July 22 1920 Liberty Under Law

### About this speech Warren G. Harding July 22, 1920 Source Miller Center **Nation's Forum (NF 25) 49877 (5:06)** As in today’s world, violence and terrorism were prominent in post World War I America and Europe. The collapse of the Tsarist Empire in March* and subsequent communist victory in the November Revolution* of 1917 was of concern. But it was the Bolshevists’ closure of the democratic Constituent Assembly, the signing of the peace treaty with Germany, the massacre of the Imperial family, attacks on churches, and Red Terror that shocked the western world. The sense of the American people was that democracy was the future of government everywhere; and certainly not the beliefs of the small but vocal group of communists and socialists in the United States. Senator Harding was making that point when he stated that men “must always remember that the rights of freedom impose the obligations which maintain it.” He also speaks of his approval of collective bargaining in labor/management relations but emphasizes the right of every American to seek employment without being forced to accept the conditions of the union shop. [Presidential Speeches](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches) | Warren G. Harding Presidency ## July 22, 1920: Liberty Under the Law   Fast-forward 10 seconds 0:00 [ Download audio ](https://d4q9blt8qjhv3.cloudfront.net/audio/spe_1920_0722_04_harding.mp3 "\(opens in a new window\)") Download media * [Download Audio](https://d4q9b
lt8qjhv3.cloudfront.net/audio/spe_1920_0722_04_harding.mp3?download=1) View Transcript ### Transcript My countrymen, the menacing tendency of the present day is not chargeable wholly to the unsettled and fevered conditions caused by the war. The manifest weakness in popular government lies in the temptation to appeal to group citizenship for political advantage. There is no greater peril. The Constitution contemplates no class and recognizes no group. It broadly includes all the people with specific recognition for none, and the highest consecration we can make today is a committal of the Republican party to that saving constitutionalism which contemplates all America as one people and holds just government free from influence on the one hand, and unmoved by intimidation on the other. It would be the blindness of folly to ignore the activities in our own country which are aimed to destroy our economic system and to commit us to the colossal tragedy which has both destroyed all freedom and made Russia impotent. This movement is not to be halted in throttled liberties. We must not abridge the freedom of speech, the freedom of press, or the freedom of assembly, because there is no promise in repression. These liberties are as sacred as the freedom of religious beliefs, as inviolable as the rights of life and the pursuit of happiness. We do hold to the right to crush sedition, to stifle a menacing contempt for law, to stamp out a peril to the safety of the Republic or its people 
when emergency calls, because security and the majesty of the law are the first essentials of liberty. He who threatens destruction of the government by force, or flaunts his contempt for lawful authority, ceases to be a loyal citizen and forfeits his right to the freedom of the Republic. Let it be said to all of America that our plan of popular government contemplates such orderly changes as the crystallized intelligence of the majority of our people think best. There can be no modification of this underlying rule, but no majority shall abridge the rights of a minority. Men have a right to question our system in fullest freedom. But they must always remember that the rights of freedom impose the obligations which maintain it. Our policy is not of repression. But we make appeal today to American intelligence and patriotism, when the Republic is menaced from within, just as we trusted American patriotism when our rights were threatened from without. We call on all America for steadiness, so that we may proceed deliberately with the readjustment which concerns all the people. Our party platform fairly expresses the conscience of Republicans on industrial relations. No party is indifferent to the welfare of the wage earner. To us, his good fortune is of deepest concern, and we seek to make that good fortune permanent. We do not oppose, but approve, collective bargaining, because that is an outstanding right, but we are unalterably insistent that its exercise must not destroy the
 equally sacred right of the individual in his necessary pursuit of a livelihood. Any American has the right to quit his employment, so has every American the right to seek employment. The group must not endanger the individual, and we must discourage groups preying upon one another. And none shall be allowed to forget that government's obligations are alike to all the people. *February and October by the Russian calendar, 1917 View Transcript Previous [July 22, 1920: High Wages for High Production](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/july-22-1920-high-wages-high-production) Next [July 22, 1920: The American Soldier](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/july-22-1920-american-soldier) ### More Warren G. Harding speeches [View all Warren G. Harding speeches](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches?field_president_target_id\[28\]=28) [July 22, 1920: The American Soldier](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/july-22-1920-american-soldier) audio icon transcript icon [August 25, 1920: The Republican Party](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/august-25-1920-republican-party) audio icon transcript icon [August 28, 1920: America](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/august-28-1920-america) audio icon transcript icon [March 4, 1921: Inaugural Address](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/march-4-1921-inaugural-address) transcript icon [March 31, 1921: Nationalism and Americanism](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/march-31-1921-nationalism-and-americanism) audio icon transcrip
t icon [May 23, 1921: Speech Upon Arrival of World War One Dead for Burial](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/may-23-1921-speech-upon-arrival-world-war-one-dead-burial) audio icon transcript icon [November 12, 1921: Opening Speech of the Conference on Limitation of Armament](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/november-12-1921-opening-speech-conference-limitation-armament) audio icon transcript icon [December 6, 1921: First Annual Message](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/december-6-1921-first-annual-message) transcript icon [December 8, 1922: Second Annual Message](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/december-8-1922-second-annual-message) transcript icon