 All right. I think we're going to get started here. And we're going to kick it off here with our Executive Director, Wayne Olson. Thanks very much, Carl. It's great to see everyone here tonight. There's so many friends that we're here to celebrate. Really, it's the end of an era for FI, but it's the beginning of a much more exciting new era. And so I hope this is in nature of a celebration. There are many people here who have been friends of FI for decades, who have come from Michigan, Indiana, California, Florida, all over the country just to be here with us tonight, and we really appreciate that. I want to just give a brief history of what's gone on in this property and why it's so special to us and talk a little about the enduring legacy of Leonard Reed that we take with us to our next stage. Let's face it, we love this building because it means so much to us personally what's happened to us here in our intellectual development, but it's very lovable because it's such an anachronism. Let's face it, this is a gorgeous anachronism. It was built in 1888. It was built by suburban gentry based on family wealth accumulated over three generations, starting shortly after the Revolutionary War here in the Hudson Valley. And it was the culmination of the greatest century of wealth-building that the world has ever seen. It became an anachronism approximately one generation later in 1913 with the passage of the income tax. And very shortly after that, the Great Depression of 1920 and 21 finished the... What happened to the repression of 1920 and 21? That was the depression that there were three presidents who failed to intervene in the Depression of 1920 and became the recovery of 1921. And the Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Hoover, was very upset at that so when he had his chance, he turned the Depression of 1929 into the Depression of 1929 to 1941. But that literally finished the job for this house. And it was, if you can imagine, the suburban gentry, what was left of them, could no longer, only a nonprofit could afford a property like this. At the time that Leonard Reed bought it in 1946, it had been vacant for five years. The owners had de-camped to Baltimore. They left a caretaker in charge. And the price was basically the back taxes. The back taxes were actually quite considerable. At that time, I want to make a point about the income tax. The top marginal income tax rate was 91 percent. And it was that way basically up until Kennedy. The top estate tax rate was 77 percent. And we complain here in Westchester about what we think are the highest real estate taxes imaginable. The levies on Westchester property were approximately 5 percent of value. So only a nonprofit really could afford to keep a place like this up. And it suited our purposes because being, you know, I'll tell you what Leonard Reed's vision was, but basically we went into a business of publishing an education that at that time was a very, very labor-intensive business. And including the outbuildings, we have about 25,000 square feet of space here. And we accomplish a similar kind of output today in terms of publications and education and so on in 5,000 square feet of normal office space in Atlanta. Everything else we do is outsourced. But here we had file clerks, we had typists, we had layout people, we had inventory stored in the carriage house, we had pickers and packers, we had, you know, we filled this place at that time. And so it was a good transition. Leonard Reed came here in 1946. He himself was not born to three generations of wealth. His family were dirt farmers in Michigan. And after a couple of business failures, he found his way into success. He moved out west and went into the business of being a trade association representative and rose to be the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles. And up until that time, he was kind of an ordinary guy. And in 1933, he threw a number of people, the influence of a number of people, he became aware of what he called the freedom philosophy. And it filled his soul, it fired him up and it became the mission for his life. He turned the LA Chamber of Commerce into a platform for communicating classical liberal principles to everyone who would listen. And that was from 1933 until 1946 when he came back east with the intention of creating a platform that would do on a national level what he had been doing in California. And it's a little hard to compare because at that time, the first thing he did was to set out publishing books that had been out of print for decades or books that would not have existed without Leonard. One example, this little volume is one of my most treasured artifacts. This was given to me by a donor in California. This is a Bastiat, that which is seen and that which is not seen. It's a very clunky old-fashioned translation which R.C. Hoyle's bought in a used bookstore in London. It was totally out of print and he had it reprinted at the Santa Ana Register and charged a buck a piece and he tried to give it out to as many people who would listen. And Leonard said that was great but he read it and he commissioned a new translation of everything that Bastiat wrote and Fee became the publisher of the complete works of Bastiat. Human action was prepared, the manuscript was prepared here at Fee because Ludwig von Mises, although he was a professor of economics at NYU at that time, he had no secretary and he had no means to get a book published. Not only did he prepare the manuscript here but Leonard assured its publication by Yale University Press by guaranteeing the first 500 copies which he then distributed free to every library in America, the academic library. Bastiat's The Law which was translated by Dean Russell has been apparently Fee's bestseller ever since and we've, I don't know, hundreds of thousands of copies have gone through here. According to Israel Kursner, he had a major role in the revival of the Austrian School of Economics. According to many, at that time, we had a major role in the founding of the Montpelerin Society. And a number of testimonials in the 50th anniversary edition of The Freeman show that we had a significant influence on the founders of the Hudson Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Liberty Fund, the Universidad Francisco Marroquín, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, now the Atlas Network, the Reason Foundation, the Pioneer Institute, the Institute for Humane Studies, the Foundation for, Fund for American Studies, laissez-faire books, Future Freedom Foundation, the Institute for Justice, the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, the Leadership Institute, the Cato Institute, the Independent Institute, and the list goes on and on. This really was the beginning for a lot of people in their intellectual and moral and emotional journey. At the time, I want to read you some alternative testimonials that appeared in the popular press. The syndicated column is Drew Pearson. Anybody remember Drew Pearson? Yeah. Yeah. He called the Foundation for Economic Education, and I quote, a mysterious organization of vigorous lobby aimed at wrecking the European Recovery Program that has been flooding the country with propaganda, aimed at undermining the Marshall Plan, rent control, aid to education, and social security. Yeah. Let's see. We have other commentaries. A left-wing publication called Ammunition, characterized the Foundation for Economic Education as being set up with plumbing that included a pipeline into the treasury of every big corporation in America. And there was a House Select Committee on Lobbying. It took a tremendous interest in fee. And the Democratic, it was then controlled by the Democratic majority, Carl Albert of Oklahoma, of Oklahoma commented that Leonard Reid was far more effective in his educational organization than the average buttonhole artist so-called in the Capitol Building. And