Hammurabi, the king of Babylon, writing about 2100 years before
Christ, said of himself, "I established law and justice in the land. "
This was the great king's proudest accomplishment. I hope that in its
judgment of me posterity will be able to say that in a small way at
least I improved law and justice in this State. If so, credit must go to
persons like yourselves into whose hands fell the responsibility of the
administration of justice.

I am indeed grateful to the officers and members of this Association
for inviting me to attend this banquet. It has been most enjoyable.
This is the last of your annual banquets that I shall attend as Governor
of the State. By way of a swan song, let me say that I deeply appreciate
the help you have given me—that I have greatly enjoyed my association
with you—that you have my best wishes for the fullest measure of
happiness and success in the years ahead.

STATEMENT, "LAW DAY, U. S. A. "
ANNAPOLIS
May 1, 1966

In all the annals of recorded history, no nation has ever achieved
the prosperity and the strength which is America's today. Our un-
precedented wealth and power are, of course, attributable to many
things, but none more than to its system of laws, which has made this
nation the acknowledged leader of the free world.

In founding the nation and framing its Constitution, Washington,
Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, the Carrolls, and Madison all drew on
the systems of law which man had created from the earliest civilization.
They forged for American the greatest document ever devised by a
people for governing itself, and quickly added to that a chronicle
of the rights of man that will forever ring out, as long as man aspires
to liberty and freedom: the Bill of Rights.

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