the voters must choose a new Congress and a new President; and second, that this choice must be made freely, that is to say without any undue force against or influence over the voter in the expression of his personal and sincere opinion.

That, after all, is the greatest difference between what we know as democracy and those other forms of government which, though they seem new to us, are essentially old-for they revert to those systems of concentrated self-perpetuating power against which the representative democratic system was successfully launched several centuries ago.

Today, with many other democracies, the United States will give no encouragement to the belief that our processes are outworn, or that we will approvingly watch the return of forms of government which for 2,000 years have proved their tyranny and their instability alike.

With the direct control of the free choosing of public servants by a free electorate, the Constitution has proved that this type of government cannot long remain in the hands of those who seek personal aggrandizement for selfish ends, whether they act as individuals, as classes, or as groups.

It is, therefore, in the spirit of our system that our elections are positive in their mandate, rather than passive in their acquiescence. Many other nations envy us the enthusiasm, the attacks, the wild overstatements, the falsehood intermingled gayly with the truth that marks our general elections, because they are promptly followed by acquiescence in the result and a return to calmer waters as soon as the ballots are counted.

We celebrate the completion of the building of the constitutional house. But one essential was lacking-for the house had to be made habitable. And even in the period of the building, those who put stone upon stone, those who voted to accept it from the hands of the builders, knew that life within the house needed other things for its inhabitants. Without those things, indeed, they could never be secure in their tenure, happy in their toil and in their rest.

And so there came about that tacit understanding that to the Constitution would be added a bill of rights. Well and truly did the First Congress of the United States fulfill that first unwritten pledge; and the personal guaranties thus given to our individual citizens have established, we trust for all time, what has become as ingrained in our American natures as the free elective choice of our representatives itself.

In that Bill of Rights lies another vast chasm between our repre

sentative democracy and those reversions to personal rule which have characterized these recent years.

Jury trial: Do the people of our own land ever stop to compare that blessed right of ours with some processes of trial and punishment which of late have reincarnated the "justice" of the Dark Ages? The taking of private property without due compensation: Would we willingly abandon our security against that in the face of the events of recent years?

The right to be safe against unwarrantable searches and seizures: Read your newspapers and rejoice that our firesides and our households are still safe.

Freedom to assemble and petition the Congress for a redress of grievances: The mail and the telegraph bring daily proof to every senator and every representative that that right is at the height of an unrestrained popularity.

Freedom of speech-yes, that, too, is unchecked, for never has there been so much of it on every side of every subject: it is indeed a freedom which because of the mildness of our laws of libel and slander goes unchecked except by the good sense of the American people. Any person is constitutionally entitled to criticize and call to account the highest and the lowest in the land-save only in one exception. For be it noted that the Constitution itself protects senators and representatives and provides that "for any speech or debate in either House they shall not be questioned in any other place." And that immunity is most carefully not extended to either the Chief Justice or the President.

Freedom of the press: I take it that no sensible man or woman believes that it has been curtailed or threatened or that it should be. The influence of the printed word will always depend on its veracity, and the nation can safely rely on the wise discrimination of a reading public which, with the increase in the general education, is able to sort truth from fiction. Representative democracy will never tolerate suppression of true news at the behest of government.

Freedom of religion: That essential of the rights of mankind everywhere goes back also to the origins of representative government. Where democracy is snuffed out, there, too, the right to worship God in one's own way is circumscribed or abrogated. Shall we by our passiveness, by our silence, by assuming the attitude of the Levite who pulled his skirts together and passed by on the other side, lend encouragement to those who today persecute religion or deny it?

The answer to that is "no," just as in the days of the First Congress of the United States it was "no."

FREEDOM

683 Not for freedom of religion alone does this nation contend by every peaceful means. We believe in the other freedoms of the Bill of Rights, the other freedoms that are inherent in the right of free choice by free men and women. That means democracy to us under the Constitution, not democracy by direct action of the mob; but democracy exercised by representatives chosen by the people themselves.

Here in this great hall are assembled the present members of the government of the United States of America-the Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Executive. Our fathers rightly believe that this government which they set up would seek as a whole to act as a whole for the good governing of the nation. It is in the same spirit that we are met here today, 150 years later, to carry on their task. May God continue to guide our steps.

Miss Gladys Swarthout and Mr. John Charles Thomas sang "The Star-Spangled Banner."

BENEDICTION

REV. ZeBarney Thorne Phillips, D. D., LL. D., Chaplain of the Senate, pronounced the Benediction, as follows:

Unto God's graciousness, tender mercy, and protection we commit you and every citizen of this Nation this day. May the Lord bless us and keep us. May the Lord make His face to shine upon us and be gracious unto us. May He take us in His arms of love and mercy and give us a sense of His own indwelling and of His power. May He lift up the light of His countenance upon us and give us that peace which the world can neither give nor take away, that peace that passeth all understanding. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

The VICE PRESIDENT. The Joint Session of the Congress which assembled for the purpose of holding fitting and proper exercises in commemoration of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Commencement of the First Congress of the United States under the Constitution is now dissolved.

Thereupon,

The Joint Congressional Committee on Arrangements escorted the President of the United States and the members of his Cabinet from the Hall of the House.

The Doorkeeper escorted the other invited guests of honor from the Hall of the House in the following order:

The Chief Justice of the United States and the Associate

Justices of the Supreme Court.

The Ambassadors, the Ministers and the Chargés d'Affaires
of Foreign Governments.

The Chief of Staff of the United States Army; the Chief of
Naval Operations of the United States Navy; the Major
General Commandant of the United States Marine
Corps; and the Commandant of the United States Coast
Guard.

The Commissioners of the District of Columbia.

Upon the retirement of the guests, the Senate returned to its Chamber, and the House of Representatives resumed its session. The SPEAKER resumed the chair.

The SPEAKER. Without Without objection, the proceedings in the House today will be included in the RECORD of this date.

There was no objection.

ADJOURNMENT

THE SPEAKER. Without objection, the House will stand adjourned until 12 o'clock on Monday.

There was no objection.

Accordingly (at 1 o'clock and 48 minutes p. m.) the House adjourned until Monday, March 6, 1939, at 12 o'clock noon.

[The musical selections by Miss Gladys Swarthout and Mr. John Charles Thomas, both of the Metropolitan Opera Company, of New York City, were made possible through the courtesy of the National Broadcasting Company.]

END OF THE EXERCISES

FIRST CONGRESS

MARCH 4, 1789 TO MARCH 3, 1791

Vice President of the United States-JOHN ADAMS, of Massachusetts
President Pro Tempore of the Senate-JOHN LANGDON, of New Hampshire
Secretary of the Senate-SAMUEL A. OTIS, of Massachusetts

Speaker of the House of Representatives-FREDERICK A. C. MUHLENBERG, of Pennsylvania Clerk of the House-JOHN BECKLEY, of Virginia

Philemon Dickinson 2 Thomas Hartley

1 Resigned March 2, 1790, having been elected governor.

2 Elected to fill vacancy caused by the resignation of William Paterson, and took his seat December 6, 1790.
Died March 12, 1790.

Appointed to fill vacancy caused by death of William Grayson, and took his seat April 26, 1790.
Elected to fill vacancy caused by death of William Grayson and took his seat December 6, 1790.
Died June 1, 1790.

Elected to fill vacancy caused by death of Theodorick Bland, and took his seat December 7, 1790.