Since those pleasant school days I have seen much of human life. On the bench now for over twenty-five years, I have been compelled to deal with all sorts of people, even the little children who early in life sometimes drift from the path of right to ways of wickedness. I have served as judge of the Juvenile Court, and judge of the court in which the worst criminals are tried. I have heard the cases of thousands of persons on trial for crimes, men and women, young and old. I have sent hundreds to prison, and I have been compelled to sentence some to death.
In this experience, I have learned something of how easy it is, unless we are on our guard, to sin against the laws of our country, and against the laws of God. I have observed that the average person does not fully appreciate the value of liberty until he is about to lose it.(2)
I also know that most people do not know the worth of the protection which our Constitution gives to each one of us, until someone is about to take away their right to life, or to liberty, or to property; and then they cry out for help. If they are right in their appeal, they always find help in the Constitution and in the law of the land. Yet it is true that there is much real ignorance about our country, our Constitution, and our laws. There is even much ignorance of these things among people who are supposed to be well educated.
So I was pleased when your teacher came to me the other day asking me to come to your school a couple of times a week, to talk to you about our country, our Constitution, and our laws. I am happy to be able to comply with her request. It is a difficult subject for children, yet children must study these things, and learn them. There is no more important subject.(3)
One of the chief objects of furnishing free education to children, rich and poor, is to make of them good law-abiding citizens; citizens who know what authority is; citizens who will obey the voice of authority; citizens who realize that authority in this country rests in the people themselves; citizens, men and women, who realize that they owe a duty to their country and their fellowmen to do all they can to keep America the most free and the most just country in the world.(4)