[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 43 (Tuesday, April 19, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
  TRIBUTE TO REPRESENTATIVE WILLIAM NATCHER, KENTUCKY GENTLEMAN WAS A 
                          TRUE PUBLIC SERVANT

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, Kentucky and the Nation recently 
suffered a tremendous loss as William Natcher of Kentucky's Second 
Congressional District passed away. As my colleagues know, Bill Natcher 
was a giant among men. He brought a unique dignity to his position and 
this Capitol which elevated him above most who serve in this 
institution.
  Kentucky has been blessed throughout its history with marvelous 
Representatives in Congress. Although a Representative from Illinois, 
Abraham Lincoln was born in and spent much of his early life in 
Kentucky. In addition, Henry Clay, Alben Barkley, and John Sherman 
Cooper all distinguished themselves as pillars of this legislative body 
from the great Commonwealth of Kentucky. I believe history will reflect 
that Bill Natcher deserves to be mentioned with this impressive group 
of public servants.
  Mr. President, by now everyone has heard of Chairman Natcher's 18,401 
consecutive votes, a record that will live forever. By itself this mark 
is indeed an impressive accomplishment, but when looked at in 
conjunction with his other feats one realizes the void that Kentucky is 
being asked to fill.
  As chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, he earned a 
reputation as a diligent and fair leader who was willing to go the 
extra mile in order to enact the complicated and often controversial 
legislation that was necessary for our Nation to function. Whether one 
agreed or disagreed with the chairman, all knew that he would above all 
else be fair in his efforts to move the committee forward.
  I am sorry that all of my colleagues were not able to join me and 
scores of others in Bowling Green, KY for Bill Natcher's funeral. It 
was truly a moving tribute to a deserving man. President Clinton and 
Speaker Foley each delivered touching eulogies which combined humor and 
reverence in honoring this wonderful and charming Kentucky gentleman.
  But as so often is the case, it was not the most famous of the 
speakers that shone most brightly this day. Pastor Richard W. Bridges 
of First Baptist Church in Bowling Green gave a poignant sermon which 
was among the best I have ever heard.
  Mr. President, I know my colleagues join me in remembering Bill 
Natcher; he will not easily be replaced. As a role model he may have no 
equal on both personal and professional levels. In addition, I ask that 
Pastor Bridges' sermon be included in the Record at this point and hope 
that my colleagues will have a chance to read and enjoy it.
  There being no objection, the sermon was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                        The Man for All Seasons

                        (By Richard W. Bridges)

       Alexander Pope said, ``An honest man's the noblest work of 
     God.'' So it is that we have come to mourn the death of 
     William Natcher who was, above everything, simply an honest 
     man who served his country.
       He has been called everything from the ``Iron Man of 
     Congress'' to an ``Old Bull'' to an ``antebellum man.'' 
     Everyone in the room today knows the essential 
     characteristics of his remarkable career as a public servant. 
     We know that he cast 18,401 consecutive votes on the floor of 
     the House, we know that he never accepted a campaign 
     contribution, we know that he drove himself to work, we know 
     that he waxed his own car, we know that he handled the news 
     media by ignoring them, we know that he did not even know how 
     to spell ``lobbyist,'' we know that he wrote his 
     grandchildren every week, and we know that he kept those 
     famous journals of the days in Congress since 1954. We know 
     that he ``tried to do it right.''
       We know other things, as well. We know that he did his work 
     for the people in the spirit of non-partisanship. He had, as 
     he used to say, ``as many friends across the aisle as on this 
     side of the aisle.'' We know that he was a centrist. When I 
     asked him, more than a decade ago, to explain where he stood 
     in the political climate of this century, he pointed me to 
     the First Inaugural Address of Thomas Jefferson and the 
     brilliant words, ``. . . every difference of opinion is not a 
     difference of principle. We have called by different names 
     bretheren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we 
     are all Federalists.''
       We know that he was a man of the people, considering the 
     prompt delivery of the mail at the end of the furtherest dirt 
     road in Warren County as significant as the concerns of the 
     Chambers of Commerce of Bowling Green or Owensboro. The 
     quality of the individual lives of working men and women 
     captured his devotion and commitment. Woodrow Wilson said, 
     ``The great voice of America does not come from the seats of 
     learning, but is a murmur from the hills and the woods and 
     the farms and the factories and the mills, rolling on and 
     gaining volume until it came to earth to us. The voice 
     (comes) from the homes of the common men.'' Mr. Natcher heard 
     that voice.
