Proclamation 3770—Law Day, U.S.A., 1967

May 1st is the tenth anniversary of Law Day, U.S.A. The theme of Law Day, 1967 is, in the words of Theodore Roosevelt: "No man is above the law and no man is below it."

Again we remind ourselves that law, and respect for law, is central to the idea of American democracy. Free government could not exist, said Justice Taney, without ready obedience to the law.

Thus all who cherish freedom should also cherish law. Liberty and law abide together. In that bond is the foundation of our liberties.

I ask every American to take the law into his heart—not into his hands. I ask not blind obedience, but enlightened obedience. I ask patience too, for the law, like our times, will and must change. But America's fidelity to law must be eternal.

I ask every American to respect the law, and to respect also the men who are pledged to its enforcement. And of those who wear the badge, I ask an equal respect both for the law and for the rights of the people they are sworn to protect.

As your President, I can ask no less than the young lawyer Lincoln in 1838:

"Let every American, every lover of liberty . . . remember that to violate the law is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the charter of his own and his children's liberty.

"Let reverence for the laws . . . be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice . . .

"Let it become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay of all sexes, and tongues and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars."

Now, Therefore, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, do hereby request the observance of Monday, May 1, 1967, as Law Day in the United States of America.

I urge the people of the United States to observe Law Day with appropriate ceremonies and by reaffirming their commitment to freedom and the supremacy of law in our lives. I especially urge that the schools, civic and service organizations, public bodies, courts, the legal profession, and the media of information assist in sponsoring and participating in appropriate observances.

I also call upon public officials to display the American flag on public buildings on that day as requested by the Congress.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

DONE at the City of Washington this tenth day of March in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-first.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

By the President:

DEAN RUSK

Secretary of State