594 State Papers and Addresses

have only dreamed and hoped for— we have always possessed by the simple
law of inheritance—the freedoms of worship, of popular assemblage, of justice
before the law, and of equality before our fellow man.

All these blessings—and many more—have been ours. And how we stand
in solemn trial—to be tested on our right to retain them. Have we deserved
them? Have we used these opportunities to the greater good? Have we
builded truly, honestly and for permanence? This House of ours—the Citadel
of America—will it stand unshaken against the tempest? Will it remain a
Fortress against which the Powers and Evil and the Hosts of Barbarism shall
break themselves and fall apart?

We have these questions to face today. We shall not be allowed to avoid
the pressing issues. For the torch, has reached our temple door—the hand of
the conqueror has advanced its bloody dagger—and we are in the process of the
testing of our strength—not only of our military might, but of our moral
fortitude, of the very fiber of our hearts and souls.

Here in Maryland we well understand the issues. The civil liberties and
the pride of independence have been bred into our collective bones. Our danger
does not lie in lack of understanding or in lukewarm spirits. But it would be
an untruth if I said there is no danger. It requires no profound student of the
Maryland mind to lay a finger on the one possible weakness of the American
people. Call it complacency, call it an attitude of easy-goingness. Marylanders
are eminently a temperate people. We have never been given to leaping off
the deep end of our motions. We have taken a just pride in our ease and good
companionship and the comforts of home. In a word, Marylanders are highly
civilized in a way that does not cause them to become over-excited about many
things.

This attitude, a thoroughly understandable one in peace-time, becomes a
handicap in times of war. Our people require, perhaps, an extra effort to get
them going. Organization tends to take a rather leisurely form. And all this
despite the fact that our hearts are in the struggle, and that we were among
the first of the American states to recognize Hitlerism as the particular enemy
to be overthrown.

To say that our people are inclined to complacency, is in no way meant
to belittle the efforts of leaders in organizations, nor to express lack of ap-
preciation, for the response that the people have thus far made to the many
calls of Civilian Defense.

We have already done much, but there is so much more to be done. It
would be, I think, a grave mistake and would constitute a lamentable misunder-
standing of the Maryland mind to use fear as a method of appeal. In fact, the
use of fear—the attempt to raise scareheads has probably contributed to the
somewhat lackadaisical state of mind. We do not scare easily in the Free
State. We do not burst out in frantic demonstrations of energy of dread fore-
bodings. But this is a good place to recall that, once, long ago, the well-known
easy-goingness of Maryland led to a calamity and a lost battle, which had to
be redeemed once the real temper of the people had been aroused. I refer to