Margaret Thatcher at William & Mary College; Part 2

Yeah, you have work to meet their needs, protect their lives and enhance their lives. You are- you have now achieved the highest office in the Commonwealth, following in the footsteps of Thomas Jefferson, a son of William and Mary, whose devotion to personal freedom you have chosen to emulate. Although the challenges which you face are formidable, you will undoubtedly continue to be guided by your uncompromising belief that all citizens should have the opportunity to live, to work and to learn in a society where there is hope for success and freedom from fear. Mr. Rector? George F. Allen, in recognition of your many contributions to the Commonwealth of Virginia as a public servant and in appreciation of your efforts on behalf of the citizens of this state and in recognition of your dedication to the Jeffersonian ideals of freedom and liberty, the College of William and Mary is pleased to honor you by virtue of the authority

vested in me by the Board of Visitors and the Ancient Royal Charter of the College of William and Mary, I hereby confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Laws Honoris Causus. [applause] Now I'm allowed to say a few words, Mr. Chief Justice, President Sullivan, Lady Thatcher, members of the General Assembly, Virginians and friends of William and Mary on behalf of the citizens of the Commonwealth of

Virginia, it's my honor and pleasure, certainly to welcome Lady Thatcher back to Williamsburg. Lady Thatcher, you you're held in very high esteem and with deep gratitude from all the people of Virginia. You have a special place in the hearts of all Virginians is also. It's also a great honor and pleasure to welcome you all here for this this momentous occasion. It's a wonderful occasion in our oldest University of Higher Learning in our Commonwealth. It's entering its fourth century where part of history as we embark upon that fourth century of leadership and learning for future leaders. And finally, it is certainly a tremendous personal privilege to receive this degree and to be so honored by this historic institution. The list of those who have received honorary degrees from the College of William and Mary

is impressive. And it's also very humbling whether it's Mr. Jefferson who received a degree or Benjamin Franklin. This institution has a special place in the history of our Commonwealth and indeed our nation. You have educated here at William and Mary, 21 governors and four presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and John Tyler. Virginians take great pride in their institutions of higher learning and the leaders that they have produced. The Commonwealth is the home of our nation's foremost founding fathers, those who have the courage to undertake the greatest experiment of all time, the experiment of liberty. And they rightfully believe that citizens are best equipped to govern themselves and that only by ensuring freedom can we release the full potential of every man and every woman. Threats to that freedom will always bring out in. Virginians and Americans are irrepressible, revolutionary spirit. We must remain the ever vigilant about the

fragile state of freedom around the world. It's fragile, yet it's promising. We are grateful to those who in our own time have the courage, the wisdom and the spirit to confront the ugly tyranny of imperial communism, extend the experiment of freedom to other nations, and open the floodgates of liberty around the world to individuals, to individuals are primarily responsible for this dramatic change in our time. One of those people, this great country, had the privilege to call our president the other. We here today have come to honor Lady Thatcher. The strongest steadfast, principled British leader since Winston Churchill has been an inspiration not only to Great Britain, but the entire free world. Because of you, Lady Thatcher, the free world encompasses many

more nations than it did before your dignity and your firm understanding that one doesn't compromise the honor proved that right makes might. It was right here, right here a decade ago that Williamsburg in the College of William and Mary hosted the summit of industrialized nations where Prime Minister Thatcher and President Reagan met to lay the groundwork for the events that change the course of history and ended the Cold War. Today, we celebrate the investiture of the right honorable Baroness Thatcher as chancellor of William and Mary. We offer her a fitting tribute from the citizens of Virginia to honor her accomplishments around the world in the name of freedom. But with this honor, we also seek to cement the historic and contemporary ties between Great Britain and the Commonwealth of Virginia. We look forward to the opportunity to benefit from Lady Thatcher's leadership as we shape the future of Virginia's unique and diverse system of higher

education, the caliber of which is second to none. It is our charge and our challenge to see that this jewel in Virginia's crown is preserved for generations of young people and leaders to come. William and Mary has evolved from a royal college to a private college to a state university whose national reputation brings recognition to the Commonwealth's prestigious system of higher education. William and Mary's history is inseparable from that of Virginia. Moreover, it is fundamentally linked to the future of our Commonwealth. William and Mary's presence will continue to attract business investment to our state as the job market becomes increasingly reliant on highly specialized and technical expertize. This college will be even more crucial to the economic development of our Commonwealth, and we will surely benefit from the graduates with broad perspective, critical thinking,

communication skills, all that are afforded by liberal arts education for which kind of proper preparation William and Mary is most recognized. So as we seek to expand educational and economic opportunities for all Virginians, we will look for the leadership of Lady Thatcher, President Sullivan and many others, many of you all in this room here today as we work together to ensure that Virginia continues its tradition of an outstanding system of higher education. Thank you all so much for this honor. [applause] Put those down, the governor's taller than most of us.

