WARREN, Earl (1891-1974). Governor of California, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Autograph speech manuscript, unsigned, n.d. [ca. 31 July 1957]. 10 pages, 8vo, in pencil, written on verso of Savoy Hotel stationery.
“AMERICA’S GREAT FRIEND, IN WAR AND PEACE, SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL”
The American Bar Association had the good sense to convene their annual convention for 1957 in London. The gathering, Earl Warren tells his English hosts, was a smashing success. “You have completely spoiled all of us for future conventions...You have transformed what, at best, would have been a workshop conference into a great legal, cultural and spiritual experience.” They were received by the Queen, the Prime Minister, visited St. Paul’s and Westminster Abbey, and if that were not enough, “you cause us to be greeted by the man who has done more to subordinate brute force to the rule of law, than any man of our time—America’s great friend, in war and peace, Sir Winston Churchill.” Then turning to address Churchill, seated near him on the dais, Warren says, “We feel honored, Sir, beyond our power of expression, that you who in the darkest days of history supplied the leadership which made the survival of free institutions on this continent possible, would now toast our profession and recognize it as a force for preserving those institutions.” When the U.S. entered World War II, Warren continues, “British soldiers sent the following message to our soldiers: ‘We welcome you as brothers in the struggle to make sure that the world shall be ruled by the force of law and not by the law of force.’…the struggle between force and law is not over. In many places personal freedom is still the victim of personal government. The rule of law is not yet fully accepted between nations…”