the House Select Committee set out to determine whether or not new legislation was needed to regulate lobbyists and to include the Foundation for Economic Education in that category. However, the Republican minority refused to sign the report from the committee. Leonard Reid testified before the committee, considering it too biased, and the Republican minority report was that it was designed only to help leftists now running for office. Does that sound familiar? There are many, many testimonials to fee in the 50th anniversary edition from 1996, but I'd only want to mention two. One is from a gentleman named Larry Reid, who was then the president of the Mackinac Institute in Michigan, and he wrote, when G.K. Chesterton was asked why there were no statues in England to commemorate the influence there of the Romans, he answered, are we not all statues to the Romans? In a very real way, statues to the Foundation for Economic Education are everywhere in the form of people and institutions that seek to advance the ideas that have been nurtured for years by fee when those ideas were not popular. I'd also mention a note by Gary North, who particularly noted that it was a distinguishing feature of fee, that it is, as he put it, the only organization that introduces newcomers to the idea of the free market as a moral institution, not just as a means of efficient production. And then just as a brief historical note, and then we can move on to the business of the evening, Paul Poirot, who was an editor of the Freeman for many years, was himself cited as a key mentor by Kim Strassel of the Wall Street Journal when she won the Bradley Award this year, he had some interesting historical perspectives on fee, and he talked about the pivotal role played by Bob Anderson who helped keep the operation together after the death of Leonard Reid in 1983 and through a succession of short-term presidents until Hans Sennholz took up the position in the early 90s. He said, perhaps the most outstanding contribution that Bob Anderson made to the Freeman was to bring Beth Herbner-Hoffman aboard as the production editor. Eventually she became the managing editor and Beth held that position until her untimely death, which occurred here in this building in 2008. During the time that I was privileged to know her, she maintained an apartment upstairs at the top of that circular staircase that looks like only a geisha could get up, and she lived there from Sunday night to Friday afternoon, commuting back to her home in New Jersey for the weekends. She was the most tireless and dedicated worker on behalf of Liberty that I've ever known, a phenomenal networker who seemed to know everyone and really enjoyed getting to know everybody that came through this building. Beth was definitely old school. She wouldn't tolerate snoppiness anywhere in the Freeman, and she hated typos so bad. She hated unverified facts, flimsy logic, poor grammar, poor construction. As Paul Poirot said of Bob Anderson, the idea of Beth Hoffman that she was an enormous force for holding fee together through many difficult transitions. I know that the troubles of fee took an enormous emotional toll on her, but her spirit never failed. I know that she would be sad to see her old home go, but she would be thrilled to see the work of fee carried on as one of the primary organizations today that still introduces newcomers to the idea of the free market as a moral institution and not just as a means of efficient production. With that, I think Carl has a couple of announcements. Thank you, Wayne. Just a few things before we bring Larry up. One, I'm sure many of you know that we had an auction online and in person the last couple of events here at Fee. All of those items sold. Are we okay? All those items sold. We want to thank everybody who participated in the auction, and I know a number of you are here tonight, so if you want to talk about taking your item, please see me, and we'll get that to you. There are actually two items that did not sell. One is a plate from my golf club here in Westchester County that Leonard Reed had. Leonard was a fanatical golfer, and so if somebody would like to take a look at that and let me know if you'd like that. We also did not sell a five ounce gold coin with Ludwig von Mises' head on it, and we're selling that as well, so if anybody is interested in that, please see me. Another thing I'd like to talk about is, I'm sure a lot of you are very interested and concerned that gatherings like this continue to take place in New York City and in Westchester, and Fee has formed a strong partnership with the Bastiat Institute. Bastiat Institute is an organization around the country and around the world that reaches out to business communities and tries to form discussion groups similar to this one, and the executive director of the Bastiat Institute is here with us tonight, Brad DeVos. Brad is right there. Brad and I are also members of the Bearded Guy Club, so if you want to talk about that too, we can talk about that. But we had a good meeting this afternoon with some people here in Westchester and in the city that are interested in keeping this going. If you're interested in participating in that, what we've done is there's some Bastiat Institute materials out in front at the registration desk. We also have a sign-up sheet up there. Please put your name on it. Talk to myself, talk to Brad, and we're going to keep this going. We won't be able to do it here, but we will do it somewhere, and we will continue this type of activity as long as we can. The last thing before I introduce Larry is, since this is the last event here tonight, we are going to do a champagne toast after Larry's done with his remarks. So what I'd ask is, after the Q&A session, actually doing the last question of the Q&A, we're going to start handing out, we're going to do it in here, and we're going to start handing out champagne flutes to everybody. So once we start the last question, try to clear the aisle, the staff will be coming through, handing those out, and we'll do that as soon as Larry will do the toast as soon as he's done with that final question. I will... Oh, please turn off your cell phones as a reminder. Thank you for doing that. And with that, I will introduce Larry. I am not going to read the extensive Larry Read biography that you will find on Fee's website and in many other places. All I'll say is that Larry has been the president of Fee since 2008. For 20 years before that, he was the president of the Mackinaw Center for Public Policy in Michigan. He is a tireless advocate for liberty, not only here in the United States, not only in Michigan, not only in Georgia, but everywhere on the planet. He traveled the world spreading the message of liberty. He risked his life on many occasions in places like Nicaragua and Mozambique. He has just been a godsend to us here at Fee and a, like I said, a tireless advocate that I don't think will ever stop. So let's not let him stop now. Come on up, Larry. Thank you, Carl, and thank you, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to begin with a few introductions. First of all, I know we have at least two sitting trustees of the Fee Board of Trustees present tonight. I want you to acknowledge them. We have Don Smith, who's been on the board for a number of years in Manhattan. Chris Talley from Indianapolis. This is with Liberty Fund, the president of Liberty Fund. And Chris Moran from the Acton Institute in Michigan. Chris, can you stand up? Any others? Well, our Board of Trustees member is one you don't want to miss. They're my bosses. Any others? Well, I do know that we also have a former Board of Trustees member. Maybe more than one, for all that I know. But Mark Spangler, who was on the board when I was way back in the 80s and 90s, he told us. Anyone else serve on the Fee Board of Trustees before, who might be here tonight? Okay. Well, the other person