Speech - LIBERTY, SCIENCE, AND LAW (1964)

This is a speech by Vice Adm. H. G. Rickover, U.S. Navy, at the Philadelphia Bar Association's ceremonies in celebration of Law Day U.S.A. 1964, Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pa., May 1, 1964.

The speech covers the following key points:

• Importance of education on a free society

• Founding fathers and how to limit power so that men might be free

• Significance of wealth imbalance

• The possibility that misuse of science can cause untold harm

• Impact of technology riding roughshod on right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.

Quotes from speech

Our political system rests upon three fundamental precepts, having to do with the liberty of the citizen, the purpose of government, and the location of sovereignty in our society.

It disturbs me that we are so easily pressured by purveyors of technology into permitting so-called technical progress to alter our lives, without attempting to control this development—almost as if technology were an irrepressible force of nature to which we must meekly submit.