Address at the Laying of the Cornerstone of the New U.S. Courts Building for the District of Columbia.

Mr. Chief Justice of the United States, Your Honor the Chairman, Honorable Judges of the Courts of the District of Columbia, ladies and gentlemen:

I appreciate the privilege of being here. Judge Laws, almost thou persuadeth me to be a juror, if I can serve in this court.

We are meeting here today to lay the cornerstone of a new courthouse.

This building will house the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The increasing importance of these courts is indicated by the fact that they have long since outgrown the historic old buildings that served them so long. These courts hear cases which are not only important to the private parties concerned, but which involve issues vital to the welfare and growth of the Nation. Nowhere else, outside the Supreme Court of the United States, will so many legal questions of national magnitude be decided as in this building here before us.

It is fitting that these courts should have a building which is modern and suited to their needs. Our law courts play a key part in our national life, and their surroundings should be expressive of the respect which we have for them.

One of the most important duties of the President of the United States is to appoint Federal judges. I give that more thought, more care, and more deliberation than most any other thing I do in my duties as President of the United States.

The vitality of our courts is separate and apart from the buildings we create for them. The spirit and the meaning of our courts do not lie in the material settings we provide for them, but in the living ideas which they enshrine.

To our forefathers, the courts were the distinctive symbol of the kind of government-the kind of society--which they were creating in the wilderness of this continent. This new Nation was to be a democracy based on the concept of the rule of law. It was to be a society in which every man had rights--inalienable rights--rights which were not based on creed, or rank, or economic power, but on equality. In such a society, the courts had the function not only of dealing out justice among citizens, but of preserving justice between the citizens and the State.

The founders of this country had a very clear conception of the corruptibility of power--of the innate danger in all human affairs of the selfish or arbitrary exercise of authority. To guard against this everpresent danger, they adopted the principle that there is a fundamental law--expressed in the Constitution, and particularly in the Bill of Rights--to which every exercise of power has to conform. The purpose of this fundamental law is to protect the rights of the individual. To apply this underlying law became the special task of the courts.

This concept of justice based on individual rights is so familiar to us that we take it for granted. Yet, in essence, it is a revolutionary concept. It has always been a threat to absolutism and tyranny. It was the great weapon of our own Revolution, and the basis of our Republic. Today, in a world where absolute power is again on the march, this concept of justice has a tremendous strength. It is a challenge to the new forms of tyranny as it was to the old.

In our lifetime, we have witnessed a worldwide attack on this ideal of justice. Fascism, Nazism, Soviet communism, all have tried to convince people that our concern with individual human rights is false and fraudulent.

In the areas under their control, these totalitarian movements have swept away all restraints on their own power. They have subjected their own people to all the evils of tyranny--to kidnapping, torture, slavery, murder--without hope of redress or remedy. They have made a mockery of the forms of justice. Their judges are prosecutors, and their prosecutors are hangmen; their defense attorneys are puppets. Their trials are coldly calculated displays of propaganda, based on torture and designed to spread falsehood.

Wherever nations or peoples have been overcome by totalitarianism, the practice of justice has been snuffed out. But the ideal remains, deep in the hearts of men. Men will always long for protection against midnight arrest, the slave camp, the torture chamber. Men will never accept these things as right. Today, men feel more deeply than ever that all human beings have rights, and that it is the duty of the government to protect them.

Today we are participating in a great international movement for the better protection of individual rights. New methods of protecting and advancing human rights are being proposed and discussed. Across the world, men of good will are seeking new ways of making human rights triumphant over tyranny.

The first step was taken in the Charter of the United Nations. Weary of the crimes of the Axis tyrants, all the united nations pledged themselves, in the Charter, to promote universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms. The San Francisco conference ended with the promise that there would be, in time, an international bill of rights, which would be as much a part of international life as our own Bill of Rights is a part of our life under the Constitution.

From this point many steps have been taken toward the creation of an international law and morality which will protect human rights against the misuse of arbitrary power.

By the judgment of the Nuremberg Tribunal, October 1, 1946, it was established that the highest officials of a government are answerable before the bar of international courts for committing war crimes, crimes against peace, and--in connection with either of these--crimes against humanity. This great principle was further confirmed by a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly of December 11, 1946.

International action is also being taken against the crime of genocide--the slaughter of entire human groups--whether committed in time of peace or in time of war. One of the most shocking examples of genocide was the Nazi attempt to exterminate an entire religious group deliberately and methodically. The General Assembly of the United Nations has denounced this terrible practice, and has affirmed that genocide is a crime under international law.

To prevent and punish the crime of genocide in the future, a multilateral convention on the subject has been prepared and approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations in December of 1948. The convention is now before the various members of the United Nations, as well as some nonmember nations, for ratification. Over half the ratifications necessary to bring the convention into force have already been deposited.

I have asked the Senate of the United States to give its advice and consent to the ratification of that convention. And I sincerely hope they will ratify it. We must do our part to outlaw forever the mass murder of innocent peoples.

Another step toward the international protection of human rights was taken by the General Assembly of the United Nations in December 1948, when it proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Like our own Declaration of Independence, this document asserts that all members of the human family are endowed with certain inalienable rights. It enumerates and describes these fundamental rights and freedoms.

But the Declaration of Human Rights is only an appeal to the conscience of the world. It offers no means of redress when rights are violated. To meet this need, a multilateral convention is now in preparation. This is designed to make binding law out of a number of the guiding principles of the Declaration. It will be known as the Covenant on Human Rights.

The task of obtaining general agreement on such a Covenant in the face of existing differences in legal systems and of language barriers is, of course, an arduous one. I have faith, however, that the Covenant will ultimately be adopted, and also that it will be followed by other agreements to give effect to the principles enunciated in the Declaration of Human Rights.

Thus, bit by bit, new concepts of international law and justice are taking form. Through an international society of nations, the concept is developing that the barbarous treatment of individuals by any nation is the concern of all nations. This growth of international law is most important in building for peace.

It is a mistake to underestimate the significance of these developments. In our divided world, it is easy to point to the tremendous gulf between the concept of individual human rights and the attainment of conditions which will insure their enjoyment. It is easy to be discouraged by the difficulty of creating international safeguards against the infringement of these rights.

But we must remember that it is our belief that governments are created to serve human rights. We must understand clearly that our belief in human rights is shared today by peoples all over the world. We must have faith and vision sufficient to realize that this belief is the rock on which the peoples of the world can build a better and a peaceful future.

In its beginnings, this world movement toward protection of human rights may not appear particularly impressive. But the courts of the District of Columbia were not very impressive, either, when they were first set up two years ago. They were without buildings or physical equipment, and uncertain of their jurisdiction. These courts have grown strong, because they are based on a living truth. And so it will be with the quest for international protection of human rights. It, too, will succeed, because it is based upon the same great concept.

On us, as a Nation, rests the responsibility of taking a position of leadership in the struggle for human rights. We cannot turn aside from the task if we wish to remain true to the vision of our forefathers and the ideals that have made our history what it is.

Above the outward forms of our Government, above our laws and the Constitution itself, there is an eternal law of justice. This is the justice of a God who created mankind to live together in brotherly love. This is the justice by which all the deeds of men are judged. The fundamental purpose of our lives is to strive toward it, to the best of human ability.

As a Nation, we must devote ourselves to that struggle. And in the words of the ancient Hebrew prophet, we should say, "Let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream."

In no other way can the nations of the earth endure.