I want to introduce is a very special friend. He is my successor at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, where I served as president before coming to Fee, and has done a marvelous job. As was our plan, it was a seamless transition and the organization committed to the same ideals, though focused on the state of Michigan. The same ideals that Fee has has continued to prosper under his leadership. His name is Joe Layman. He's the president of the Mackinac Center, and he's here to say a few words. This is his first time to Fee, by the way. So it's a very special occasion. Joe. Speak without the aid of Carl's microphone. But thank you very much, Larry. It is truly a delight to be here. And I have to admit, I am going to claim a little special privilege here tonight, because I'm sure that I have the privilege of having worked shoulder to shoulder with Larry Reid longer than anyone else in this room for 13 years every day. I don't think we missed a day. No. And there were some days it seemed like two or three days. And the secret to success of working with Larry is no matter how many times he fires you, you just keep coming back to work. And I am so delighted to see someone who I mentored all those years and do something to such great work at Fee. And I think Larry is exactly what Fee needed in 2008 and exactly the right person at Fee's period of transition now. If you don't know it yet, Larry is a pathological optimist. And I mean that in the positive sense. A pathological optimist. And we have to have some of that in all of us to keep fighting for freedom. The rumors that you hear about Larry's good work are probably true. I may or may not have edited a few of Larry's Freeman columns before they went to the Freeman back in the 1990s. And I can tell you they did not need very much editing. But as Larry said, this is my first time here at Irvington and perhaps my last. But I have always known this campus as a venerated place. And I believe that I may be emblematic of how Fee's ideas transcend any place. It is the ideas of Fee that animated me to quit a perfectly good job in the engineering world and join the Liberty Movement, working with Larry back in 1995. And it is those ideas that have animated countless others to carry forth Fee's ideals. Liberty has never sunk permanent roots in any one place. That is both good news and it is a warning, isn't it? If we want Liberty to take root, we must continue to nurture and water and fertilize the place that we are and work for it. We can't take anything for granted. But though the home of Fee may move around, it doesn't make its ideas any less impactful. Fee's idea is not its place. It is Fee's ideas, not its place, that has put the ideas of Liberty and free markets in play in 50 state legislatures. A movement that I've seen grow from small beginnings in the late 1980s until now. It's one reason we have school choice in more than two dozen states. School choice of one measure or another. And to leave out many other successes, I'll just say that it is the ideas of Fee that you can draw a direct connection to the fact that Michigan is now a right to work state. So Fee and Larry and Carl and Wayne have my congratulations and my hearty applause. We need you to keep going onward and we're with you all the way. Thank you, Joe. Thank you very much. Thank you, Joe. Thank you for those very kind comments. If I had thought I was half that good, I would have shown more. As I normally say at the start of these events, but with a slight addendum tonight, welcome to the Foundation for Economic Education. Freedom's home since 1946, wherever we may be. Tonight, I'm going to do something a little unique for me. I typically address audiences more from sketchy notes than from a prepared text. This is such an important occasion, a once-in-a-lifetime occasion, I wanted to be sure that I got it right. And so I want to talk to you tonight from a prepared text, but I've timed it, it's only 25 minutes. And it'll deal with a very important series of lessons from one of history's greatest civilizations. For those of you who may have read some things I've written on Rome or heard other speeches, you'll recognize some familiar passages. But there are some things in here tonight that no one here has heard. So I hope you'll bear with me. I want to begin with a quote from the Roman historian Levy who wrote this 2,000 years ago. There is an exceptionally beneficial and fruitful advantage to be derived from the study of the past. There you see set in the clear light historical truth examples of every possible type. From these, you can select for yourself and for your country what to imitate and also what, as being mischievous in its inception and disastrous in its consequences, you should avoid. That's Levy, 2,000 years ago. The history of ancient Rome, the society which gave birth to Levy, spans 1,000 years. Roughly 500 as a republic with protections for basic liberties and 500 as an imperial autocracy with the birth of Christ occurring almost precisely in the middle. The closest parallels between Roman and American civilizations are to be found in Rome's first half millennia as a republic. I know quite often people will talk about the parallels in the second half of millennia, but I think the more instructive lessons come from the first half from Rome's birth as a republic and ultimately the extension of that republic and then to be followed by the rise of an imperial autocracy. The tyranny of the empire of that autocracy came after the republic was destroyed and that's the truly awful consequence of decay that places like America can hopefully yet avoid. Both Rome and America were born in revolt against monarchy. Americans against the British and Romans against the Etruscans. Worry of concentrated authority both established republics with checks and balances, separation of powers and protection of certain rights of at least many people if not all. Despite shortcomings, the establishment of the Roman Republic in the 6th century B.C. and the American Republic in the 18th century A.D. represented the greatest advances for individual liberty in the history of the world. Unparalleled prosperity and influence resulted in both cases. Upon winning their freedom, Romans split the top positions of power between two men, the consuls. One was to be a check upon the other and neither except in emergency situations was to serve more than one year. Legislative so term limits aren't all that recent. Legislative bodies, the Senate and assemblies of elected representatives were established and incidentally the Senate was retained in name if not in power for the entire thousand years of Roman history even as freedom vanished. The later tyrants couldn't quite bring themselves to abolish the symbols of republicanism. So if America ever loses its Republic, it wouldn't be surprising to me if it kept its house and Senate. As in the case of Rome, our legislative bodies may even formally ratify the final extinction of the freedom they've been voting against for decades. Let me share with you what I call the three most stubborn lessons of history. And then I'll go back and briefly relate each to the Roman Republic. And the first one is all who have lost their character kept their liberties. And I know of no exception to this in all of history. No people who lost their character, as I defined it, kept their liberties. Number two, power that is shackled and dispersed is preferable to power that is unrestrained and centralized. And number three, the here and now is rarely as important as tomorrow. Now, the first of these three, no people who lost their character kept their liberties. Character, as I'm using the term, embodies the trait of virtue, which is from the Latin vertus, meaning courageous honesty. Above all, it was esteemed by the early Romans of the Republic. It was routinely taught in the homes by mothers and fathers. Indeed, all formal