[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 25 (Wednesday, February 28, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E220-E221]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    PRESERVE ONE NATION, INDIVISIBLE

                                 ______


                            HON. ZOE LOFGREN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 27, 1996

  Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, on occasions too numerous to count during 
my first year in Congress I have heard Members of Congress suggest that 
many of the activities of the Federal Government should be eliminated 
or pushed back to the States. As a Californian, I have listened with 
some incredulity to the opinion that our 50 Governors now seem to be 
viewed by some as the repository of governmental wisdom. This 
astonishing view seems to be that State bureaucracies are somehow 
preferable to Federal ones.
  Aside from this viewpoint, however, there are fundamental questions 
posed by the helter-skelter rush to defederalize. I would like to share 
the view of Dr. John Collins, as printed in the Bakersfield 
Californian. Dr. Collins, a combat veteran of World War II and the 
retired chancellor of the Kern County Community College points out that 
while it is popular to bash government, we are the premier country in 
the world and that is not an accident, but the product of doing 
something right.
  Dr. Collins is not only a respected member of his community, he is my 
father-in-law. I know him as someone not only who is a loved family 
member, but the kind of American who those of us in Congress should 
listen to. Like the rest of his generation, he suffered the poverty of 
America in the Depression; he helped save our country and the world 
from totalitarianism during World War II; he achieved professional 
success through education and then dedicated his life not only to 
raising a good family, but to helping his community have educational 
opportunities. His wisdom is gained through experience and we should 
listed carefully to his admonition that we are the United States, not 
these United States.
  The remarks of Dr. John Collins follow, as they appeared in the 
Community Voices section of the January 22, 1996 edition of the 
Bakersfield Californian:

                  Preserve ``One Nation, Indivisible''

       The history of the United States has its roots in the 
     British colonies, which though of themselves as semi-
     autonomous little nations. When these colonies became states 
     with the adoption of the Constitution in 1789, they continued 
     to view themselves as part of a loose union of separate 
     entities. This view was held in spite of the disastrous 
     experience with the Articles of Confederation, which 
     provided for no strong central government.
       For 200 years we have been torn between those who want the 
     states to be ascendant and those who see the need for a 
     dominant central government. Before the Civil War, the term 
     ``these United States'' was in common usage. When in 1861 
     Robert E. Lee, a colonel in the United States Army, was 
     offered the position of general-in-chief of the Union armies, 
     he said he could not turn his back on his country. By that he 
     meant Virginia, not the United States.
       Prior to the Civil War, there had been a serious 
     governmental crisis over nullification wherein one state, 
     South Carolina, took the position that a state could nullify 
     a federal law (tariff in this instance). Andrew Jackson stood 
     firm and the central government prevailed.
       Also, in the early days of our history as a nation there 
     were a number of Supreme Court rulings which gave precedence 
     to the central government. However, the issue of ``states' 
     rights'' seemed never to get settled.
       When Lincoln was elected as the first Republican president, 
     his election precipitated the secession of 11 Southern states 
     from the Union. This formation of the Confederate States of 
     America was the extreme position with regard to ``state 
     rights.''
       The South argued that states had the right to authority of 
     what they viewed as a hostile central government.
       A great civil war ensued that lasted four years, with more 
     than 1 million causalities. Lincoln steadfastly and 
     successfully conducted the Civil War to save the Union--to 
     preserve the country as one nation, indivisible. His enormous 
     and enduring contribution was and is that we have one 
     country, not two, or four, or even 50.
       However, in time the old dispute over ``state rights'' 
     surfaced again, and again, and again, right up to 1996. We 
     see now the spectacle of people who represent their states or 
     districts serving in the United States Congress preaching 
     ``states' rights.''
       They want to turn over to the states responsibilities that 
     have resided with the central government for many years. This 


[[Page E221]]
     isn't a new argument, but it is startling coming at this late date, 
     when we can see the terrible effects of parochialism and 
     tribalism around the world.
       Lincoln saved us from Balkanization. He made sure that it 
     is ``the United States,'' not ``these United States.'' Our 
     debt to Lincoln is huge, and we should not be persuaded 
     easily that it is better to have 50 different policies on the 
     environment, civil rights, Social Security, health services 
     and many other central government functions.
       It is popular now to bash the government. But over the long 
     haul of history the government has served us well. It isn't 
     an accident that we are the premier country in the world, the 
     only superpower. We achieved that status because we have a 
     good system of government. Democracy isn't an easy system. 
     There are all kinds of tugging and pulling as we continue to 
     give everyone a voice.
       Let's not kill the goose that laid the golden egg. Let's 
     not turn the future of this country over to 50 state 
     legislatures. Let's keep one nation, indivisible.

                          ____________________