[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 15 (Tuesday, February 22, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 22, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
  PERMISSION TO PRINT PROGRAM AND REMARKS OF MEMBERS AT WREATH-LAYING 
        CEREMONY FOR OBSERVANCE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY

  Mr. GORDON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the program and 
the remarks of the gentlewoman from Virginia [Mrs. Byrne] and the 
gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Bateman], the two Members representing the 
House of Representatives at the wreath-laying ceremony at the 
Washington Monument for the observance of George Washington's birthday 
on Monday, February 21, 1994, be inserted in today's Congressional 
Record.
  The SPEAKER. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from 
Tennessee?
  There was no objection.
  The text of the program and speeches is as follows:

         President George Washington--262d Birthday Observance


                                program

       Opening: Arnold Goldstein, Superintendent, National Capital 
     Parks-Central, National Park Service.
       Presentation of the Colors: Joint Armed Services Color 
     Guard.
       To the Colors: Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps, Drum Major 
     Anthony Hoxworth.
       Welcome: Superintendent Goldstein.
       Musical Selection: Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps.
       Remarks: Admiral John D.H. Kane, Washington National 
     Monument Society.
       Robert G. Stanton, Regional Director, National Capital 
     Region, National Park Service.
       Jack Evans D.C. City Council.
       The Honorable Herbert H. Bateman, U.S. House of 
     Representatives, 1st District, Virginia.
       The Honorable Leslie L. Byrne, U.S. House of 
     Representatives, 11th District, Virginia.
       Musical Selection: Stevens Elementary School, Bell Ringing 
     Choir, Washington, D.C. Director, Sharon L. Strange.
       The Wreath of the House of Representatives: Honorable 
     Herbert H. Bateman and Honorable Leslie L. Byrne.
       The Wreath of the Washington National Monument Society: 
     Admiral John D.H. Kane.
       The Wreath of the National Park Service: Robert G. Stanton, 
     National Park Service.
       Taps and Retiring of the Colors: Military District of 
     Washington.
                                  ____


Remarks of Herbert H. Bateman, George Washington Birthday Wreath-Laying 
            Ceremony, Washington Monument, February 22, 1994

       It is with great pride that I pay tribute to George 
     Washington, a peerless military leader of the War for 
     Independence, the able Chairman of the Constitutional 
     Convention and our nation's brilliant first President. His 
     standing and the respect of his peers is proven by the fact 
     he is our only President whose election was without 
     opposition.
       George Washington was a man of great courage and wisdom. 
     Not only did he have the foresight to help design the 
     democracy we know today, but he possessed the strength and 
     conviction to put his plans into action by leading the 
     rebellious colonists to a victory against overwhelming odds.
       How fitting it is that this towering monument behind me was 
     erected in his honor and that we come here every year to pay 
     tribute to this great American. I admit to having a special 
     affection for George Washington--much of his life was spent 
     living and working in what I proudly refer to as America's 
     First Congressional District.
       Washington was born in America's First District in 
     Westmoreland County, which is about 75 miles southeast of 
     here. He spent most of his childhood at Ferry Farm, just 30 
     minutes outside the beltway in Stafford County, which also is 
     in America's First District. It was at Ferry Farm that the 
     boy who would become the father of this country worked in his 
     copy books, wrote his ``Rules of Civility and Descent 
     Behavior,'' taught himself surveying and, if there is truth 
     to the legend, chopped down the cherry tree and threw a coin 
     across the Rappahannock River.
       I am proud of George Washington and what he means to my 
     District. But more important, I am proud of George Washington 
     and what he means to our great nation. Through his leadership 
     we won our war for independence, started down the path of 
     representative government and became the role model for 
     liberty under law for all the world.
       George Washington was the embodiment of the ideals on which 
     our nation was founded. During this two terms as our first 
     president, he governed with dignity as well as restraint. He 
     provided the stability and the authority the nation so sorely 
     needed; gave substance to the Constitution; and reconciled 
     competing factions and divergent policies within the 
     government and his administration. George Washington's life 
     lends testimony to the notion that through dedication to a 
     noble cause, the impossible is indeed achievable.
       Another great leader from America's First District, Light-
     Horse Harry Lee, on the floor of the House of Representatives 
     in 1799 paid tribute to George Washington in these memorable 
     terms:
       ``First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of 
     his countrymen.''
       This characterization is as universe today as it was in 
     1799.
                                  ____


