Pubished in: Evening Star Washington, District of Columbia · Saturday, June 05, 1926

The Winning Oration: The Constitution

By Herbert Wenig, Hollywood High School, Los Angeles, Calif.

From the beginning of recorded time, the force that has propelled civilization onward has been man’s desire for freedom. When that desire fails, the wheels of progress cease their turning; and when most active, civilization makes its greatest advancement.

Born beneath the sunny skies of Greece, nurtured in England’s island empire by those who wrested from an unwilling royalty the Bill of Rights and the Magna Charta, fostered in America by the lofty spirits that guided our Revolution to success—its most baffling problem was faced by those men who, in May 1787, in the city of Philadelphia, took up the work of consolidating and perpetuating the fruits of victory. For the crown and consummation of freedom’s forward march was the American Constitution.

Look with me at that group of men who in four months wrought out of the chaos and confusion of the Confederation a Constitution for all time. Into that Constitution went the wisdom of Franklin, the majesty of Washington, the vision of Hamilton, and the legal learning of James Madison. It inherited the dash and vigor of the minutemen at Lexington and Concord; the courage in the battery smoke of Bunker Hill; the prayers at Valley Forge; and the patriotic sacrifice in the ice and snow along the frozen Brandywine.

For the first time since governments had been instituted among men, that Constitution provided for a government whose base was the bedrock of the God-given rights of the individual. For the first time, a government had been formed which guarded its citizens against encroachments of class and arbitrary power. For the first time, man’s desire for freedom found complete fulfillment in the Constitution of the United States.

In its system of checks and balances, safety is assured. In its presidential message and presidential veto, its representative initiative and senatorial clarification, its judicial review for constitutional violation, and finally in its amendatory prerogative, the Constitution furnishes to the United States of America the greatest written guide for lawmaking and potential progress ever devised by the human mind. And almost as a part of the covenant itself—incarnate and forever enshrined—stands a Bill of Rights guaranteeing to the individual his life, liberty, and property, undisturbed except by due process of law.

One hundred thirty-nine years have passed since Washington took the oath of office to uphold that Constitution. One hundred thirty-nine years of constitutional blessing to America is the gift of the immortal men of ’87.

A Sacred Obligation

My fellow countrymen: Only an American—one who knows our history—can feel the sacred symbolism of that Constitution; only one whose soul is steeped in the spirit of the far-off days when the old meeting house in Philadelphia felt the throb of the great hearts of the constitutional fathers—can understand.

What solemn obligation is ours to teach those who have come among us from foreign shores, and who often—far too often—come to scoff because they do not understand. Here is our duty; here is our obligation. Those who do not know must be enlightened, and those who do not care must be taught to love our institutions and the Constitution by which they live.

And for those who come with hatred in their hearts—ladies and gentlemen, no words of mine could fully express the indignation that should rouse every true American heart to stand on guard, as they did at Concord Bridge, who gave to us our flag, our country, our Constitution.

For this flag, for this country, and this Constitution, Webster’s voice still reverberates in the old Senate chamber. For this Union and this Constitution Lincoln wept, prayed, and died.

“The flag,” says Justice Holmes, “is but a bit of bunting to one who insists on prose.” But its red is our lifeblood; its stars our world; its blue our heaven. It owns our land; at will it throws away our lives.

Without the Constitution, there would be no flag with its beautiful symbolism; no united country; no Supreme Court to safeguard our liberties. Without the Constitution there would be no American republic founded upon equality, no justice founded upon law, no representation founded upon the ballots of free people.

Was there ever a document like this? Was there ever such a challenge to intelligent citizenship? Was there ever a martyrdom so sweet as death for its perpetuity?

Guarding the Inheritance

The past has given us this Constitution. Let us guard with hallowed hand our inheritance and transmit it to the generation yet to come, with no blot from our neglect and no blemish from our misdeeds.

The spirit of indifference that exists today toward our governmental institutions must be replaced with a spirit of interest on the part of an intelligent and courageous citizenry. We must exercise that eternal vigilance which is the price of liberty.

If our Constitution is to remain a vital, living organism of government—if we are to hand down to posterity a Constitution stronger and better because we have lived under it—you and I must stand sentry at the gate of constitutional promise, guarding our nation against the insidious plans of would-be reformers.

Real dangers are appearing on the horizon. Today disturbing reports reach us of organizations seeking to teach the necessity for a new national document. We are asked to destroy our Constitution and replace it with another, made to satisfy the personal and selfish desires of class.

Ladies and gentlemen, if ever such a call comes, may every true citizen set his face like flint against the change—and with universal voice fling back the answer:

“Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set.”

The pages of this sacred document are fast crumbling away, but their meaning and their significance are carried in your heart and in mine. Baptized by our fathers’ blood, consecrated by our mothers’ tears, dedicated to immortality by a free people, may our Constitution ever stand as the emblem of “Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men”—the sacred embodiment of the soul of the American people.