clear space clear space clear space white space
A
 r c h i v e s   o f   M a r y l a n d   O n l i n e

PLEASE NOTE: The searchable text below was computer generated and may contain typographical errors. Numerical typos are particularly troubling. Click “View pdf” to see the original document.

  Maryland State Archives | Index | Help | Search
search for:
clear space
white space
Session Laws, 1943
Volume 584, Page 1967   View pdf image (33K)
 Jump to  
  << PREVIOUS  NEXT >>
clear space clear space clear space white space

HERBERT R. O'CONOR, GOVERNOR. 1967

interests define the scope of its favors; the foundation of de-
mocracy is man whose integrity is inviolable and whose wel-
fare is its primary concern. The motivating power of the for-
mer is violence; of the latter, freedom. One feeds upon un-
scrupulous ambition; the other upon an enlightened sense of
obligation;

One or the other of these forces will now triumph and govern
mankind. The present conflict is irrepressible and decisive. It
is the challenge of the ages to the generation of today, and rep-
resents those spiritually cosmic forces which visit the world at
critical periods in human history to shape the destinies of men.
This world cannot remain half-slave, half-free; half-totalitarian,
half-democratic. The laws of civilized society prevent inter-
course between slaves and free men from being either congenial
or profitable. If totalitarianism wins this conflict, the world
will be ruled by tyrants, and individuals will be slaves. If de-
mocracy wins, the nations of the earth will be united in a com-
mon-wealth of free peoples, and individuals, wherever found,
will be the sovereign units of the new world order;

Man has struggled from time immemorial to endow the indi-
vidual with certain fundamental rights whose very existence is
now imperiled. Among those rights is man's freedom to wor-
ship, speak, write, assemble and vote without arbitrary inter-
ference. To safeguard these liberties as a heritage for the hu-
man race, governments were instituted among men, with consti-
tutional guarantees against the despotic exercise of political
authority, such as are provided by elected parliaments, trial by
jury, habeas corpus and due process of law. Man must now
either consolidate his historic rights or lose them for genera-
tions to come;

The ceaseless changes wrought in human society by science,
industry and economics, as well as by the spiritual, social and
intellectual forces which impregnate all cultures, make politi-
cal and geographical isolation of nations hereafter impossible.
The organic life of the human race is at last indissolubly unified
and can never be severed, but it must be politically ordained and
made subject to law. Only a government capable of discharg-
ing all the functions of sovereignty in the executive, legislative
and judicial spheres can accomplish such a task. Civilization
now requires laws, in the place of treaties, as instruments to
regulate commerce between peoples. The intricate conditions of
modern life have rendered treaties ineffectual and obsolete, and
made laws essential and inevitable. The age of treaties is dead;
the age of laws is here;

Governments, limited in their jurisdiction to local geographi-
cal areas, can no longer satisfy the needs or fulfill the obliga-

 

clear space
clear space
white space

Please view image to verify text. To report an error, please contact us.
Session Laws, 1943
Volume 584, Page 1967   View pdf image (33K)
 Jump to  
  << PREVIOUS  NEXT >>


This web site is presented for reference purposes under the doctrine of fair use. When this material is used, in whole or in part, proper citation and credit must be attributed to the Maryland State Archives. PLEASE NOTE: The site may contain material from other sources which may be under copyright. Rights assessment, and full originating source citation, is the responsibility of the user.


Tell Us What You Think About the Maryland State Archives Website!



An Archives of Maryland electronic publication.
For information contact mdlegal@mdarchives.state.md.us.

©Copyright  August 17, 2024
Maryland State Archives