Lady Thatcher, this is a day of historic significance for the College of William and Mary. You honor us by your willingness to serve as the 21st chancellor of the college. We now come to the investiture itself. Mr. Rector, would you do the honor? Lady Thatcher, would you please step forward? When King William, the third and queen, married the second granted our charter, they empowered the Board of Visitors to select, quote, one eminent and discreet person, unquote, whose responsibility was to represent in London the interests of the college in America over the years to a core responsibility of the chancellor has not changed. The mission continues to be the chief advocate and ambassador

of the college. However, your territory has grown. You are now charged with carrying the college of William Murray's name to all parts of the world as symbols of your position. You will wear the badge and chain of office created in nineteen eighty seven as a gift to the Society of Alumni. The badge consists of the college coat of arms granted by the College of Arms or May 14th, 16. Ninety four. The chain features symbols of past chancellors, including the cross swords from the arms of the Bishop of London, the college's first chancellor, the eagle across state detail from the family arms of George Washington, the college's first American chancellor, and the great seal of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, the Board of Visitors presents a new chancellor's road, a gift from the Board of Visitors, both current and previous. It was made in London by a firm founded most appropriately

during the reign of William and Mary. By fixing these symbols to your office. I declare you're invested to complete. We are honored to have you as the college's twenty first chancellor. [applause] [Inaudible] [applause] Thanks you very much, thank you. President, Rector, former chancellor,

your excellencies, members of faculty, students and friends to be chancellor of a university is always a great honor for the purpose of a university is to transmit the best of the past to future generations, to unlock the secrets of science and all creation which have so far eluded us, and to blend the truths which are timeless with circumstances which are forever changing. There is no more noble enterprise but to be invested as chancellor of the College of William and Mary and to be an Englishwoman is an even greater honor, for one cannot hold this office without feeling an affinity with those giants of the past who were associated with this college

and whose leadership helped to found this great country. Indeed, to walk the paths trod by the likes of Jefferson and Marshall and Washington is its own honor. It is a special privilege to follow to this distinguished office Chief Justice Warren Burger, a man who has made enormous contributions to the heritage of both the College of William and Mary and of his beloved republic. I was also so pleased, as I heard him speak today, to know that as Chancellor, you don't always have to be over tactful. It's quite in order to drop a few well-chosen hints to the governor, who I thought took it very, very well indeed.

And may I congratulate him on his most excellent speech and on his doctorate. Chief Justice Warren Burger's leadership as chancellor will be a constant inspiration to me as I seek to fulfill my duties to you in my famous handbag. When I'm visiting the United States, I carry two books. One of them, which I treasure, is signed by Chief Justice Burger. It is the bicentennial keepsake edition of the United States Constitution, which includes a wonderful commentary by him on your Constitution. In that essay, he reminds us that for the first time in the world, the Constitution embodies not a grant of power from the rulers to the ruled, but a grant of power

by a sovereign people to the government. They had created the splendid handiwork of those 55 men of Philadelphia, the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of the man, as Bloodstone put it, marks the beginning of the end of the tyranny of unchecked power over people from that time forth. Whenever anyone has asked, But what can a few people do to change things? The reply has been clear. Look at Washington, Madison, Mason and Randolph. Those men changed the world by having the courage of their convictions. They proved once and for all that men really could create good government out of reflection and choice. We are not doomed to accept whatever accident and force may

bring. The second volume I carry with me is a selection of the wit and wisdom of Sir Winston Churchill, and he had an abundance of both. This book contains extracts from his speeches on Liberty speeches, which inspired a whole generation and brightened our darkest days with the hope. In his famous speech at Fulton, Missouri, he said, We must never cease to proclaim in fearless terms the great principles of freedom and the rights of men, which are the joint inheritance of the English speaking world and which the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, habeas corpus trial by jury and the English common law find the most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence. Here, he said, is the message of the British and American peoples

to mankind. It is precisely this message our joint inheritance and its relevance to the coming century that I wish to enlarge upon today. But I must first say, however, that one can't walk about this lovely city, most assuredly not down the Duke of Gloucester Street without at least a pang of historical memory. After all, it was from this place that the late unpleasantness of your separation from my native land began. So those revolutionary sentiments that ensued from the Raleigh Tavern and ignited the minds and hearts of your forebears echoes still on the well-worn cobblestones of those ancient streets. But let me hasten to add that all is forgiven. You've done... [applause] You've done such a wonderful job.