       We know that he made an enormous difference in the life of 
     the country. And we know that he cherished the House of 
     Representatives the way lovers cherish one another.
       He was a man of character. He was a man of integrity. He 
     was a man of honor. He was a man of friendship. He was a man 
     of a word to be kept and honored to his own hurt. He was a 
     man who gave his heart and soul and all that he had, tangible 
     and intangible, to the American ideal of government on behalf 
     of, and through, the people.
       Many have pondered his remarkable ability to have been 
     elected to public office by the people of this area every 
     year since he was 27 years old. Here is how he did it: he 
     walked the streets, went into the courthouses and the law 
     offices, met in union halls and with civic clubs, visited the 
     churches and sat down in neighborhood gathering places and 
     said, to anyone he encountered, ``What do you think?'' And 
     then he went back and represented through his votes and 
     diligence to duty what the people of the 2nd Congressional 
     District had said to him.
       It was really very simple. He never mixed personal ambition 
     with public duty. He held his office as a sacred trust, 
     worshipped at the shrine of liberty, and held all men and 
     women of his district in high esteem and confidence. And so, 
     being a good judge of character, we elected him again and 
     again.
       The truth is, if his name were to appear on the ballot at 
     the next election he would win again though he is no longer 
     living. And he would win because most of us in the 2nd 
     District would rather vote for a dead Bill Natcher than a 
     living somebody else.
       Why? Because he was a statesman; ``a statesman, yet friend 
     to truth, of soul sincere, in action faithful, and in honor 
     clear. Who broke no promise, served no private end, who 
     gained no title and who lost no friend.'' (Alexander Pope)
       He has been called, in commendation and in appreciation, an 
     antebellum man, a courtly Southerner, genteel and refined, a 
     man without rancor. But these very characteristics qualify 
     him, in the opinion of some, as an anachronism, even an 
     antique, a man out of step with these times and these 
     tempers. An oddity. An accident of circumstance.
       But we of this district call him the man for all seasons, 
     for the characteristics of honor, integrity, duty, 
     faithfulness and civility never go out of style. They are 
     appropriate and dependable in any century and at any time of 
     crisis. They are right in any language, in any culture, in 
     any state of the Union. They belong to men or women of 
     persuasion, of every opinion, and of every party. His 
     character never grows outdated, never goes out of style, and 
     is never found to be unworkable. Indeed, there is a great 
     hunger in the land for men and women like him.
       So we mourn this small man, this little wisp of a man, yet 
     this giant of a man because we know that he was in private 
     exactly what he was in public--he was an honest and 
     dependable man who loved his country more than his own life.
       The local paper ran a headline the other day: ``Who Will 
     Replace Natcher?'' The story beneath it speculated on the 
     identity of the man or woman who would next represent this 
     district. But when we picked up the paper and read the 
     headline we all said, silently yet as though we spoke with 
     one voice, ``No one. No one will replace him.'' After all, we 
     thought, he was one of a kind. But we were wrong to think it.
       One of the reasons we have gathered from across the country 
     in this church house today is that as long as Bill Natcher 
     was in Congress we maintained our faith in the institutions 
     of government. But an honest man can never serve alone. He 
     can only serve when he is in the company of others equally 
     brave, equally devoted, and equally without guile.
       The word is abroad in the land that government is bumbling, 
     caught in gridlock, impossibly incompetent, foolishly 
     distracted. That word is false.
       The word is abroad in the land that government is populated 
     only by the shrill voices of rancor, only by people of zero 
     virtue, seeking their own gain, and playing loosely with the 
     truth. That word is false.
       The word is abroad in the land that government cannot be 
     trusted, that it serves causes other than those of the 
     people, that it is mired in the culture of only one American 
     city, that it is blind to values that are right and good and 
     noble. And that word is false.
       I know it to be false because I knew Bill Natcher. Because 
     he was part of the government, I knew that the American 
     character was intact, that the American dream was alive, and 
     that the American vision was undimmed.
       Mr. Natcher would have us remember here at this hour that 
     he was not alone. The truth is, there are thousands of them--
     strong men and strong women--who are in government service 
     this very day. His replacements are already in office, 
     already employed, already at work, men and women of decency, 
     faith, virtue, and honor who serve the American people.
