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at 3 "xt. 606—CONCUR 2 ILLINOIS v, ALLEN Lincoln said this Nation was “conecived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” The Founders’ dreani of a society where all men are free and equal has not been easy to realize, The degree of liberty and equality that exists today has been the product of unceasing struggle and sacrifice. Much remains to be done—so much that the very institutions of our society have come under challenge. Hence, today, as in Lincoln’s time, a man may ask “whether [this] nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.” It cannot endure if the Nation falls short on the guarantees of liberty, justice, and equality em- bodied in our founding documents. But it also cannot endure if we allow our precious heritage of ordered liberty to be ripped apart amid the sound and fury of our time. It cannot endure if in individual eases the claims of social peace and order on the one side and of personal liberty on the other cannot be mutually resolved in the forum designated by the Constitution. If that resolution cannot be reached by judicial trial in a court of law, it will be reached elsewhere and by other means, and there will be grave danger that liberty, equality, and the order essential to both will be lost. -The constitutional right of an accused to be present at his trial must be considered in this context. Thus there can be no doubt whatever that the governmental prerogative to proceed with a trial may not be defeated by conduct of the accused that prevents the trial from going forward. Almost a half century ago this Court in Diaz v. United States, 223 U.S. 442, 457-458 (1919), approved what I believe is the governing principle, We there quoted from Falk vy. United States, 15 App. D, C, 446 (1899), the case of an accused who appeared at his trial but fled the jurisdiction before it was completed. The court proceeded in his absence. and a verdict of guilty was returned. In affirming the eouviction over Pu