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Rally for State Assemblyman Leonard Dunavant, GOP Candidate for Congress, Eight Congressional District, Millington, TN, March 21, 1969
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4526187
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Rally for State Assemblyman Leonard Dunavant, GOP Candidate for Congress, Eight Congressional District, Millington, TN, March 21, 1969
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1969
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The original documents are located in Box D26, folder "Rally for State Assemblyman
Leonard Dunavant, GOP Candidate for Congress, Eight Congressional District,
Millington, TN, March 21, 1969" of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and
Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of
photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United
States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.
Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public
domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to
remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid
copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Distribution: Full
Galleries 11:00 a.m. 3/2//69
air mail a.m.
M Office Copy
And RM.
20 capies Mr. Ford
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--FOR RELEASE AT 7:30 P.M. FRIDAY--
March 21, 1969
Excerpts from a Speech by Rep. Gerald R. Ford, R-Mich., Republican Leader, U.S.
House of Representatives, at a rally at Millington, Tenn. (north of Memphis)
in behalf of State Assemblyman Leonard Dunavant, Republican candidate for the
U.S. Congress, Eighth Congressional District of Tennessee, in a special
election March 25.
Tonight I want to focus on a serious threat to America, an attack on the
very foundations of our Republic.
I speak of the militant activists who are turning many of our college
and university campuses across the land into battlefields of revolutionary
terrorism.
I say it is time -- it is long past time -- that we put a stop to
disruption and violence on our college and university campuses.
Let no one misconstrue my words to mean that I do not believe in the
right of American citizens to express themselves and to disagree with what is
commonly called "the Establishment."
The right of peaceful dissent is a precious right, a constitutional right,
a right which must be protected.
But we must protect just as vigorously the right of the moderate majority
among our college students to get an education.
The constitutional right of dissent does not give any student or non-
student activist the right to engage in fascist tactics aimed at disrupting
educational processes.
I personally am convinced that these militant activists have deliberately
set out to tear down our political, economic and social system. They want to
destroy, not build. And they don't care who gets hurt.
All societies must live by a set of rules or they will perish. Organized
societies are based upon order and discipline. If the twin pillars of order
and discipline are undermined, an organized society becomes increasingly
susceptible to collapse.
On our college campuses we are seeing an unprecedented challenge to
discipline and authority and a barbarous disregard for the rights of others.
That challenge must be met and overcome.
I recognize the fact that many of the young people involved in the New
(more)
GERALO 18.FORD LIBRARY
Digitized from Box D26 of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
-2-
movement are idealists who have become impatient with the democratic process
and the non-responsiveness of some university administrations. But these young
people, yearning desperately to help solve some of our social problems, are being
exploited by revolutionaries whose goal it is to destroy existing institutions
and, in fact, our entire political system.
President Nixon and Attorney General Mitchell have made it abundantly clear
that they will do everything in their power to frustrate the objectives of the
revolutionaries.
I can assure you that the Nixon Administration will offer college and
university administrators every possible assistance in maintaining discipline
and order on college campuses. We will seek to implement the two provisions
in Federal law now available to deal with militant activists -- the cutoff of
federal aid to any disruptive college student receiving such assistance and the
prosecution of anyone crossing a state line with the intent to incite a riot.
The previous Administration did not use these legitimate weapons against
campus terrorists. We will do SO.
Even our most courageous college and university administrators need help
in dealing with the militant conspirators who are out to make trouble on our
campuses.
Your fine candidate for Congress, State Assemblyman Leonard Dunavant,
fully recognizes this problem. He endorses a forthright and firm approach by
the Nixon Administration and any additional necessary legislative authority to
cope with the fascist tactics of those who would destroy property or interfere
with the right of others to teach or receive an education.
I ask that every voter in the Eighth District of Tennessee, regardless
of his political affiliation, take a good look at Leonard Dunavant. What do
we see? An outstanding businessman, a fine family man who is a Sunday School
superintendent and church choir director and the father-in-law of a Methodist
preacher, a legislator with such obvious abilities that he heads the Finance and
Ways and Means Committee in the Tennessee State Assembly.