[laughter] May I add, had there been a woman prime minister in Downing Street at the time, it would have been handled so very much better. [applause] As we think back on the history of this nation and on the history of this institution and time, it cannot be amazed at how greatly things have changed. Colonial Williamsburg, a great international treasure, stands in sharp contrast to the cities and towns that surround it. And yet, at a deeper level, we must be even more impressed by how much stays the same. The permanent things in life tend somehow to surprise us more than the great changes we see around us. And as we walk down Duke of Gloucester Street, we see everywhere reminders

of those most permanent aspects of humankind. In one neat mile downtown, the three great institutions that elevate mankind education, government and religion. In other words, the College of William and Mary, the Governor's Palace and Rotan Parish Church, each in its own way, draws our attention to the very things that make civilization possible knowledge, justice and faith. And we can't reflect on these great pillars of our civilization without realizing how very much Britain and America have in common, how very many moral sentiments and political principles we share from the beginning. So good times and bad. For better or worse, our cultures, our politics and our futures have been inextricably linked.

A long and sturdy relationship is a very special one. Its historical roots are many a shared language, a shared literature, a shared legal system of common law, a shared religion and a finely woven blanket of customs and traditions from the very beginning have set our two nations apart from the others. Even when the founders of this great republic came to believe that the course of human events had made it necessary for them to dissolve the political bands that connected them to Britain and to assume among the powers of the Earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them. It was from our lock and Cindy, our Harrington and Cooke, that your Henry and Jefferson, your Madison and Hamilton took their bearings.

The 20th century especially has demonstrated the historical closeness of our nations, the rise and fall of the monstrous fascist and communist tyrannies joined us in common purpose. And as recently as the Gulf War, we have seen the political closeness of our friendship together. We decided that the aggression must not be allowed to stand, and other countries followed our lead. Throughout this calamitous century, we have stood together and both found strength and direction in our cooperation. It may have been expedient for us to do so, but the real vitality of our relationship goes far deeper than temporary interests or the necessities of the moment beyond the mutual advantages we find in culture and commerce, diplomacy and national security. We are joined in a much more fundamental way,

the reason our interests have so often coincide. It is not merely expediency, but because we stand upon the same hallowed moral ground, an abiding belief in the sanctity of the individual, a commitment to democracy and representative government, and a faltering dedication to the rule of law. These principles don't change from day to day or even from ever to ever. Ignorance of them does not refute them. Denial of them cannot weaken them. Circumstances may change, but these true principles never valid. And it is in our willingness to defend those principles and when necessary, to fight together for them that Britain and America serve as a beacon to the whole world. That beacon has never been more important, and now has

the nations of Central and Eastern Europe navigate new and. Often treacherous waters. It is vital that by our lights, they are warned away from the further shoals of despotism, but just as important, it is essential that we show them the way safely into the harbor of freedom and democracy. It is ironic that at this very moment, the great historic relationship between Britain and America is being called into question. So all those today, both here and in Britain, who believe that our special relationship has waned, that the world has changed irrevocably, that our interests no longer coincide the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the demise of the communist dictatorship. Such, people argue, means that our special relationship is no longer necessary and no longer expedient. The fashionable opinion of the moment holds that our future lies more with Europe

and yours, more with the Pacific Rim. To them, the great age of British and American cooperation has passed. I must respectfully but firmly disagree with such views. Such prophets of change are false prophets, they are to be believed only at our peril, for they turn a blind eye not only to the past, but to the future. There's no denying to the world without the Soviet Union, and its constant threat is a very different place. But the substantive evils that confronted us for so long haven't vanished. Tyranny has not been extirpated, but has only found new

soil in which to grow. Even the most cursory glance around gives the lie to the unbridled optimism of those who question the special relationship. The world may indeed be a different place and a freer place. But, my friends, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. The what? It was and I believe there always must be a special relationship between Britain and America. The ties that bind us can be expressed in one simple phrase, freedom under law, not just freedom for ourselves, but a dedication to freedom for all peoples. And this is not a matter of simple national interest.

