Since 1958, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower declared “Law Day” to be observed each May 1, The Jacksonville Bar Association has celebrated the occasion at its monthly meeting near the official date, based on the availability of a premier keynote speaker.
In 1962, the association invited Charles B. Fulton, an attorney from West Palm Beach who was president of The Florida Bar.
He said the salvation of democracy and the American way of life would depend on the dedication and leadership of the members of the legal community.
Speaking at the Roosevelt Hotel, Fulton used as his theme some of the concepts that were being advanced at the time by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.
Fulton said he believed Hoover was “the nation’s best-informed man” on the dangers of increasing lawlessness and on communist infiltration into American life.
He said Hoover had explained that freedom could be maintained only under a rule of law, while communism succeeded only by a rule of force.
“That principle is easy to accept. And it follows that a rule of law can be maintained only by an alert and inspired legal profession,” Fulton said.
He said that crime was increasing in America at twice the rate of the population, a trend that would surely help communism “find its first footholds.”
“The safety and security of this country is in its greatest danger today and our way of life cannot be preserved if we love anything more than we love our liberty,” said Fulton.
“Some may love money and material things more than they love liberty, and they will be the first to lose their liberty. Ironically, after they lose their liberty, they also will lose the things they loved more,” he said.
“We must fight to maintain the things that are American and the greatest force available to lead that fight is the nation’s half-million lawyers,” he said.
He was introduced by Delbridge L. Gibbs, a member of The Jacksonville Bar Association who was president-elect designate of The Florida Bar and would head the state organization in 1964.