December 20, 1974
Page 41741
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, hundreds of Americans have served their country in the U.S. Senate. Most of them served their country well. A few served it superbly. But rarely has our country been served with the same selfless dedication as the Senator from North Carolina, SAMUEL JAMES ERVIN, Jr., who soon will leave us on his final recess.
SAM ERVIN is a rare man, who has served the cause of civil liberties under our Constitution. He has no multi-billion-dollar programs named after him. He has no monuments of brick and mortar named after him. Rather, he has served a quiet stewardship of our constitutional rights as no other Senator has in this century.
Appropriately, he leaves at a time similar to when he arrived – when willful men sought power at the expense of individual rights. That was in 1954, when Senator Joseph McCarthy had pilloried honest public servants with dishonest accusations. It was a time when both the strong and the weak feared to speak honestly.
When SAM ERVIN spoke against this and urged censure of Senator McCarthy, he reached our conscience with this call:
Mr. President, the honor of the Senate is in our keeping. I pray that Senators will not soil it by permitting Senator McCarthy to go unwhipped of senatorial justice.
The Senator from Wisconsin did not go unwhipped, and our rights were preserved, thanks, in no small part, to the freshman Senator from North Carolina.
Even though others shrank or ran for cover, SAM ERVIN stood his ground because of his strict adherence to constitutional principles – principles that he believed unchangeable.
As he stood his ground for 20 years in this Chamber, he fought against transient expediency that traded hard-fought rights and principles for the fool's gold of temporary benefit. In doing this, he lived the true conservatism of someone ready to fight Jacobins of the left and right. It was conservatism dedicated to truth and dignity.
SAM ERVIN explained his basic philosophy this way:
The Founding Fathers rightly believed that truth alone makes men free. They desired most of all that the people for whom they were creating a government should be politically, intellectually, and spiritually free.
In the nature of things, they could not guarantee that Americans would have the right to know the truth, and make that right effective by conferring upon the people and denying to the government the power to determine what truth is.
In talking about freedom, he often quoted his fellow collegian, Thomas Wolfe, who said:
I do not believe that the ideas represented by "freedom of thought," "freedom of speech," "freedom of press," and "free assembly" are just rhetorical myths. I believe rather that they are among the most valuable realities that men have gained, and that if they are destroyed men will again fight to have them.
SAM ERVIN was always ready to put these words into action – especially when Government sought to take powers away from the people with the pretext that the people were not capable of exercising these powers themselves.
But SAM ERVIN's defense of our rights was done quietly, without the drama we as politicians have come to expect. It was waged not on campaign platforms, not on whirlwind jet-propelled tours, nor on television screens.
Rather he maintained his vigil in the quiet world of books, of reasoned debate with others, and in secluded reflection with himself.
It was only recently that Americans came to know of his lonely vigil. They came to know of it when a so-called third-rate burglary brought an administration of dishonest men to the stand.
They came to know him as a voice of sanity and clarity. He symbolized the simple dedication to principle that has been a bedrock of our form of government.
Without fanfare, without bitterness, SAM ERVIN conducted televised hearings that exposed the "team players" who would make inoperative the rights and principles established two centuries ago. He spoke out with the clarity of Thomas Jefferson in contrast to the Orwellian logic and rhetoric we have heard so much recently. His common sense and faith in people compelled him to expose – then let people judge – the wiretapping, the impounding, the bugging, the covering up and the surreptitious devices of an irresponsible administration.
He observed dispassionately:
The evidence thus far introduced or presented before this Committee tends to show that men upon whom fortune had smiled benevolently and who possessed great financial power, great political power, and great governmental power undertook to nullify the laws of man and the laws of God for the purpose of gaining what history will call a very temporary political advantage.
His words were like his life – simple, forthright, and powerful. And they expressed a philosophy of life and government that practiced faith in people and restraint of power. These words lectured us on our duties under the Constitution.
I came to appreciate fully SAM ERVIN's wisdom in the past few years as we worked together for curbs on executive privilege, impoundment of funds, budget reform, freedom of information, privacy, and other legislation involving basic constitutional issues. The Senate could not have accomplished these reforms without his sage leadership.
In our years together, SAM ERVIN and I have disagreed as often as we agreed. We have opposed each other especially on the issue of civil rights. I still disagree with his idea that civil rights legislation confers special privileges on people, instead of enforcing and protecting their rights.
But I also know that his stands did not spring from malice or meanness. They came from a principled opposition to activist government, in all forms.
It is no revelation to say that SAM ERVIN is imperfect, in my eyes and in his own eyes. As we know, he revels in his imperfection and in his knowledge of man's imperfection.
But, as he departs for the mountains of western North Carolina, let us remember him for his demonstration that our rights are fragile, and need our constant care and defense. Let us remember him for his lessons that man, being imperfect, cannot hold unchecked power over others without eventually abusing them.
Let us remember him for his long, patient, and courageous stewardship of our rights. Let us remember him simply – he looked after the Constitution.