[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 6 (Wednesday, January 11, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S755-S756]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            A MAN OF MANY TALENTS--SENATOR BENNETT JOHNSTON

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, Madison in the Federalist No. 53 states, in 
part, as follows:

       No man can be a competent legislator who does not add to an 
     upright intention and a sound judgment a certain degree of 
     knowledge of the subjects on which he is to legislate. A part 
     of this knowledge may be acquired by means of information 
     which lie within the compass of men in private as well as 
     public stations. Another part can only be attained, or at 
     least thoroughly attained, by actual experience in the 
     station which requires the use of it.

  In the same Federalist paper, Madison writes as follows:

       A few of the members, as happens in all such assemblies, 
     will possess superior talents; will, by frequent reelections, 
     become members of long standing; will be thoroughly masters 
     of the public business, and perhaps not unwilling to avail 
     themselves of those advantages. The greater the proportion of 
     new members and the less the information of the bulk of the 
     members, the more apt will they be to fall into the snares 
     that may be laid for them.

  Mr. President, I speak today of a Senator who has demonstrated 
superior talents, a Senator with 22 years of experience in this body--
Madison, having referred to men of ``superior talents'' and also to the 
advantages of 
 [[Page S756]] ``experience''--and Bennett Johnston is that man of whom 
I speak.
  There is no department of public life in which the test of man's 
ability is more severe than service in this body. Little deference is 
paid to reputation previously acquired or to eminent performances won 
elsewhere. What a man accomplishes in this Chamber, he does so by sheer 
force of his own character and ability. It is here that one must be 
prepared to answer for the many talents or for the single talent 
committed to his charge.
  Bennett Johnston came to this body 22 years ago as a man of many 
talents. He did not wrap his talents in a napkin or hide them in the 
earth, as both Luke the Physician and Matthew make reference, but he 
put them to use that they might bear increase for his State, for his 
country, for the Senate, and for his fellow man. He has proved himself 
to be a superior legislator. I have served with him these 22 years on 
the Committee on Appropriations. He has proved himself to be a man with 
courage, with vision, with conviction, a man who is diligent in his 
work and faithful to his oath of office.
  As the chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations during the 
last 6 years, I found him always to be conscientious and a man of his 
word. Fully aware of the admonition by Polonius that ``those friends 
thou hast and their adoption tried, grapple them to thy soul with hoops 
of steel,'' it is with pride that I call Bennett Johnston friend. It is 
with sincere sadness that I have heard of his decision and I regret 
that, with the passing of these final 2 years of his term, the Senate 
will have witnessed the departure of one who has effectively toiled 
here in its vineyards and who has earned the respect and admiration of 
his colleagues. The people of the State of Louisiana chose well when, 
by the exercise of their franchise, they sent him here. Someone will be 
selected to take his place, just as someone will, in due time, stand in 
the place of each of us here.
  After he lays down the mantle of service, we shall feel the same 
revolution of the seasons, and the same Sun and Moon will guide the 
course of our year. The same azure vault, bespangled with stars, will 
be everywhere spread over our heads. But I shall miss him, just as I 
know others will miss Bennett Johnston. Other opportunities will come 
to him, other horizons will stretch out before him, and he will sail 
his ship on other seas.
  Erma and I will miss Bennett and Mary, but the memories of these past 
years during which we have been blessed to render service together to 
the Nation will always linger in our hearts.
  I think of lines by Longfellow as being appropriate for this 
occasion:

     I shot an arrow into the air;
     It fell to earth I knew not where,
     For so swiftly it flew, the sight
     Could not follow it in its flight.

     I breathed a song into the air;
     It came to earth, I knew not where,
     For who has sight so swift, so strong
     That it can follow the flight of song?

     Long, long afterwards, in an oak,
     I found the arrow still unbroke,
     And the song, from beginning to end,
     I found again in the heart of a friend.

  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  

                          ____________________