Col. George Mason That no free Government, or the Blessing of Liberty, can be preserved to any People but by a firm Adherence to Justice, Moderation, Temperance, Frugality, and Virtue, and by frequent Recurrence to fundamental Principles. ________________________________ Virginia Declaration of Rights Paragraph 15 June 12, 1776

In an address delivered on July 16, 1954 before the Alabama Bar Association, Carter Pittman told the story of how his odyssey began:

Twenty-eight years ago an eastern university law-school senior, paying his way by tutoring American history, questioned certain conclusions of Dean J. H. Wigmore, late of Northwestern University, as to the history of a provision of the fifth paragraph of the Federal Bill of Rights. Soon this student had run the indexes in the law and general libraries of Columbia University. He not only found nothing on the history of the Fifth Amendment, but found nothing indexed on the history of the many other provisions of the Bill of Rights. Librarians were consulted. The casual and unconcerned reply was: "We have nothing."

At the New York Public Library the answer was: "We have nothing." At the Harvard and Yale University libraries, the answer was: "We have nothing." Finally, at the Library of Congress, that supreme repository of the records of American civilization, the inquiring student stood speechless to hear the final verdict. It was: "We have nothing."

A quick look at the indexes revealed mountains of books on the history of the Declaration of Independence, a document that accords no constitutional right and affords no constitutional immunity, a document no man could use then or now to shield his naked body from the lash of tyrants, a document that served a noble but temporary purpose in the American Revolution, but which never drew one breath as living law.

The indexes at Harvard University library revealed many thousands of volumes on fish. A recent news item disclosed that Harvard's great Widener Library is the proud repository of 21,800 volumes on fish and fishing. But it does not yet contain one book on the history of the Federal Bill of Rights or any of those State bills of rights that preceded it and particularly the Virginia Bill of Rights, and upon which it was based. The most influential constitutional document ever penned by man was the Virginia Declaration of Rights of June 12, 1776. It was the grandfather of them all. Both it and its author await a Boswell.

The disillusioned and empty-handed student spent spare time for a full year, trying to find materials with which to set Dean Wigmore aright. Old unindexed records of American civilization were searched in boiler rooms and basements. Uncut leaves revealed that no other had traveled that way before.

At last he was able to piece together a semicoherent story of the historical evolution of the privilege against self-incrimination in America. A few years later the resulting paper was sent to Harvard Law Review, where it was rejected as uninteresting. Columbia Law Review rejected it for the same reason. Finally Virginia Law Review printed it as a space filler. Dean Wigmore picked it up in the third edition of his Work on Evidence, quoting that part of it that caused him to change and restate his views.

Justices Black and Douglas are especially fond of it. The Supreme Court has since cited it many times. Dean Griswold, of Harvard Law School, used it in his article on the subject in the June 1954 issue of the American Bar Association Journal. The Attorney General, Herbert Brownell, Jr., used it in his address to the Law Club of Chicago on November 6, 1953, in which he told the lawyers of Chicago more than once to see Pittman, "The Colonial and Constitutional History of the Privilege Against Self-Incrimination in America" (21 Va. L. Rev. 793, et. seq.).

Candor of mind displaced humility of heart, that I might tell that story for the first time. That student speaks to you now.

The shocking experience of the law school senior left in him an urge to place one book on the library shelves of America that would tell the history of each provision of the Federal Bill of Rights. For 27 years he accumulated materials. Hard earned and expended dollars soon became hundreds. Hundreds soon became thousands. It was early found that all the main roads of constitutional liberty in America bypassed big names to converge at last at a grand terminal with evolution's pioneer George Mason, of Gunston Hall. It was found that big names had borrowed from that fearless, humble, godly and forgotten man. It was soon learned why Jefferson regarded him the wisest man of his generation, why Madison described him the greatest debater he had ever heard speak, and why Patrick Henry named him the greatest statesman he had ever known.

The search was renewed with Mason as a guide. It was rewarding. Microfilms, photostats, and other material accumulated. The project outgrew the researcher.

Hon. R. Carter Pittman

In a later address Mr. Pittman added, "If you will again pardon a personal reference I will say that it was that study that gave to me a hobby in life that still possesses me. During that study I learned not only that liberty has had no historian in America but I learned that we have robbed libertarians of all credit and conferred that credit, in most cases, upon someone who rose to some position of power in America."

Through years of relentless study spanning the length and breadth of Western history, Mr. Pittman gradually earned respect and acclaim as a formidable authority on constitutional law. Members of the legal profession, governors, congressmen and senators, state legislators, historians and university faculty regularly sought his opinion on legal and historical questions. His authoritatives articles on constitutional law and history are cited in legal briefs and judicial rulings to this day.

Whether writing in distinguished journals, speaking out in televised interviews, delivering addresses before various civic functions, literary societies, and major universities throughout the country, Mr. Pittman's message always stirred and inspired. His recurring themes invoked respect for God and country, the importance of learning and honor, and the obligation each of us has inherited to actively defend our God-given liberties and preserve our Anglo-Saxon heritage.

Mr. Pittman continued his research on George Mason, with the ultimate goal of authoring a definitive biography. In a letter to Judge Edward Dumbauld of Pennsylvania, Jan. 2, 1958, he wrote:

Over a period of 40 years, he brought together the largest collection of primary and secondary source materials on George Mason ever compiled by a person or organization. These materials became the basis of the three volume set of The Papers of George Mason edited by Dr. Robert A. Rutland and published by the University of North Carolina Press. Dr. Rutland graciously acknowledged Mr. Pittman's role in the Introduction:

Mr. Pittman's collection of research papers and microfilms are now housed in the library of Gunston Hall.

In a 1957 address Mr. Pittman spoke of a man whose life paralleled his own:

History repeated itself yet again on March 15, 1972. On this day, God called Mr. Pittman to rest from his earthly labors. Expressions of grieving and condolence poured in from around the country. William LaVarre, who had published essays of Mr. Pittman in the American Mercury, summed up the feeling of so many: "Your news of Patriot Pittman distresses me," he wrote to an associate,

To Mrs. Pittman he wrote:

Sadly, the book on George Mason that had been Mr. Pittman's lifelong dream was not completed, and so a great volume is missing from the pantheon of classic American historical literature. But like Lord Acton, Mr. Pittman left behind numerous written works, published in prestigious legal and historical journals and popular periodicals. In these writings, a selection of which we are privileged to present, the Story of Liberty is finally told, its historical foundations clearly explained, and George Mason's role authoritatively documented.

Mr. Pittman issued clarion warnings to his fellow citizens that the liberties which we have so long taken for granted are in mortal danger, as our institutions of government have departed from the principles upon which our Republic was founded. He urged that we remember Col. Mason's exhortation to make "frequent recurrence to fundamental principles." And he expounded those fundamentals brilliantly, taking the reader back through centuries of Anglo-Saxon history, through the Colonial period to the Revolution, and then ahead to the 20th Century as he grappled with the assaults on our Constitution wrought in the most controversial and divisive issues of his day. His admonitions are more urgent now than when written.

And more than anyone else, Mr. Pittman brought George Mason, the Forgotten Founder, back to American consciousness. He presented Col. Mason as the great architect of constitutional liberty, whose mind and pen were indispensable in securing the rights of freemen in America—and throughout the world.

Through his tireless efforts in searching out and expounding the historical roots of our sacred heritage of liberty under law, and defending the essential foundations of our Constitutional Republic, R. Carter Pittman became Liberty's great apologist in our time, and bequeathed a worthy legacy to future generations of Americans.