exist in the heart of the individual before it can exist in a neighbor-
hood, a community or between nations.
For the salvation of our civilization and the preservation of our
freedom, it is the responsibility of each of us to practice brotherhood
every day of the year. The observance of Brotherhood Week, on
occasions such as this, gives us the opportunity to renew our devotion
to the American ideal of brotherhood and to rededicate ourselves to
the cause of understanding and fair play among people, and among
nations as well.
ADDRESS, MODEL YOUTH LEGISLATURE
ANNAPOLIS
April 15, 1961
I was highly honored by your invitation to come here today to
extend official greetings to members attending this 1961 Youth Model
Legislature and to welcome you young men and women to Annapolis.
The General Assembly of Maryland, in whose chambers you now sit
and which serves as a model for your proceedings, adjourned just two
weeks ago after completing a 90-day session.
Maryland people have a pronounced trait in their deep feeling
for history and tradition. We sense that the roots we have implanted
in the past give us strength and vigor to face the problems of today
and of tomorrow. It is a source of great pride to me, and I know it
is to you as Marylanders, to contemplate that this General Assembly
about which we were speaking has met continuously for three and a
quarter centuries. And it is pleasing to reflect that this lawmaking
body of our State government exists today in essentially the same
form it assumed when it first met in St. Mary's City in 1635, less than
a year after the first settlers put ashore in the new colony which the
Calverts called Maryland.
It is true that the first Assembly was a sort of "town meeting" in
which all of the freemen of the colony participated, but in the year
immediately thereafter freemen sent their proxies and soon repre-
sentative government as we have it today was inaugurated. The early
Colonial Assembly itself was fashioned on the pattern of the English
Parliament, and thus it may be said that the General Assembly we
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