190 State Papers and Addresses

it as a means of settling international disputes. We are by nature a peace-
loving nation. We have no designs upon anyone, no dangerous ambitions, no
mission on earth +hat needs to be carried at the point of the sword. In this
sense we are pacifists. So was Thomas Jefferson a pacifist when he said: "The
tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots
and tyrants, " Jefferson was not war-mongering when he wrote that sentence.
He was merely stating a realistic fact. He knew, as we are forced to admit
today, that there will always be enemies of liberty and that men must sometimes
die so that Mankind may live and be free. For Jefferson also said: "The God
who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time. "

Just as men will defend their lives, so they will defend their freedom.

And so this particular Memorial Day is different from those which have
gone immediately before. With the skyline flaming and the Heavens sending
forth thunder, we cannot afford to be complacent. No more can we be cynical
about other nations who prepared for war while declaring a will for peace.
The irony of that paradox is already too clear, now that we see the ruthless
attacks become the order of the day. Neutrality is not enough.

We may well ask on this occasion: "How sleep the brave?" I think they
sleep hardly at all in these times when all lovers of liberty should be awake
to its peril. There is a vast difference between hysteria and vigilance. If we
have either reverence or gratitude for those men to whom Memorial Day is
dedicated, then we owe them the pledge of preparedness. We must not wait
until the barbarian's torch is at our very temple door.

Our government has told us that measures for defense are now being made,
but there are measures which every man and woman can make in his own
heart. He and she can steel that heart with the fortitude which 'is ours by
the law of inheritance. Just as our forefathers bequeathed us liberty, so they
also bequeathed us the courage and the vigilance which is necessary to preserve
it. On Memorial Day let us remember that.

We honor today the memory of the brave patriots who gave their lives for
their Country. Our respect for their memory is not lessened by the passage of
time since they fought and died for an ideal in government. Rather, our
respect is increased as one year follows another because these recurring anni-
versaries reveal more and more clearly the immeasurable contribution which
they made to safeguard the greatest Country under God's sun. Appreciating,
as the present generation must, to a greater degree than ever before, the
priceless possessions of liberty, of equality and of democracy, our gratitude to
those who preserved it is undying.

But we cannot escape the conclusion that we will be untrue descendants to
such patriots if we do not employ every proper means to safeguard the princi-
ples which they bequeathed to us. Those un-American agitators who would
uproot the basic and fundamental American doctrines, have no place in the
Country for which those patriots died. If they do not like the American Way
of living and if they are out of sympathy with American ideals and principles,
they should not remain here to live under a government to which they are
opposed.

If they are out of step with the columns of supporters of American
institutions and yet are unwilling to give place to those more worthy than
themselves, they should be expelled from the Country and required to return
to the land to which they prefer to give allegiance.