed into law
the most monstrous piece of legislation ever enacted by the United States Congress.
It is a fraud, a sham, and a hoax.
This bill will live in infamy. To sign it into law at any time is tragic. To do so upon the eve of the
celebration of our independence insults the intelligence of the American people.
It dishonors the memory of countless thousands of our dead who offered up their very lives in defense
of principles which this bill destroys.
Never before in the history of this nation have so many human and property rights been destroyed by a
single enactment of the Congress. It is an act of tyranny. It is the assassin’s knife stuck in the back
of liberty.
With this assassin’s knife and a blackjack in the hand of the Federal force-cult, the left-wing liberals
will try to force us back into bondage. Bondage to a tyranny more brutal than that imposed by the British
monarchy which claimed power to rule over the lives of our forefathers under sanction of the Divine Right
of kings.
Today, this tyranny is imposed by the central government which claims the right to rule over our lives
under sanction of the omnipotent black-robed despots who sit on the bench of the United States Supreme
Court.
This bill is fraudulent in intent, in design, and in execution. It is misnamed. Each and every provision
is mistitled. It was rammed through the congress on the wave of ballyhoo, promotions, and publicity stunts
reminiscent of P. T. Barnum.
It was enacted in an atmosphere of pressure, intimidation, and even cowardice, as demonstrated by the
refusal of the United States Senate to adopt an amendment to submit the bill to a vote of the people.
To illustrate the fraud—it is not a Civil Rights Bill. It is a Federal Penal Code. It creates Federal
crimes which would take volumes to list and years to tabulate because it affects the lives of 192 million
American citizens. Every person in every walk and station of life and every aspect of our daily lives
becomes subject to the criminal provisions of this bill.
It threatens our freedom of speech, of assembly, or association, and makes the exercise of these Freedoms
a federal crime under certain conditions.
It affects our political rights, our right to trial by jury, our right to the full use and enjoyment of
our private property, the freedom from search and seizure of our private property and possessions, the
freedom from harassment by Federal police and, in short, all the rights of individuals inherent in a society
of free men.
Ministers, lawyers, teachers, newspapers, and every private citizen must guard his speech and watch his
actions to avoid the deliberately imposed booby traps put into this bill. It is designed to make Federal
crimes of our customs, beliefs, and traditions. Therefore, under the fantastic powers of the Federal judiciary
to punish for contempt of court and under their fantastic powers to regulate our most intimate aspects
of our lives by injunction, every American citizen is in jeopardy and must stand guard against these despots.
Yet there are those who call this a good bill.
It is people like Senator Hubert Humphrey and other members of Americans for Democratic Action. It is
people like Ralph McGill and other left-wing radical apologists.
They called it a good bill before it was amended to restore the right to trial by jury in certain cases.
Yet a Federal judge may still try one without a jury under the provisions of this bill. It was the same
persons who said it was a good bill before the amendment pretending to forbid busing of pupils from neighborhood
schools. Yet a Federal judge may still order busing from one neighborhood school to another. They have
done it, they will continue to do it. As a matter of fact, it is but another evidence of the deceitful
intent of the sponsors of this bill for them to claim that it accomplished any such thing.
It was left-wing radicals who led the fight in the Senate for the so-called civil rights bill now about
to enslave our nation.
We find Senator Hubert Humphrey telling the people of the United States that "non-violent" demonstrations
would continue to serve a good purpose through a "long, busy and constructive summer."
Yet this same Senator told the people of this country that passage of this monstrous bill would ease tensions
and stop demonstrations.
This is the same Senator who has suggested, now that the Civil Rights Bill is passed, that the President
call the fifty state Governors together to work out ways and means to enforce this rotten measure.
There is no need for him to call on me. I am not about to be a party to anything having to do with the
law that is going to destroy individual freedom and liberty in this country.
I am having nothing to do with enforcing a law that will destroy our free enterprise system.
I am having nothing to do with enforcing a law that will destroy neighborhood schools.
I am having nothing to do with enforcing a law that will destroy the rights of private property.
I am having nothing to do with enforcing a law that destroys your right—and my right—to choose my neighbors—or
to sell my house to whomever I choose.
I am having nothing to do with enforcing a law that destroys the labor seniority system.
I am having nothing to do with this so-called civil rights bill. The liberal left-wingers have passed
it. Now let them employ some pinknik social engineers in Washington, D.C., to figure out what to do with
it.
The situation reminds me of the little boy looking at the blacksmith as he hammered a red-hot horseshoe
into the proper shape.
After minutes of hammering, the blacksmith took the horseshoe, splashed it into a tub of water and threw
it steaming onto a sawdust pile.
The little fellow picked up the horseshoe, dropped it quickly. "What’s the matter, son," the
blacksmith said, "is that shoe too hot to handle?"
"No sir," the little boy said, "it just don’t take me long to look at a horseshoe."
It’s not going to take the people of this country long to look at the Civil Rights Bill, either.
And they are going to discard it just as quickly as the little boy tossed away the still hot horseshoe. |