This is a moral obligation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, so they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, and that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. These are not principles to be left to the vicissitudes of the moment. These are principles to be fought for and won all around the world. The greatest of all commentators on America, Alexis de Tocqueville, noted that in his time half a century after the American founding, the world seemed destined to follow either the path of Russia or the paths of America, the great age of democratic revolutions.

Had, he pointed out, unleash new ways of thinking that were unlikely to be contained or turn back. The quest for equality was an inexorable march, but it was not clear, he said, where it would all end. From Tocqueville's vantage point, Russia and America, and I quote each seemed called by some secret design of Providence one day to hold in its hands the destinies of half the world, how the nations of his day chose to alter themselves to determine the future of all mankind. They could choose, he said, between roads that would lead either to servitude or freedom to knowledge or barbarism to prosperity or wretchedness. That is the end of the quote, how extraordinarily president he was, how extraordinarily prescient he was.

And this 13 years before Karl Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto and a full four score, and two years before Lenin plowed those perverse and poisonous teachings into the Russian soil. Our commitment to the right side of talk, those prophetic equation to freedom, knowledge and prosperity has seen us triumph over calamities. His generation could not have imagined a holocaust of unspeakable evil purges and pogroms in the name of a godless ideology, a cold war of paralyzing children and countless atrocities and nearly every corner of the globe in the pursuit of the totalitarian state. Yet the principles fundamental to both America and Britain have withstood those terrifying times, and we have been blessed to see in our lifetime the annihilation of Soviet communism

and the crumbling of the symbol of that vile oppression, the Berlin Wall. What led to the ultimate triumph of the principles we hold dear is the simplicity of that truth. The individual is a moral being, capable of the exercise of free will, able to know right from wrong. He has a right to be free. Neither the Dampier's cells or the most oppressive regimes nor the harshest winds of ideology could extinguish the often small and flickering flame of hope generated by those simple principles. Under the most degrading and dangerous of circumstances, the human spirit prevailed. In the end, the great lies of the dictators were no match for the natural strength of that spirit.

Yet our victory should not inspire false confidence. As my greatest predecessor, Winston Churchill, said, speaking here in Virginia in 1946, peace will not be preserved by pious sentiments expressed in terms of flatted. You know, by official grimaces and diplomatic correct itude, however desirable this may be from time to time, it will not be preserved by casting aside in dangerous years the panoply of warlike strengths that must be earnest thought. There must also be faithful perseverance and foresight. Greatheart must have his sword and armor to guard the pilgrims on their way. Above all, among the English speaking peoples, there must be a union of hearts based upon convictions and

common ideals. That was Winston's belief. That was what he practiced. That was what had won the battle against tyranny. And we must keep those principles and keep together the strength of defense which will enable us to triumph no matter whatever may happen in many ways. In many ways, the collapse of the Soviet Union has left a more confusing world than before. Indeed, in many ways, the world is still a very insecure place. The uncertainty of relations between nations and the battles for power within nations have left us at a precarious point in world affairs. The next two years and the next few months will be

critical for those new nations struggling with the responsibilities of their unaccustomed freedom. And it is for this reason above others, above all others, that the special relationship between Britain and the United States must be nourished and nurtured by its guiding principles remain, as Abraham Lincoln said, the last, best hope of Earth to the cause of freedom. We must continue to hold the beacon high, lest a new generation of tyrants succeed where others have failed and, said Lincoln, blowing out the moral lights around us, each generation must learn a new the harsh lessons of history. Each generation must rededicate itself to the principles of liberty. It is a commitment to educate for liberty that the moral foundations of freedom that great and sturdy bond of our special relationship

will be secured. One of my illustrious predecessors as Chancellor, George Washington, whose second job was as president of the United States, understood well how liberty depends upon education in proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, he said it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened for that reason. He argued that knowledge is the surest basis of public happiness, for it teaches the people themselves. He continued to know and value their own rights to discern and provide against invasions of them, to distinguish between oppression and the necessary exercise of lawful authority to discriminate the spirit of liberty from that of licentiousness, cherishing the first, avoiding the lost, and to have an inviolable respect

to the laws. How true. But Washington could not have envisaged how some intellectuals, since his time, have employed the intellect to debunk and destroy the values he prized. He could not have envisaged the educated apologists, let alone the intellectual architects of tyranny like Marx and Lenin, both of whom were intellectuals. Just as we stand upon the threshold of a new century. We confront a world in which the common sense of George Washington's generation is too often dismissed or denied. Our generation has gone a long way towards unlearning history. The great and abiding truths are sometimes reduced to a little more than quaint artifacts, appropriate to the time when they were written to have little or no relevance to our day