education took place in the home centuries of the Roman Republic. Schools didn't appear until the third century B.C. and even then, they did not receive government funding until well after the Republic had faded. I guess the lesson there is that government funding is not necessary for the decline of civilization, but it sure helps. Other traits of character stressed in early Rome were gravitas, or dignity, self-discipline, industria, diligence, benevolentia, goodwill, pietas, loyalty in a sense of duty, and simplicitas, which meant candor. The connection between character and liberty, both in Roman history and in ours, is powerful. Liberty, by which I mean the rule of law, respect for, protection of the lives, rights, property, and contracts of others, is a simple arrangement that requires high standards of character, no other system, especially socialism and all of its variants, asks much of you other than keep quiet, pay your taxes, and go get yourself killed when the state so directs. The absence of character produces chaos and tyranny. Its presence is what makes liberty possible. Where Rome rose from nothing and sustained itself as a great entity for centuries, largely because of its strong and early character. When Romans allowed the temptation of the welfare state to erode their character, when they abandoned responsibility, self-discipline, self-reliance, respect for the property of others, when they began to use government to rob Peter to pay Paul, they turned down a fateful and destructive path. How many of you remember a man associated with Fee for a number of years? Lady Economist Howard E. Kershner who wrote a great book once called Dividing the Wealth as well as others, something called Kershner's First Law has a lot to say about the rise and fall of Rome and maybe other places too. It reads, when a self-governing people confer upon their government the power to take from some and give to others, the process will not stop until the last bone of the last taxpayer is picked bare. The only quarrel I have with that is that it sounds inevitable that once you start you can't turn around but if we thought that at Fee we wouldn't be working for what we know to be right, to be a better future but it is instructed nonetheless. In the waning years of the Roman Republic a rogue named Claudius ran for the office of Tribune on a platform of free wheat for the masses. He won. Thereafter Romans in growing numbers embraced the notion that voting for a living could be more lucrative than working for one. Candidates for Roman office spent huge sums to win public favor then plundered the population afterwards to make good on their promises to the greedy mob that had elected them. As the Republic gave way to dictatorship a succession of emperors built their power on the handouts that they controlled. Nearly a third of the city of Rome received public relief payments by the time of the birth of Christ. The historian H.J. Haskell describes the tragic turn of ideas and events around the first century BC, first century AD, and he says this less than a century after the Republic invaded into the autocracy of the empire that people had lost all taste for republican institutions. On the death of an emperor the senate debated whether or not to restore the Republic but the commons preferred the rule of an extravagant despot who would continue the dole and furnish them free shows. The mob outside the senate clamored for one ruler of the world. It's frightening isn't it? To consider how easily easily a sturdy people when they let their guard and their character down can be bought and paid for by the welfare state and once they sell themselves for that mess of potage from politicians it's not impossible to turn back but it's not easy either. Now to the second lesson power that is shackled and dispersed is preferable to power that is unrestrained and centralized. Just like Americans 2,500 years later Romans got it right when they determined at their nation's birth that concentrated power was the main problem of governance it was the source of endless other problems too. They and we once understood the wisdom of Lord Acton's famous admonition power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and I always like to add my own that power attracts the already corrupted. Have you ever noticed that? Power concentrates because that's what power does if the people are not vigilant. In Rome cities and provinces lost their independence to the central government after demanding funds from that government to bail them out of financial difficulty. The greatest of all Roman historians Tacitus noted how freedom was undermined and the focus of Roman legislation changed from the security and good of all to the satisfaction of particular individuals and interest groups in his words and now bills were passed not only for national objects but for individual cases and laws were most numerous when the commonwealth was most corrupt. In 33 AD well after the demise of the Republic a financial panic gripped Rome. The government responded by a massive issuance of zero interest credit. Businesses that happily took the bait found themselves later thoroughly ensnared after all he who pays the piper calls the tune. Roman leaders increasingly sought power not only against their own people but over others as well. They embarked upon one foreign culture after another. At first for the security of Rome later often for the sake of domination or plunder. Add the costs of empire to the costs of a welfare state and eventually bills come due that even the most power mad tax collector cannot pay without cheating the people of a sound currency. The emperor Nero in 54 AD by the way Nero is known for other things but he may have been the father of Nero but he once rubbed his hands together according to the Roman historian and declared let us tax let us tax again let us tax until no one owns anything. He was also the first emperor to debase the Roman coin by reducing its silver content. Power is an exceedingly dangerous thing in the hands of anybody any government. Another quote is often attributed to George Washington and though that's never been verified it nonetheless sounds like almost any of our founders could have said or would certainly have agreed with government is not reason it is not eloquence it is force and like fire it can be either a dangerous servant or a fearful master. Now to the third lesson the here and now is rarely as important as tomorrow. Early Romans as with early Americans built and planned and lived for the future. They sacrificed present gratification so the future would be better. Then there came a time in both societies when living for the moment ruled the day. The feeling was get what you can now regardless of the cost or who pays for it or how untenable a situation it may cause for you or for your next generation tomorrow. If problems arise somebody down the road will figure it out after we're gone. We've heard talk in recent years in this country that certain companies are quote too big to fail but in dealing with that imaginary short term problem we've handed huge chunks of our lives and economy over to a government that is now arguably too big to succeed. Rome did precisely the same thing. Live for the moment damn the future, appre la deluge as the French say. You might ask was there a reason why I spent a little more time on the first lesson that I did the second and the third and yes there is. Character is the key. If you've noticed it's become an increasing focus of fee in explaining the connection to young audiences between liberty and character. It's everything really. Little of value is possible without it, without character. And there's hardly any better use of time than to study men and women who possess it or possessed it in copious quantities. And now I'd like to tell you about one such person from Roman times. I have a question for you first however. Have