75-08-A1
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London # 1
TranscriptThe greatest good for the greatest number has a noble sound but is it constitutional? I'll be right back. As the foreign correspondents say on the national news, I'm speaking to you from London, England. Now while here I've had the honor of addressing the Pilgrim Society on the occasion of its annual dinner. The Pilgrim Society was founded many years ago to perpetuate the relationship between the United States and Great Britain and to recognize our common heritage. In view of our relationship you might say the society is dedicated to bridging a national generation gap. The society itself has a proud and distinguished heritage which is evident by a glance at its membership roster. This way of ours, this system of government by the people, had its beginnings in England. In drawing up the U.S. Constitution our Founding Fathers had very much in mind the Magna Carta, as well as much later writings and thoughts of two Englishmen: Edmund Burke and Adam Smith. From this heritage they evolved the Constitution, which did not go unnoticed by perceptive men in England. One of Britain's greatest statesmen described our Constitution as, "The most remarkable political advance ever accomplished at one time by the human intellect." Some 70 years after the adoption of the Constitution, Lord Acton said of its authors, "They had solved with astonishing ease and unexampled success two problems which had heretofore baffled the capacity of the most enlightened nations. They had contrived a system of federal government which prodigiously increased national power and yet respected local liberties and authorities and they had founded it on the principle of equality without surrendering the securities of property and freedom." I appreciated the opportunity to meet with the Pilgrim Society and to be reminded of things about our nation we tend to forget in the everyday bustle of life. How often, for example, do we remind ourselves that our Constitution is truly a unique document? But we've even let it be weakened, chipped away, by legislation and court decisions. A few years ago, one of our senators possessed of a more erudite education than most of his colleagues dismissed the Constitution as, quote, "Designed for an 18th century agrarian society, far removed from the centers of world power." Unquote. Well he'd better take another look and so had all of us. There are almost as many constitutions as there are nations and most of them, I guess, include some of the same guarantees we find in ours. The Soviet Union's Constitution, for example, promises the right of peaceful assembly, free speech and so on. I won't go into whether they've kept those promises but some students looking at this similarity ask, "Well what's the fuss all about? Why do we think we're different?" The answer is so simple, it's easy to overlook and yet so great it tells the whole story. In those other constitutions, those guarantees are privileges granted to the people by the government. In ours they are declared as rights, ours by the grace of God. We're born with them and no government can take them away without our consent. The greatest good for the greatest number is a high sounding phrase, but it's unconstitutional. It means fifty percent of the people plus one can do what they like to fifty percent of the people minus one. Maybe that goes in Russia but not in the United States. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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