The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1921-03-18
THE RETIRING VICE PRESIDENT

Upon his retirement from the Office
which he has held for eight years
vice-president Marshall delivered the
following very notable address.
II is an intensely interesting docu-
ment and we invite its careful perusai
by all our readers:
Senators, Five generations ago
there was revealed to the people OF
this Nation a new relationship be-
| tween man and man, which they de-
clared and proclaimed in the Ameri-
can Constitution. Therein they re-
cognized legislature empowered 10
EXPRESS the will of the people in law,
! judiciary required to determine and
state such law, and an Executive
charged with securing obedience TO
the law, all holding their office not by
reason of some superior force but
through the duly determined conscl-
ence of their countrymen.
sTo the House, close to the heart
of the Nation, renewing its whole
membership by frequent elections, rep
resenting directly the people, reflect
ing their common purpose, has been
granted full measure of the power
of Legislation and exclusive authority
to originate taxation. To the Senate.
renewing its membership by degrees,
representing in part the sovereign
States, has been granted not only a
full measure of the power of legisla,
ton but, if possible, far more impor-
tant functions. To it is intrusted the
duty of review, that to negotiation
there may be added ratification and
to appointment approval. But its
greatest function of all, too little men,
toned and too little understood,
whether exercised in legislating or
reviewing, is the preservation of liber-
| ty. Not merely the rights, of the ma
jority, they little need protection,
but the rights Of the minority, from
whatever source they may be assailed.
The great object for us to- seek here,
for the Constitution Identifies the
vice-president with the Senate, is to
continue to make this Chamber, as it
was intended by the fathers, the cita-
del of liberty. An enormous power is
here conferred, capable Of much good
or ill. upon it may be to abuse, but
necessary, to secure the required re-
suit.
Whatever its faults, whatever its
human imperfections. there is no.legis-
lative body in all history that has
used its powers with more wisdom
and discretion, more uniformly for the
execution of the public will, or more
in harmony with the spirit of the au-
thority of the people which has Great.
ed it, than the United States Senate.
lay down the duties the people have
assigned me under the Constitution,
which we can neither enlarge nor
diminish, of presiding over this Sen
ate, agreeably to its rules and regula-
tions, deeply conscious that it will
continue to function in harmony with
its high traditions as great delibera-
tive body, without passion and with
4 out fear unmoved by clamor, but most
sensitive to the right, the stronghold
of Government according to law, that
the vision of past generations may be
more and more the reality of genera.
tions yet to come. (Applause.)'
Il go but you remain leave
with the same inarticulate cry in my
soul with which came to you: My
| Country. 1t is no new or unusual cry
for the American, but it has. fear,
myriad concerts. To some it means
broad acres and fertile fields; to
many, opportunity for personal pre-
ferment: to a thoughtless few the
right to utter every vagrant word
which finds Judgment in mind dis
eased; to the half-educated, that dem
ocracy should be governed as soon
by the infants cry as by the prophets
warning But to me it is but the COM
posite voice Of all the good and wise
and self-searching souls who trod or
tread it's soil, calling for that liberty
which is now-encrowned, preaching
that doctrine which seeks not its
! own, but the common good and, above
all, warning us to the memory of the
dead and the hope Of the unborn to
close our ears to the mouthings OF
every peripatetic reformer who tells
us that the way to sanctify the repub-
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