you ever thought about if you could go back in time and spend one hour in conversation with ten people each one separately and privately whom would you choose? Have you ever thought about that? Give it some thought over coming days because who you choose will say a lot about your interests and other things about you I think. Who would you most like to spend an hour with if you could go back in time and meet with any ten people one at a time? My list isn't exactly the same as the date of the next. But at least a couple names are always on it without fail. And one of them is Marcus Tullius Cicero. He was the greatest citizen of the greatest ancient civilization Rome. He was its most eloquent orator and its most distinguished man of letters. He was elected to its highest office as well as most of the lesser ones that were of any importance at all. More than anyone else, he introduced to Rome the best of the ideas of the Greeks. More of his written and spoken work survives to this day including hundreds of speeches and letters than that of any other historical figure before 1000 A.D. Most importantly he gave his life for peace and liberty as the greatest defender of the Roman Republic before it plunged into the darkness of a warfare state. Cato Institute scholar Jim Powell opened his remarkable book, The Triumph of Liberty a 2000 year history told through the lives of freedom's greatest champions with a chapter on this Roman hero. A chapter he closed with this fitting tribute, quote, Cicero urged people to reason together. He championed decency in peace and he gave the modern world some of the most fundamental ideas of liberty. At a time when speaking freely was dangerous he courageously denounced tyranny. He helped keep the torch of liberty burning bright for more than 2000 years, so says Jim Powell. To that I would add he was also the greatest defender of the Roman Constitution as it was under sustained assault of power seekers and the welfare warfare state. Who wouldn't want to have an hour with this man? It's not the magnificent buildings in which Cicero spoke, the senate, the forum, for example, which deserve our admiration. It's the man and his ideas. PJ O'Rourke recently said the Romans have had 2000 years to fix up the forum and just look at the place. Marcus Tullius Cicero was born in 106 BC in the small town of Arpidum about 60 miles southeast of Rome. He began practicing law in his early 20s. His most celebrated case which he won required him to defend a man accused of murdering his father. He secured an acquittal by convincing the jury that in fact the real murderers were closely aligned to the highest public officials in Rome. It was the first but not the last time that he put himself in grave danger for what he believed to be right. Roman voters rewarded Cicero with victory in one office after another as he worked his way up the ladder of government. Along the way the patrician nobility of Rome never quite embraced him because he hailed from a slightly more humble class, the so-called equestrian order, mainly merchants. He reached the pinnacle of office in 63 BC when at the age of 63, Romans elected him co-consul. The consul's ship as I mentioned earlier was Rome's highest office through authority though authority under the Roman constitution was shared between two co-equal consuls. One could veto the decisions of the other and both were limited to a single one-year term. Cicero's co-consul a man you probably never have heard of, Gaius Antonius Hiberduck was so overshadowed by his colleagues eloquence and magnetism that he's but a footnote today. In contrast, Cicero emerged as the savior of the Republic amid a spectacular plot to snuff it out. The ringleader of a vast conspiracy to snuff out the Roman Republic was a senator named Lucius Sergius Catiline, how many have heard of Catiline before. This disgruntled power-hungry Roman and a senator, no less, assembled an extensive network of fellow travelers including some of the senators. The plan was to ignite a general insurrection across Italy, march on Rome with the aid of mercenaries, assassinate Cicero and his co-consul seize power and crush all opposition. Cicero learned of the plot and quietly conducted his own negotiations. Then in a series of four powerful orations you can read to this day, orations before the Senate, with Catiline himself present for the first, he cut loose. The great orator mesmerized the Senate with these opening lines of his first speech and the blistering indictment that followed. He said, how long, oh Catiline, will you abuse our patience? To what end will your unbridled audacity hurl itself? Before Cicero was finished, Catiline fled the Senate. He rallied his dwindling army but was ultimately killed in battle. Other top conspirators were exposed and disposed of. Cicero, on whom the Senate had conferred emergency and total power, walked away from that power and restored the Republic. Even the honorary title of Pater Patriae, father of the country. But Rome at the time of the Catalanarian conspiracy was not the Rome of two or three centuries before when honor, virtue and character were the watch words of Roman life. By Cicero's time the place was rife with corruption and power lust. The outward appearances of a Republic were undermined daily by the growing welfare warfare state. Many who gave lip service in public to Republican values were privately conniving to secure power or wealth through their political connections. Others were corrupted or bribed into silence by government handouts. The Republic was on life support and Cicero's voice was soon itself to be drowned out by a rising tide of political intrigue and violence and popular apathy. In 1860 BC, Julius Caesar, then a senator and military general with boundless ambition, tried to get Cicero to join a powerful partnership that became known as the First Triumvirate. But Cicero's liberty sentiments prompted him to reject the offer out of hand. Two years later and barely five years after crushing Catalan's conspiracy, Cicero found himself on the wrong side of political intrigue. Political opponents gave to thwart his influence, resulting in a brief exile to northern Greece. He returned, however, to a hero's welcome, but retired to his writing. Over the next decade or so, he gifted the world with impressive literary and philosophical work, one of my favorites being day officious or on duties. In it he wrote, listen to this, Cicero wrote, the chief purpose in the Constitutional Orders is that of individual property rights that they might be secured. It is the peculiar function of state and city to guarantee to every man the free and undisturbed control of his own property. Politics, however, would not leave Cicero alone. Rivalry between Caesar and another leading political figure in general, Pompey, exploded in the Civil War. Cicero reluctantly sided with the latter, with Pompey, whom he regarded as the lesser of two evils and less dangerous to the Republic. But Caesar triumphed over Pompey who was killed in Egypt, and then he cowed the Senate into naming him dictator for life. A month later, Caesar himself was assassinated in the Senate by pro-Republican forces. When Mark Antony attempted to succeed Caesar as dictator, it was Cicero who spearheaded the Republican cause once again. He delivered a series of 14 powerful speeches known in history, still readable today and known in history as the Philippics. Cicero's oratory never soared higher. With the remnants of the Republic hanging by a thread, he threw the scroll at Antony. The would-be dictator Cicero declared was nothing but a bloodthirsty tyrant in waiting. Quote, I fought for the Republic when I was young, he asserted. I shall not abandon her in my old age. I scorn the daggers of Catiline. I shall not tremble before yours. Rather, I would willingly expose my body to them if by my death the liberty of the nation could be recovered and the agony