Clarence E. Manion (July 7, 1896-July 28, 1979) was dean of the Notre Dame College of Law, 1941-52, and Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Notre Dame, 1925-52.
Prior to the 1952 elections, Clarence Manion's book, Key To Peace (1951), sold over a million copies, giving insight into true American democracy: a respect for the dignity of every man.
In Key to Peace, Manion warned of a loss of individual freedom, what the Declaration of Independence worded 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness', in favor of European socialist statist "class" or group "rights."
Manion explained that though both European socialism and American democracy used the same words "freedom" and "equality," they had entirely different meanings.
In 1953, Dwight Eisenhower appointed Manion to chair a commission with junior Senator from Minnesota Hubert Humphrey, to restore to the States powers that had been usurped during the FDR years.
In 1946, Dean Manion was quoted regarding the Declaration of Independence in Verne Paul Kaub's book, Collectivism Challenges Christianity:
<Look closely at these self-evident truths, these imperishable articles of American Faith upon which all our government is firmly based. First and foremost is the existence of God. Next comes the truth that all men are equal in the sight of God. Third is the fact of God's great gift of unalienable rights to every person on earth. Then follows the true and single purpose of all American Government, namely, to preserve and protect these God-made rights of God-made man.> 1896CM001
Regarding the birth of Christ, Dean Clarence Manion commented:
<The long march of measured time suddenly stopped. It then did an about-face and started to march in another direction and to a different drum straight through the ensuing centuries of Christ and Christendom....
B.C. (before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini, the year of our Lord) mark each one of the only reliable milestones along the path of world history. The end of the first time-chain, and the beginning of the second, came together on the night that Christ was born in Bethlehem. The first Christmas Day thus stands as the Great Divide for the timing and recording of all people, things and events that have lived or taken place upon this earth....
It is the one place where a inquiring mind can go in either direction without stopping; the one place on the long, long trail of time where the magnetic needle of history stands vertical and points up.> 1896CM002
--
American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
1896CM001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Clarence E. Manion. Verne Paul Kaub, Collectivism Challenges Christianity (Winona Lake, IN: Light and Life Press, 1946), p. 58. Tim LaHaye, Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc., 1987), p. 65.
1896CM002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Clarence E. Manion, statement. John D. Boland, Editor, Mindszenty Report (Cardinal Mindszenty Foundation, Eleanor Schlafly, publisher, 7800 Bonhomme Ave, P.O. Box 11321, St. Louis, MO 63105, December 1997), Vol. XXXIX, No. 12, p. 1.