Gabriel Over the White House (1933)

Henry Kolker: Sen. Langham - Senate Majority Leader

Quotes 

• Hon. Judson Hammond - The President of the United States : [at a Congress hearing]  Gentlemen, I am here as a representative of the American people in their hour of darkest despair. A plant cannot be made to grow by watering the top alone and letting the roots go dry. The people of this country are the roots and the strongest trunk and the branches too. You have spent 4 billion dollars only to aggravate adversity. I ask for 4 billion dollars to restore buying power, stimulate purchases, restore prosperity. You have wasted precious days and weeks and years in futile discussion. We need action, immediate and effective action.

  Sen. Langham - Senate Majority Leader : Mr. President, there is a movement in Congress for your impeachment, hardly any time for making requests, however small.

  Hon. Judson Hammond - The President of the United States : Very well, I shall withdraw that request but I'd like to substitute with another. I ask you gentlemen to declare a state of national emergency, and to adjourn this Congress until normal conditions are restored. During the period of that adjustment I shall assume full responsibility for the government.

  Sen. Langham - Senate Majority Leader : Mr. President, this is dictatorship!

  Hon. Judson Hammond - The President of the United States : Senator Langham, words do not frighten me.

  Sen. Langham - Senate Majority Leader : But the United States of America is a democracy! We are not yet ready to give up the government of our time!

  Hon. Judson Hammond - The President of the United States : You have given it up. You've turned your backs, you've closed your ears to the appeals of the people. You've been traitors to the concept of democracy upon which this government was founded. I believe in democracy as Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln believed in democracy, and if what I plan to do in the name of the people makes me a dictator, then it is a dictatorship based on Jefferson's definition of democracy: a government for the greatest good of the greatest number!

  Sen. Langham - Senate Majority Leader : This Congress refuses to adjourn!

  Hon. Judson Hammond - The President of the United States : I think gentlemen you forget I am still the president of these United States. And as commandeer in chief of the Army and Navy, it is within the rights of the president to declare the country under MARTIAL LAW!

  [Congress explodes and he walks out]