of the Roman people could at last bring to birth that which is it has so long been in labor. Antony and his fellow conspirators named Cicero an enemy of the state, a badge which I'm sure he wore with honor. They sent an assassin, Herendias to take him out. On the 7th of December, 43 B.C., the killer found his target. The great statesman buried his neck and faced as a silent with these last words. There was nothing proper about what you were doing, soldier, but do try to kill me properly. With one sword stroke to the neck, the life of the last major obstacle to dictatorship was extinguished. At that moment, the 500-year-old Roman Republic expired, too, to be replaced by the imperial dictatorship we briefly have discussed. Roman liberty was gone. On the orders of Antony, Cicero's hands were severed and nailed along with his head to the speaker's platform in the Roman Forum. Antony's wife, personally pulled out Cicero's tongue and in a rage against his oratory, stabbed it repeatedly with her hairpin. Jim Powell reports in The Triumph of Liberty that a century after that ghastly deed, the Roman writer Quintillion declared that Cicero was, quote, the name not of a man, but of eloquence itself. Thirteen centuries later, when the printing press was invented, the first book it produced was, of course, the Gutenberg Bible, but you may not know that the second was Cicero's dissertation on duties. Three more centuries passed when Thomas Jefferson called Cicero, quote, the first master of the world. And John Adams proclaimed that, quote, all the ages of the world have not produced a greater statesman and philosopher than Marcus Tullius Cicero. Well, some might say that Cicero's labors to save the Roman Republic were, at least in hindsight, a waste of time. He gave his life for an ideal that he was able to extend tenuously for maybe a couple of decades. But if I had an hour with Cicero, I would thank him. I would want him to know of the inspiration he remains to lovers of liberty everywhere, more than two millennia after he lived. I would share with him one of my favorite remarks about heroism from the screenwriter and film producer Joss Whedon, quote, the thing about a hero is even when it doesn't look like there's a light at the end of the tunnel, he's going to keep digging. And make up for what's gone before because that's who he is. And that is exactly who Cicero was. Do we Americans of 2014 have the character to preserve our liberties? That's the $64,000 question, isn't it? That sounds like such a small amount these days. Maybe. That's the $564,000 question. By almost any measure, the standards that we as citizens keep and expect of those we elect have slipped badly in recent years. Though everybody complains about politicians who pander, perhaps they do it because we're increasingly a panderable people. Too many are willing to look the other way when politicians misbehave as long as they're of the right party or deliver the goods that we personally demand. Our celebrity drenched culture focuses obsessively on the vapid and the irresponsible. Our role models would make our grandparents cringe. We cut corners and sacrifice character all the time for power, money, or attention or other ephemeral gratifications. Our constitution like the Roman one is skirted, misinterpreted and all but ignored by our highest authorities. But so many Americans seem not to care. Bad character leads to bad policy and bad economics which is bad for liberty. Without character a free society is not just unlikely it's not possible. I will close by asking and then answering an important question to avoid the fate of the dead and buried Roman Republic what do we need in America to do today? This comes from someone I don't know although I've doubled it in size and added a lot of my own verbiage but I wish I could give credit to the person who first came up with elements of this but it reads as follows whoever wrote it America needs more men and women who do not have a price at which they can be bought who do not borrow from integrity to pay for expediency who have their priorities straight and in proper order whose handshake is an ironclad contract who are not afraid of taking risks to advance what is right who are honest and small matters and in large who treat the rights and property of others as they would expect others to regard theirs America needs more men and women whose ambitions are big enough to include others who know how to win with grace and lose with dignity who do not believe that shrewdness and cutting and ruthlessness are the three keys to success who still have friends that they made 20 or 30 years ago who put principle and consistency above politics or personal advancement and who are not afraid to go against the grain of popular opinion and who regard their own self-reliance and responsibility as infinitely more sacred than a handout from the government America needs more men and women who do not forsake what is right just to get consensus because it makes them look good who know how important it is to lead by example not by barking orders who would not have you do something they would not do themselves who work to turn even the most adverse circumstances into opportunities to learn and improve and who truly love liberty and are eager to give more than a lip service to it and who love even those who have done some injustice or unfairness to them America in other words needs more men and women of character thank you thank you very much I appreciate that we had some time for questions if I could answer them I'll do my best yes man oh I'm sorry should we wait till we have a microphone okay sorry if you wait just a moment the mic is on the way the question I have is my reading about the fall of the Roman Empire includes slavery and you have a very different take can you just address the issue of slavery and how that led to unemployment in your yes okay the question has to do with Roman slavery and I only obliquely reference early on when I mentioned that Roman liberty was guaranteed to some but not all which was also the case for the first many decades here in America slavery was always in existence in Rome the only thing you can say on behalf of the Romans was it was less prevalent and less brutal in much of the Roman world during the Roman Republic that it would become later in the Empire or that it was in much of the rest of the world and there's no way you could ever argue that slavery benefited Roman society in the long run as it was harmful to America or to any society it was harmful to Rome as well so as much as I would love to say that Rome extended liberty to every living soul it never quite went that far but it went further than any people before it and that any people would go until the birth of America many centuries later oh yes okay that was an issue yes it was this dish's domino effect late in the Republic there were many examples of where the well to do used their political power to deploy slave labor on their plantations putting out of business many private small farmers and then the appearance of the Gragas brothers who are among the among the first not the first first in a big way to start offering a dole was an attempt to address this it was not the proper way to do it the proper way would have been to stop the political favors that allowed the well to do to use their power to enslave people at the expense of both those enslaved and the free labor farms they competed with but that's the way Rome went in the direction of a dole partly as a response to the impact of slavery so it was very negative influence in many ways yes microphone who are some of your other top 10 folks you'd want to spend an hour with who would be among my top 10 well another one that's always on that list of course is Christ and whether you are a Christian or not I would think you might want to consider putting him at the top of the list simply because of the monumental