   Congresswoman Leslie Byrne--George Washington Birthday Ceremony, 
                           February 22, 1994

       Honored guests, ladies and gentlemen. It is an honor to be 
     with you today to celebrate the birth of the father of our 
     nation. As we gather here every year in front of his monument 
     it is easy to get caught up in the grandeur, the myth of 
     George Washington. But the reality of President Washington is 
     why I believe his memory endures and continues to show us the 
     way.
       Long before George Washington was a general or president he 
     was an active participant in his community. His boyhood was 
     spent on the family farm on the Rappahannock River. His 
     father died when he was 11 years old, and he was left in the 
     care of his older brother, Lawrence. Although formal 
     schooling was a sometimes thing, we know from schoolboy 
     papers that survive that he was well trained in geography and 
     practical mathematics. At 14, he painstakingly copied a set 
     of moral precepts called the rules of a civility which were 
     carefully preserved.
       His real education was in listening and learning from those 
     with whom he came in contact--the farmers, the trappers and 
     outdoorsmen, the new settlers and the landed gentry. All 
     contributed to his training.
       At 16, Washington got his first paid job as a surveyor and 
     struck out to map the wilderness. This experience further 
     taught him about self-reliance and endurance.
       Upon the death of his half-brother Lawrence, when George 
     was only 20 years old, he became the owner of Mount Vernon. 
     There and in the city of Alexandria he was an active member 
     of the community. Whether it was as a vestry man of his 
     church, holding dances or horse races at Mount Vernon, or 
     playing cards, he engaged people and was engaged by them.
       This was no brooding, solitary figure. No Stuart portrait 
     or marble statue could capture his strength of character of 
     his vision and understanding for the people he chose to 
     serve.
       Alexander Hamilton described him as ``the sort of nature 
     leader to whom people turned instinctively when trouble was 
     afoot and when the judgments of the merely brilliant could 
     not be altogether trusted.'' This was an elegant way saying 
     George Washington was a person of common sense. I believe 
     that common sense was created and nutured by Washington's 
     investment in his community, be it his corner of Virginia or 
     the broader community of a new country he helped create 
     defend and lead. A country that because of his sterling 
     example, continues to grow change and work for the American 
     people. And if we continue to follow his example by working 
     in our communities, investing in those around us and 
     exercising common sense, we will continue to make our nation 
     stronger and live the vision that President Washington had 
     for us. Part of that vision was spelled out in his farewell 
     address when he warned his countrymen to ``forswear party 
     spirit and sectional passions.''
       Today, we are poised to take on the most challenging 
     domestic issues of our time, and I offer Washington's words 
     as a guidepost. Then as now, we will not get far if we allow 
     those things that divide us to dictate the debate. Only be 
     searching for that consensus of our national community will 
     we move forward.
       So as a Virginian, I am proud to stand here today at the 
     base of a monument dedicated to Virginia's best. I realize, 
     however, that this farmer, surveyor, soldier, politician and 
     leader belongs to the entire country. I only hope they see 
     past the statutes and portraits, to the farmer with dirt on 
     his hands, to the popular story-telling member of the House 
     of Burgesses, enjoying a card game in a tavern in 
     Williamsburg, or see the frightened young man leading his 
     troops back from Braddock's debacle.
       Then remember this uncommon man honored by his nation 
     preserving our new government by providing for the first 
     peaceful transition of power and whose every action was a 
     precedent for how we conduct our nation's government.
       Because George Washington put his nation first, he will 
     always be ``first in the hearts of his countrymen.''

                          ____________________