       It is true: the robe of Lady Liberty is frayed at the cuff, 
     perhaps a smudge or two that needs to be cleaned, and it is 
     wrinkled from overwork and great stress, but beneath the 
     frayed robe there may be found the heart and soul of the 
     American government that is as pure and as deep as gold.
       Mr. Natcher was not the only good and decent man to ever 
     serve this nation. The American people need to know that 
     there are more--many more great hearted men and women like 
     Mr. Natcher in the government today. And there are more of 
     them than those who seek their own pitiful private aims. Many 
     of them are in this room today.
       We are somewhat amused that only now, at his death, has the 
     rest of the country discovered him. The country, as a whole, 
     did not know that for forty years, this great and good man 
     was one of those politicians who made the country work. That 
     fact should stand as a reminder to us whenever anyone, 
     regardless of his or her credentials, levels sweeping 
     condemnation of the government, let them pause to remember 
     that good men and women deserve better, that great men and 
     great women hard at patriotism's honest tasks outnumber the 
     shiny laggards, and that decency and love of country have not 
     evaporated from the chambers of delegated power.
       The nation stands secure today on the shoulders of the 
     political brothers and sisters of William Natcher.
       On the front of your Order of Service, beneath Mr. 
     Natcher's picture, is the matchless text from 2 Timothy: I 
     have fought a good fight, I have finished [my] course, I have 
     kept the faith:
       Someone said to me that he certainly fought the good fight 
     and that he finished the course, but they weren't as sure 
     about his keeping the faith. It is true that his attendance 
     record in Congress was far better than his record of church 
     attendance. But as his friend and pastor, I suggest that when 
     it comes to faith one should measure a man by the words of 
     Scripture. Consider the life and times of Mr. Natcher by 
     these words:
       The Bible says, ``Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do 
     [it] with thy might;'' (Ecclesiastes 9:10)
       The Bible says, ``. . . by their fruits ye shall know 
     them.'' (Matthew 7:20)
       The Bible says, ``the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, 
     peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, 
     temperance: against such there is no law.'' (Galatians 5:22-
     23)
       The Bible says, ``Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are 
     true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] 
     just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] 
     lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] 
     any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these 
     things.'' (Philippians 4:8)
       The Bible says, ``Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye 
     have done [it] unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye 
     have done [it] unto me.'' (Matthew 25:40)
       The Bible says, ``. . . all [of you] be subject one to 
     another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the 
     proud, and giveth grace to the humble.'' (1 Peter 5:5)
       The Bible says, ``. . . whatsoever ye would that men should 
     do to you, do ye even so to them:'' (Mathew 7:12)
       The Bible says, ``No one who puts his hand to the plow and 
     looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.'' (Luke 9:62)
       Mr. Natcher was a life-long member of the First Baptist 
     Church of Bowling Green, and the only way one becomes a 
     member of our church is to recognize that God is to be found 
     with a certainty in Jesus of Nazareth. Mr. Natcher was a 
     faithful Christian believer, a disciple of Jesus and an 
     honorable man. He followed those words of the Bible and 
     matched his life to them.
       Unlike so many--preachers . . . politicians . . . and 
     others--Mr. Natcher practiced what he preached.
       One of his most cherished circles of friends was his 
     breakfast club. In a memorable conversation one day he said 
     to me, referring to his breakfast friends, fellow servants of 
     the public good, ``Do you know what they call us behind our 
     backs?'' Of course, I didn't.
       ``The old wolves,'' he confessed. He shook his head, eyes 
     twinkling. ``Do you think that I am a wolf?'' he asked.
       ``No, Mr. Natcher, I don't,'' I answered.
       ``The Bible,'' he said, ``says that the wolf will lie down 
     with the lamb.'' I nodded, affirming his Bible knowledge 
     (Isaiah 11:6). Then he added, ``But Richard,'' he said, 
     ``some of the lambs have their own ideas. And they don't 
     always listen.''
       John Dewey, in speaking of the character of Thomas 
     Jefferson, once said, ``There are few men in public life 
     whose course has been so straight, so uninterruptedly in one 
     direction.'' That judgment applies to Mr. Natcher. Now his 
     voice is stilled, his last vote is cast, his last letter 
     written, and it is time for the other great and honest and 
     quiet men and women of American government to now come forth, 
     where the nation can see them and hear them, and follow in 
     his track.

                          ____________________