impact he had and the incredible message that he offered so he would certainly be there Grover Cleveland my favorite president I want to I met his son I just haven't met him so I'd like to meet him oh another one would be here's a name you won't know perhaps but her name is the Duchess of Ethel Catherine Ethel A-T-H-O-L-L remarkable woman one of those I'm just so sad that we've forgotten about her in the 1930s she was only the third woman ever elected to the British Parliament and because she was principled to the core in favor of all the things we are here free markets less government and in foreign policy she was in favor of non-intervention but a strong defense for Britain against any aggressor she saw the threat of Hitler early and incurred the wrath of her own party the leadership of her own party Neville Chamberlain the prime minister much of the time she was in Parliament on down as she spoke out against the rise of Hitler and against the rise of socialism at home a remarkable woman who in 1931 by the way she wrote wonderful very academic scholarly and blistering indictments of Soviet communism that any of us here would find of great value to this day so I'd love to have time with her just because of what she said and what she did what she stood for in spite of she was a thatcher long before thatcher you might say oh another one would be David Livingston the great missionary and explorer I'd love to spend time with him to talk about his anti-slavery efforts as well as his quest to find the source of the Nile and his endless efforts at the slave trade William Wilberforce for whom one of my dogs is named and Thomas Clarkson his right hand man for whom my other dog is named I would love to meet both of them champions in the anti-slavery effort in Britain in the late 18th century early 19th Oh Harriet Tubman one of the leaders of the Underground Railroad who once said that she could have freed so many more if only she had convinced them that they in fact were slaves remarkable woman something very close to that anyway if I didn't get it quite right maybe I'll think of some more but those are certainly high on my list oh the framers absolutely yeah probably George Mason more than any leading anti-federalists and very eloquent speaker from Virginia George Mason for sure oh I'd love to have a moment Washington even though I probably would have been of the other party I would have loved to I would love to have a moment with him to thank him for the example that he set in so many ways because our country could have gone a very different direction had it not been for the example that our first president set so yeah he's a hero he's a hero well those are a few yes sir what would be the three most three biggest reforms I would suggest if I if I could somehow make them happen by the way I want to mention another name before I get your question because he's local a man that every New Yorker should know one of the greatest most eloquent spokesperson for Liberty that the U.S. Congress has ever had he would have been president had it not been for the fact that he was born in Ireland but he was a congressman spanning something like 35 years but not all of that time he'd serve for a couple terms go back to work in Manhattan and then a few years later run again get elected for a term and go back home his name was Burke Cochran he's very not far from here, Wayne and I visited his grave site COCKRAN you go to our website type in that name you'll read about Burke Cochran Steve Horwitz as an Austrian economist would especially appreciate this in 1893 Burke Cochran gave an address in congress almost from memory not from prepared text sketchy notes at best it was a two and a half hour history of money and banking and decades before Mises he's in congress saying every crisis in the economy has been preceded by an inflation of money and credit by the government and he goes back and cites instance after instance both in British history and the United States and he was right on every other issue too and very outspoken Burke Cochran you can still find biographies of him and he's a local guy right from New York City imagine that city electing somebody like him a day we got our work cut out for us what three reforms would I put in place keep in mind that ours is not a push button solution I sympathize with the question I wish it were but ultimately I don't want to for any moment get you thinking that there's some quick fix to our problems because ultimately it's a long-term process of character rebuilding on the part of all of us and then the policies take care of themselves but if I could implement three reforms at the policy level probably certainly I would end the Fed that would be high on the list and I would try to do it in a way that educated the public I would explain that markets are the problem with money is after 100 years of steady erosion in its capital and multiple crises stimulated by the agency in charge of it the problem is putting the market back in charge of money and taking it out of the hand of political appointees try to use it as an educational opportunity a balanced budget amendment would be important if I could I would abolish about half or more of the federal government and take out whole agencies whole cabinet departments root down on that but you know if all I could do was just have a half hour on television with the American people I think I would talk to them about the danger of the erosion of their character and why all the issues that seem to animate their conversations and their concerns today from a 17 and a half trillion dollar national debt to out of control spending and regulations I would try to convince them that all of that stems from this erosion of character if we don't come to grips with it we will suffer the fate of every nation that has seen its character suffer and that is liberty goes down the tube that's such a powerful message and I'm so privileged I feel to be a part of an organization that has made that front and center of our message because I don't think anybody else is quite doing it the way we are and where that message is delivered eloquently it resonates believe me okay I don't know who was next but we should go to the back somewhere in the back thinking about Cicero for today and realizing the differences in thousands of years but still trying to transplant Cicero to the US Congress Senator House of Representatives and without getting partisan still his lesson of principle and character and courage and compromise even well what would you counsel some of our present congressional leaders as we struggle with the upcoming election the congressional elections and these big big enormous matters of finance and responsibility what would you say that you think might capture the attention of the public and lead to some real changes well I think I would start by telling them look I could give you policy advice but that will take care of other problems first if you're a public official I would first start by saying stand for something that's more important than yourself more important than your own political power and your own political career put the country in its future and its liberties first and foremost if that means because you're not an eloquent spokesman for it that you don't survive your reelection you can at least hold your head high and tell the country you stood for what you believed in and you didn't compromise to retain power the biggest problem in Washington today is power the love of it the lust for it the desire to do anything to achieve it the willingness to cut corners, pervericate, lie, steal, whatever it takes to keep it at your hands that's the number one problem and I would tell them that's something someday you're going to pay an awful price for unless you change your habits today understand liberty because it is the loftiest most noble, earthly ideal I can think of for human existence that people