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勒尼德‧漢德
(LEARNED HAND)
自由的精神
The
Spirit of Liberty
自由的精神即是對其是否正確不很有把握的精神。
雖然勒尼德‧漢德(1872－1961)從未在最高法院任職，卻被認為是美國歷史上最偉大的法官之一。他生於紐約阿爾伯尼，從哈佛大學和哈佛法學院畢業。
勒尼德‧漢德先是於1909年被任命為聯邦法官，接著於1924年進入美國上訴法院。自1939至1951年，他作為該法院的首席法官，以他的才學、智慧和對民主原則的深刻信念成為全國最有影響的法官之一。
1944年5月21日，漢德法官應邀在紐約市中央公園對一大型集會演講以紀念「我是一個美國人日」。他這篇發表在大戰關鍵時期的講話被廣泛印發和收入選集。
我們聚集在這裏肯定一種信念，一種對共同目的、共同信仰和共同的獻身精神的信念。我們中有些人已選定美國作為自己的國家；其他人則是做出這種選擇的人的後代。為此原因，我們有權把自己看成是一個經過精選的群體，它的成員勇於同過去決裂，勇於面對在一個陌生國度遇到的危險和孤寂。是什麼目標激勵我們或我們的前人做出這一選擇的呢?
我們追求自由：不受壓迫的自由，免遭貧困的自由，獨立自主的自由。我們當時追求這一目標，現在我們相信自己通過奮鬥達到了這一目標。當我們說我們首先追求自由的時候，意味著什麼呢?
我經常懷疑，我們是否對憲法、法律和法庭寄予過多的希望。這些是虛幻的希望，真的，這些是虛幻的希望。自由存在於人們的心中；一旦它在人們心中死去，沒有任何憲法、法律或法院能拯救它；甚至沒有任何憲法、法律或法庭能予給它多大幫助。當自由存在人們心中時，無須憲法、法律或法庭去拯救它。那麼這一必須存活於人們心中的自由究竟是什麼呢?
它不是冷酷無情，不受約束的意志；不是隨心所欲的自由。那是對自由的否定，直接導致自由的毀滅。倘若在一個社會中人們不承認對他們的自由應有所控制，那麼它很快會變成一個隻讓一小撮兇狠殘暴的人擁有自由的社會。對這一點我們已有痛苦的教訓。
什麼是自由的精神?
我無法給它下定義，只能告訴你們我自己的信念。自由的精神即是對其是否正確不很有把握的精神；自由的精神即是盡力去理解別人的見解的精神；自由的精神即是將別人的利益與自己的利益不帶偏見一併考慮的精神；自由的精神銘記，即使一隻麻雀落地也該引起注意；自由的精神也就是基督的精神，他在將近二千年之前教給人類從未學過，從此難忘的一課：有可能出現一個王國．在那裏人們對最偉大者和最渺小者不分貴賤，一視同仁。現在，以這種精神，以這種從未存在、或許永不會有的美國──惟美國人的良知和勇氣才能創造它──所具有的精神，以某種形式深藏在我們大家心中的那個美國的精神，以我國的年輕人此刻正為之戰鬥獻身的那個美國的精神，我請求你們起立，與我一起宣誓效忠於對我們可愛的國家光輝前程的信仰。
W e have
gathered here to affirm a faith, a faith in a common purpose, a common
conviction, a common devotion. Some of us have chosen America as the land of our
adoption; the rest have come from those who did the same. For this reason we
have some right to consider our-selves a picked group, a group of those who had
the courage to break from the past and brave the dangers and the loneliness of a
strange land. What was the object that nerved us, or those who went before us,
to this choice? We sought liberty; freedom from oppression, freedom from want,
freedom to be ourselves. This we then sought; this we now believe that we are by
way of winning. What do we mean when we say that first of all we seek liberty? I
often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon
laws and upon courts. "These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes.
Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no
constitution, no law－,
no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help
it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it.
And what is this liberty which must lie in the hearts of men and women? It is
not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not freedom to do as one likes. That
is the denial of liberty, and leads straight to its overthrow. A society in
which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where
freedom is the possession of only a savage few; as we have learned to our
sorrow.
What this is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you
my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it
is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the
minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs
their interests alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers
that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the
spirit of Him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it
has never learned, but has never quite forgotten; that there may be a kingdom
where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest.
And now in that spirit, that spirit of an America which has never been, and
which may never be; nay, which never will be except as the conscience and
courage of Americans create it; yet in the spirit of that America which lies
hidden in some form in the aspirations of us all; in the spirit of that America
for which our young men are at this moment fighting and dying; in that spirit of
liberty and of America I ask you to rise and with me pledge our faith in the
glorious destiny of our beloved country.
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