and this historical conceit. But that is what it is, has been worsened by another pernicious premise of our century moral relativism. As Paul Johnson has pointed out at the beginning of the 1920s, the belief began to circulate for the first time at a popular level. So there were no longer any absolutes, no absolutes of time and space, of good and evil, of knowledge and above all of value. The idea that there is no truth to no has become a troubling feature of some schools of thought in this century. And due to those of us who believe passionately and the value of education, it is an appalling thought that education could be used to subvert and mock the very possibility of a knowable truth. We, too, must ask. We, too, must ask, as T.S.

Eliot asks, where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? We must move in the other direction to seek knowledge and information and wisdom in knowledge all too frequently. As a result of such doctrines, contemporary education in the name of humanity has ignored those things which most distinguished human nature, as Professor James Wilson has reminded us. People have a natural moral sense which shapes human behavior and the judgments people make of the behavior of others. It is this sense that serves as the personal foundation for the public principles we hold so dear and gives rise to what Washington's generation would have called simply civic virtue. These virtues, as Mary Ann Glendon has recently written, all it's time honored ideals of tolerance, respect

for others, public deliberation, individual freedom and responsibility, and the mandate for restraint implicit in the rule of law. In the end, it is values such as these that make society possible, fundamental values that transcend both time and place. This great college of women of William and Mary connects us to the past in order to prepare us for the future that, in the name of two British monarchs, began its life by the Royal Charter. We've heard read afresh in sixty nine to three in our lives as part of the university system of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It would be hard to think of a place that better exemplifies the relationship between Britain and America, not only in name but in moral purpose. And as William and Mary, we must dedicate ourselves

to that grand and noble tradition that nourishes our civilization and offers hope to the world. It is in this spirit that I'm proud to serve as your chancellor and to serve our two great countries, the United States of America and the United Kingdom. [applause] Lady Thatcher, I hope you detect in the response

a deep sympathy with the message you have brought us, and we look forward over the next seven years to a new and exciting partnership, which I know will bring great honor to the college. And I very much hope, much pleasure to you. Today, we formally end our celebration of the college's Dursun Antinori and we open the first page of the first chapter in the story of William and Mary 4th century. I feel, and I know you do, a keen sense of responsibility to those who have come before us and to those who will follow us in that spirit. I do, except as I know you do, the proposition that William and Mary should be accountable for the quality of its programs, the stewardship of its wealth,

and for the outcome of its education. We are about the business of building the finest small public university in America. A place. [applause] A place defined by its human scale and its humane values, by its passionate commitment to teaching and its equally passionate devotion to the pursuit of new knowledge, would the Commonwealth have us do otherwise? I cannot believe that it would to dilute the quality. Our students are your children, and they are a national treasure to dilute the quality of their education, to abandon the pursuit of excellence

or to retreat from a determination to provide education for leadership would constitute a betrayal, a betrayal of both our history and the best interests of the young people who have placed their lives in our hands. Here we seek to realize and to realize without apology the Jeffersonian ideal of an aristocracy of ability and aristocracy in which great wealth or social position have no relevance and offer no advantage. An aristocracy, however, open to all with good minds and high ambitions, and to them, to them, we offer an education that will not only test the best, but produce the best. And believe me, in the world of the 21st century,

our Commonwealth and our country will need young men and women eager to meet the challenge of the future. And in that future of William and Mary. Education will be what it has always been, an open door to high endeavor and to great achievement. For three hundred years, William and Mary has educated leaders who have changed our country and the condition of mankind. How have we done it? We have done it because we have never failed to experiment, but we have never lacked the courage to stand fast in the defense of those bedrock values which define the William and Mary experience. As to the future, I cannot do better than to borrow and amend some few of our new chancellors most memorable words to those who wait with bated breath for William and Mary to retreat from

the values which have shaped its soul to those who counsel you turn away from all that we cherish simply to catch the crest of foolish fashion to them. I say you turn if you want to. This college is not for turning. Not now, not ever. Thanks. Now, I ask you to please stand for the benediction and remain standing for the alma mater during the recessional, please remain in your places to allow the official party to leave the auditorium. The Lord bless you and keep you the Lord, make his face shine upon you and

be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace on an. [Choir sings William and Mary alma mater]