should be free to be who they are left free to their own devices so long as they commit no harm no violation of their rights and property of others I would try to re-inspire in them a desire for liberty not for the exercise of power they probably never hear that message we have time a couple more Carl how about the one in the back right next to you I think you may have answered the first question which was from where do the criteria that you expressed for the definition of character from where does it derive and the secondary question is what do you tell young people today who in my view are unemployable in any institutional whether it's government academia or any major corporation I'm not talking about a mom and pop store unemployable if they in any way express the character that you advocate what do you advise them to navigate that situation I hope I can remember the second as I answer the first I tell audiences because on this point I am kind of ecumenical I don't want to freeze anybody out in their embrace of liberty because of where they may be on matters often regarded as a spiritual so I want those who may be people of faith as well as people of a different faith or no faith to all understand that as the very nature of man the kind of wherever you think man may come from the the kind of society that I think all of us ultimately really want is one that recognizes his basic nature that we do best we will prosper we'll live in peace with each other to the extent we recognize things like honesty and patience and courage and independence self-reliance and respect for the lives and property of others you may be a Christian and say well all that comes from God or you may be a Christian of another or no faith and still I think can say that these things are part of human nature that for humans to survive into flourish they must be free wherever you think these important virtues may derive their ultimate command oh and the second I did forget it but in the interest of getting some more variety to the limited time we have I hope you'll not mind if we go to another person the last question here we have to start passing out the champagne for the toast so please clear the aisle but we'll let Larry answer this final question here Chris Baker right there next to you that is you know one of the creators of character is also having strong families and we have two things that are declaring war on that number one we have this toxic divorce culture but number two now we have all of these busy bodies who want to regulate parents and don't want to allow them to raise their kids what can we do about these issues well there's I guess a two fold answer to that part of it is very personal and a private matter that individuals must recognize their responsibility of those they brought into being or those they call their family and nurture them on the policy front there's so much in government policy today that oh so sorry so sorry that's a very difficult task at least please don't feel bad about that that's a very difficult thing to do well in that vein you know government policy for years welfare in particular has encouraged the breakup of families and so we ought to remove root and branch all those policies that by government decree make war on the family well I have a few words as we work our way to our champagne toast tonight so we'll need a little more time to distribute it so it's a good thing I've got a few words at this time if I could have your attention I want to work our way to closure with a champagne toast in fact three of them to be precise so Steve forward make sure you don't drink all drink it all in the first toast this is a way of saying goodbye to this property but not to you because we will be back from time to time for events in this area as Carl alluded to earlier Irvington will always be home to countless good friends and memories I want to start by something repeating something that Wayne said earlier because it is so important and so fitting and he referred to what G.K. Chesterton once said when he was asked why there were no statues in England to commemorate the influence of the Romans you recall what he said are we not all statues to the Romans well the very real way statues to fee are everywhere in the form of people like you and institutions to numerous to mention that seek to advance ideas that had nurtured for years by fee when those ideas were not popular largely because the persona of Leonard Reed is so firmly embedded in our organization fee is much more than a single physical place or a publisher of books and articles or a sponsor of seminars and webinars it is real people committed to ideals that haven't changed in nearly 70 years people animated by a distinctive style and approach and attitude and demeanor what the statues to fee look like well they're not made of wood or stone or glass or cement or black top they are infinitely more important than any of those things statues to fee are living breathing human souls who at some point in their lives were touched by the message schooled by fee and sent on their way to spread that message to others they have smiles on their faces a spring in their step and goals to accomplish they are optimistic men and women of character who will not retire from what they know to be right they include all of you each of you each of you is a statue to fee fee champions ideas after all not personalities or bricks and mortar once that is understood new avenues for persuasion open up the most fruitful way to advance liberty is rarely to assail the intelligence or the motives of others who believe another way focusing instead on ideas and appealing to reason are much less likely to provoke hostility as we all know that approach seasoned patience and a smile is a vital ingredient in fees recipe for winning hearts and minds fee promote self-improvement in place of a condescending know-it-all attitude if you want to be a missionary for liberty to be vaguely familiar or generally sympathetic with the concept is not enough you must know economics you must know some history some ethics and so much more but ultimately success and convincing others requires attention to the attractive qualities of a well-rounded individual be as good as you can possibly be Leonard Reed used to say and others will seek your tutelage liberty requires character and indeed character requires liberty too it's a powerful two-edged sword forged in time-honored ideas that have often demanded the best of us in even the worst of times what a noble lofty calling our message is and so it is on this occasion when I have a soft drink and no champagne thank you oh no I don't want to take your show forgive me and so it is on this occasion which can only be described in mixed adjectives like solemn yet cheerful sad but joyous nostalgic while future focused and of course thankful for so much beyond measure I am honored thank you scholar to ask your indulgence in three successive toasts first to fees history here in this memorable location purchased and nurtured for nearly seven decades by Leonard Reed his successors and fees hundreds of staff members and trustees over the years second to all our friends here and around the world who have made and continue to make fees championship of liberty possible and whose support of those ideas depends on how faithful we remain to them not to any particular location from which they emanate and third to a bright and energetic future of winning more young minds than ever before to the lofty ideals of human liberty and personal character ladies and gentlemen with great pride and hope I thank you and I close this chapter in the remarkable history of a venerable organization whose best days are still to come and I ask you I implore you I beseech you to be not just a part of fees past but be a part of fees future as well and we promise thank you we remain ever faithful to the values that we share thanks everyone