[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 192 (Tuesday, December 5, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S18013]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO SENATOR MARK HATFIELD

  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, 45 years ago a young political science 
professor went to Silverton, OR, to announce his candidacy for the 
Oregon State House of Representatives.
  In the years that followed, Mark Hatfield would return to Silverton 
to announce his candidacy for the Oregon State Senate, for secretary of 
state, for Governor, and for U.S. Senator. And each and every time Mark 
Hatfield put his name on the ballot, Oregonians responded by voting for 
him in overwhelming numbers.
  Not only did Mark Hatfield never lose an election, he never lost the 
total trust and respect or Oregonians.
  Last Friday, Senator Hatfield returned again to Silverton.
  Only this time, he did not announce his candidacy for a sixth term in 
this Chamber--even though he would easily have been reelected.
  Instead, Senator Hatfield announced that he will retire from the 
Senate at the end of the 104th Congress so that he can return to 
Oregon. And I might say, I had the pleasure of watching much of his 
retirement speech on C-SPAN.
  And when Senator Hatfield leaves this Chamber for the final time, he 
will leave behind an enduring legacy of statesmanship, leadership, 
dignity, and integrity.
  No matter if any Senator agreed or disagreed with Mark Hatfield, no 
one could ever doubt that he was standing up for what the he believed 
was right for Oregon and for America.
  And just as Oregonians have grown to count on Senator Hatfield's 
leadership, many Senators have also grown to count on his friendship.
  Many of us will never forget the day when our late colleague Senator 
Stennis was shot in a burglary attempt, and how Senator Hatfield raced 
to the hospital to be with Senator Stennis, and how he personally 
manned the telephone lines, responding to inquiries about the condition 
of Senator Stennis.
  Senator Hatfield also served his country during World War II, where 
he saw battle at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and was among the first U.S. 
servicemen to enter Hiroshima following the atomic explosion.
  With Senator Hatfield's retirement, the Senate will also be losing 
one of the Nation's leading scholars of the life of Abraham Lincoln. 
And those colleagues who have not seen Senator Hatfield's Lincoln 
collection are now on notice that they have about a year to do so.
  In one of the last letters that Lincoln wrote, he said that his goal 
was not just that America be a Union of States, but also a ``Union of 
hearts and hands.''
  That goal has also been the life's work of Mark Hatfield, and the 
Senate, Oregon, and America, are all better because of him.

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