[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 87 (Thursday, June 13, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S6218]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     HONORING SENATOR MARK HATFIELD

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, on June 11, 1996, a dinner honoring Senator 
Mark Hatfield, who will be retiring from the U.S. Senate in January, 
was hosted by Senator Stevens and myself in the National Archives 
Rotunda. I was privileged to make remarks at this salute to my good 
friend and colleague, Senator Hatfield. I ask unanimous consent that my 
remarks, as delivered, be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the remarks were ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                        Remarks of Senator Byrd

       The great Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once 
     observed that, ``Life is painting a picture, not doing a 
     sum.''
       And, indeed, the transcendent life requires much, much more 
     than a mere balance sheet of wins versus losses. Just as 
     shade, hue and the subtle use of light distinguish great art, 
     delicate nuances of character, honor and intellect provide 
     the defining elements of a sublime human existence.
       The man we honor here tonight has painted a life portrait 
     worthy of Rembrandt. A deeply religious man, Mark Hatfield 
     has done one of the hardest things in life for mere mortals 
     to do. He has actually lived, and even more incredibly 
     conducted a political career in near-perfect accordance with 
     the teachings of his personal faith.
       Mark Hatfield has been a faithful disciple of his own 
     conscience. He has maintained that fidelity despite intense 
     pressure sometimes from his own party. He has gone against 
     the grain of popular public opinion. He was right about 
     Vietnam when most of the rest of us, including myself, were 
     wrong. He has sailed his boat against the wind time and time 
     again, and only grown stronger from the experience. He has 
     been called a ``maverick;'' yet, the quiet demeanor and ever 
     gentle way of his conversation belie none of the steel in his 
     spine.
       The blind poet, Milton, wrote, ``Give me the liberty to 
     know, to utter, and to argue freely, according to conscience 
     above all liberties.'' We celebrate tonight the life and 
     achievements of a man who has always known, and uttered, and 
     argued freely from the dictates of his own keen inner voice. 
     He is an inspiration to anyone who has been fortunate enough 
     to watch him or to serve with him in public life. His kind is 
     rare and growing rarer still in this vast city of towering 
     egos, silly pretensions, and paper-mache values. Senator 
     Hatfield is, in the words of Edwin Markham, ``a man to hold 
     against the world, a man to match the mountains and the 
     sea.''
       Mark Hatfield's decision to return to the peaceful Oregon 
     countryside leaves the United States Senate and this great 
     country with a special kind of uneasy void. The political 
     landscape of this nation will be suddenly starker for his 
     leaving. Markham's words come once again to mind:
       ``. . . He held the ridgepole up, and spiked again
       The rafters of the Home. He held his place--
       Held the long purpose like a growing tree--
       Held on through blame and faltered not at praise.
       And when he fell in whirlwind, he went down
       As when a lordly cedar, green with boughs,
       Goes down with a great shout upon the hills,
       And leaves a lonesome place against the sky.''

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