Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 81.djvu/1127

 81 STAT. ]

PROCLAMATION 3775-APR. 6, 1967

Further, I call upon this Nation to rededicate itself to the fundamental goal of the inter-American system, embodied in the Charter of the Organization of American States and in the Charter of Punta del Este: social justice and economic progress within the framework of individual freedom and political liberty. I N W I T N E S S WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed. D O N E at the City of Washington this thirty-first 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.

1093

2 UST 2394.

By the President: Secretary of State.

Proclamation 3775 LOYALTY DAY, 1967 By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation

May 1st, in some parts of the world, is marked by demonstrations in support of totalitarian party dictatorships. Since 1959, we in the United States have celebrated it as "Loyalty Day," a time when we are asked to recall the ideals which have nourished our free society. The contrast between these two types of celebration is striking. We are not demanding unthinking fealty to a party or a doctrine. On the contrary, allegiance to American ideals demands commitment to a ceaseless search for new routes to freedom, justice and equality. Our flag then is not just a symbol of our nationhood. I t signifies more: —A profound dedication to a community where the rights of minorities are respected as fully as the rights of the majority, where freedom and order are found in harmonious equilibrium. The patriot leader John Adams thus felt obliged to defend the British officer accused of instigating the "Boston Massacre." And later noted in his diary that it was his proudest contribution to the tradition of freedom. Similarly, Abraham Lincoln in 1838 called on "every American, every lover of liberty" to swear "never to violate the laws of the country" or to "tolerate their violation by others" through "mob law." To an American, then, loyalty is not automatic acceptance of authority but consecration to the principles of a free society. I t imposes restraints on the majority and on minorities alike. The majority must have the right to act, but its actions must follow the course of due process. Minorities must retain the right to dissent, but should never confuse the right to be heard with the right to determine policy, should never

Apni 6, 1967

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