I submit to all of the people of the Tennessee Eighth Congressional
District that Leonard Dunavant will be a congressman who will serve them
splendidly, a congressman they can be proud of, a congressman the Nixon
Administration will be eager to work with.
You want responsible government? You want a Responsible Society? Give
us Leonard Dunavant as a colleague. Send Leonard Dunavant to Congress.
# # #
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--FOR RELEASE AT 7:30 P.M. FRIDAY--
March 21, 1969
Excerpts from a Speech by Rep. Gerald R. Ford, R-Mich., Republican Leader, U.S.
House of Representatives, at a rally at Millington, Tenn. (north of Memphis)
in behalf of State Assemblyman Leonard Dunavant, Republican candidate for the
U.S. Congress, Eighth Congressional District of Tennessee, in a special
election March 25.
Tonight I want to focus on a serious threat to America, an attack on the
very foundations of our Republic.
I speak of the militant activists who are turning many of our college
and university campuses across the land into battlefields of revolutionary
terrorism.
I say it is time -- it is long past time -- that we put a stop to
disruption and violence on our college and university campuses.
Let no one misconstrue my words to mean that I do not believe in the
right of American citizens to express themselves and to disagree with what is
commonly called "the Establishment."
The right of peaceful dissent is a precious right, a constitutional right,
a right which must be protected.
But we must protect just as vigorously the right of the moderate majority
among our college students to get an education.
The constitutional right of dissent does not give any student or non-
student activist the right to engage in fascist tactics aimed at disrupting
educational processes.
I personally am convinced that these militant activists have deliberately
set out to tear down our political, economic and social system. They want to
destroy, not build. And they don't care who gets hurt.
All societies must live by a set of rules or they will perish. Organized
societies are based upon order and discipline. If the twin pillars of order
and discipline are undermined, an organized society becomes increasingly
susceptible to collapse.
On our college campuses we are seeing an unprecedented challenge to
discipline and authority and a barbarous disregard for the rights of others.
That challenge must be met and overcome.
I recognize the fact that many of the young people involved in the New Left
(more)
GERALD
LIBRARY
-2-
movement are idealists who have become impatient with the democratic process
and the non-responsiveness of some university administrations. But these young
people, yearning desperately to help solve some of our social problems, are being
exploited by revolutionaries whose goal it is to destroy existing institutions
and, in fact, our entire political system.
President Nixon and Attorney General Mitchell have made it abundantly clear
that they will do everything in their power to frustrate the objectives of the
revolutionaries.
I can assure you that the Nixon Administration will offer college and
university administrators every possible assistance in maintaining discipline
and order on college campuses. We will seek to implement the two provisions
in Federal law now available to deal with militant activists -- the cutoff of
federal aid to any disruptive college student receiving such assistance and the
prosecution of anyone crossing a state line with the intent to incite a riot.
The previous Administration did not use these legitimate weapons against
campus terrorists. We will do SO.
Even our most courageous college and university administrators need help
in dealing with the militant conspirators who are out to make trouble on our
campuses.
Your fine candidate for Congress, State Assemblyman Leonard Dunavant,
fully recognizes this problem. He endorses a forthright and firm approach by
the Nixon Administration and any additional necessary legislative authority to
cope with the fascist tactics of those who would destroy property or interfere
with the right of others to teach or receive an education.
I ask that every voter in the Eighth District of Tennessee, regardless
of his political affiliation, take a good look at Leonard Dunavant. What do
we see? An outstanding businessman, a fine family man who is a Sunday School
superintendent and church choir director and the father-in-law of a Methodist
preacher, a legislator with such obvious abilities that he heads the Finance and
Ways and Means Committee in the Tennessee State Assembly.
I submit to all of the people of the Tennessee Eighth Congressional
District that Leonard Dunavant will be a congressman who will serve them
splendidly, a congressman they can be proud of, a congressman the Nixon
Administration will be eager to work with.
You want responsible government? You want a Responsible Society? Give
us Leonard Dunavant as a colleague. Send Leonard Dunavant to Congress.
###