tossed travelers made a landing and became the founders of the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere. I believe it is significant to recall on this occasion that the first act of the settlers who landed at Cape Henry, was to erect a cross and then on their knees to give thanks to Almighty God for their safe voyage and ask His guidance for their future conduct. It is my conviction that the whole course of American history, as we know it, was influenced by that act and by the similar devotion to religion of those other pilgrims who landed on the shore of what later became Massachusetts because, as Daniel Webster said: We are justly proud of being descended from men who have set the world an example of founding civil institutions on the great and united principles of human freedom and human knowledge. To us, their children, the story of their labors and sufferings can never be without interest. We shall not stand unmoved on the shore of Plymouth, while the sea continues to wash it; nor will our brethren in another early and ancient colony forget the place of its first establishment, till their river shall cease to flow by it. No vigor of youth, no maturity of manhood, will lead the Nation to forget the spots where its infancy was cradled and defended. The philosophy of ancient Greece was "know thyself" and of ancient Rome "discipline thyself." Neither of these proved sufficient to endure. But the philosophy upon which the new experiment in government was founded in America was the Christian principle, "give thyself,” and the blessings of the democracy we now enjoy were bought with the blood and toil of the Founding Fathers who accepted that obligation. We are inheritors of that precious gift we call constitutional liberty largely because our forebears were willing to put service to their country and to their fellowmen above self. And we are specially indebted to the tradition of early Virginia which produced George Washington, Thomas Jeffer son, James Madison, George Mason, Patrick Henry, and others like them who regarded the participation in public affairs as a duty and a responsibility as well as a right and a privilege. They felt that the business and professional leaders should undertake this responsibility rather than leave it to those who had so few affairs of their own that they had time to spare for Government. It is pertinent to mention this today because WILLIS SMITH exemplified so well the tradition of the area from whence he sprang. He was only 2 years of age when his father died and his mother took him to the neighbor State where he grew up and began his public service, but I am sure that the mother from whom he received his early schooling implanted in his character those traits which made him follow in the footsteps of former great Virginians who dedicated their lives to public service. The principle of unselfish service to which I have referred was reemphasized for him by the Christian influences of Trinity College and he showed his devotion to that institution, which later became Duke University, by serving 24 years on its guiding board and becoming chairman of that board. He was truly, as President Edens of Duke said, one who had a "remarkable understanding of academic climate," and "a man of complete integrity," and as Governor Umstead characterized him "a Christian gentleman.” After working his way through college WILLIS SMITH entered the practice of law and his success in his chosen profession was indicated not only by the financial return, which put him in the top bracket of the attorneys of his State, but also by his selection in 1946 as President of the American Bar Association. He never was satisfied, however, to confine his efforts to his business or even to his volunteer educational and civic activities. He acknowledged his feeling of obligation to serve the public by being elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1926 and within 4 years had won such recognition that he was chosen as speaker of that body. Later he was a chairman of a State Democratic convention and a delegate to a national convention and 3 years ago he answered the call which brought him to the United States Senate. His service here involved financial sacrifice, but he, like many other Members of this body, preferred the sense of accomplishment to more material rewards and devoted himself wholeheartedly to what he described as the championship of southern democracy. Recognition of his efforts was indicated by such editorials, following his untimely death, as the one in the Roanoke (Va.) Times, which described him as “one of the ablest lawyers" in the Senate and “one of its stanchest conservatives." The Greensboro Daily News also said of him: “He lived a full life and died as a result of overwork in the service of his country." That statement was in recognition of the fact that he had persisted in carrying the full burden of his duties in spite of two earlier warning attacks and that during the last 20 days before he was finally stricken down he had delivered 24 speeches. Truly, it can be said of him, as Pericles said of the young men of Athens who died at Thermopylae, that he gave his body for the commonwealth. And I believe it also may be said of him, as Pericles said of those young men of long ago, that he will receive for his memory "praise that will never die, and with it the grandest of all sepulchres, not that in which their mortal bones are laid, but a home in the hearts of men, where their glory remains fresh to stir to speech or action as the occasion comes by. For the whole earth is the sepulchre of famous men; and their story is not graven only on stone over their native earth, but lives on far away, without visible symbol, woven into the stuff of other men's lives." I think we might also describe WILLIS SMITH, as Tennyson did the noble King Arthur: Not swaying to this faction or to that; Not making his high place the lawless perch Of winged ambitions, nor a vantage ground For pleasure; but through all this tract of years Mr. JOHNSTON of South Carolina. Mr. President, we have lost one of our most beloved colleagues. It was my good fortune to have known WILLIS SMITH a great many years, but since he has been a Member of the Senate of the United States I have been very close to him. During this particular year he served on the Judiciary Committee, of which I am also a member. We served together on the Subcommittee on Internal Security. On that committee I was with him daily. During that time, like all other persons who have come in contact with him, I learned to love him. Mr. President, through the hourglass of time the sands of a noble and distinguished life have passed. Senator WILLIS SMITH, our able and beloved colleague from North Carolina, has been summoned to his eternal home. It is still too soon for any one of us to realize fully the scope of our loss. We are too stunned and shocked. But we are certain that we have lost one of the most competent, judicious, and kindly Members ever to serve in this great legislative body. As Senators know, very soon after his arrival in the Senate we are able to measure the ability, the character, and the equipment of a Senator. Few men, however, have been elected to the Senate who were as extraordinarily well-qualified as WILLIS SMITH. His accomplishments in the field of law alone had already made him the envy of practicing attorneys, as well as of eminent jurists. Undoubtedly, one of the finest honors ever bestowed on our late colleague was his election to the office of president of the American Bar Association. Later he served as an observer at the Nuremberg trials. In 1951 he was United States delegate to the Inter parliamentary Union meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, and in 1952 he served as chairman of the same meeting in Bern, Switzerland. There are actually scores of honors, including his appointment to high posts and awards of merit, which have been paid WILLIS SMITH. Time does not permit me to recount them all on the floor today. But I do wish to say something of what he did in the Senate. Perhaps the greatest work he performed while he served as a Senator was his fight against communism. His service on the Internal Security Subcommittee will always be remembered, for, perhaps in that capacity, his great legal talent was put to its greatest test. With patience and courtesy, he pressed hard those in the service of the Kremlin and international communism who would destroy our American way of life. No hostile witness ever felt secure under WILLIS SMITH'S expert legal examination. I well remember his haunting words before the Daughters of the American Revolution earlier this year, and they stand before us today as a dramatic challenge: * My native land. Your native land. It has meant aspiration and hope. It has meant relief from repression. * * We may be sure that if we do not protect ourselves and our people, that there are no other people on earth who will protect us. We may be sure that few, if any, other nations have even in the slightest degree the altruistic ideals that we have maintained, that have the missionary zeal and spirit which has possessed Americans. * Let us ever remember that we ourselves must guard our own liberties, and by so doing we will promote the peace of the world. Those are Senator WILLIS SMITH'S prophetic words. Mr. President, the death of our fine colleague brings to my mind some beautiful words I learned long ago: A good man never dies; In worthy deeds and prayer, In helpful hands and honest eyes, If smiles and tears be there; Who lives for you and me, Lives for the world he tried to help; He lives eternally. A good man never dies. |