[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 125 (Tuesday, October 10, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H9517-H9519]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
GENERAL LEAVE
Mrs. MORELLA. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their
remarks on H. Con. Res. 376.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Biggert). Is there objection to the
request of the gentlewoman from Maryland?
There was no objection.
Mrs. MORELLA. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of House Concurrent Resolution
376, which calls for the people of the United States to celebrate a
Liberty Day each year. In the words of the resolution, Liberty Day
would serve, quote, ``as a remembrance of both the freedom that
Americans were given in the Declaration of Independence and the
extraordinary rights and liberties that Americans were given in their
Constitution,'' unquote.
The resolution also holds that all elected and previously elected
representatives of the people who voluntarily give of their time to
speak to the American people about these founding documents to further
our remembrance of our freedom, our rights and our liberties, will
deserve our thanks. The preamble to the resolution also finds that
March 16, James Madison's birthday, would be a fitting reminder of
Liberty Day and an appropriate occasion to celebrate the inalienable
rights and liberties proclaimed by the Declaration of Independence and
secured by the Constitution.
Madam Speaker, this is the second time in as many weeks that this
House has had occasion to reflect on the life and achievements of James
Madison. Last week, we passed House Concurrent Resolution 396 to
celebrate Madison's birth and his many contributions to our Nation.
The resolution before the House today also recognizes the immense
contributions of this remarkable patriot to securing the freedom we
enjoy today.
Madam Speaker, Madison himself said that, quote, ``my life has been
so much of a public one that any review of it must mainly consistent of
the agency which was my lot in public transactions,'' unquote.
Although he was the fourth President of the United States, the
greatest of Madison's public transactions was surely his crucial role
in the framing and adoption of the Constitution of the United States.
As the resolution notes, Madison was the major author of the Virginia
Plan, which served as the basis and model for the Constitution of the
United States, that was proposed by the Constitutional Convention in
1787.
Along with John Jay and Alexander Hamilton, Madison also contributed
to securing ratification of the Constitution by writing parts of the
Federalist Papers.
The Federalist Papers endure to this day, as the resolution observes,
as some of the best arguments for our form of government.
Madison also kept detailed records of the debates and compromises in
the Constitutional Convention which were published only after all
delegates to the convention were dead. The Federalist Papers and
Madison's notes on the Constitutional Convention remain primary sources
for all who seek an understanding of the Framers' intent.
As a Member of the first Congress, Madison was also instrumental in
framing the Bill of Rights. Madam Speaker, as the 106th Congress
concludes, it is certainly proper that we pass this resolution to
remember the founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and
the Constitution, and James Madison's contributions to the formation of
our system of government. I urge all Members to support this
resolution.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CUMMINGS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Madam Speaker, last Monday I stood at this podium to manage House
Concurrent Resolution 396, celebrating the birth of James Madison and
his contributions to the Nation. Today I am here to manage a resolution
that would express Congress' support for the recognition of March 16,
James Madison's birthday, as Liberty Day. This resolution bestows this
honor on James Madison because he was the primary author and steadfast
supporter of three great works of American democracy: the Constitution,
the Federalist Papers, and the Bill of Rights.
If this resolution is passed, Madison's birthday would serve to
remind us of our rights and liberties as enumerated in the Declaration
of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.
Liberty is defined in Webster's Collegiate Dictionary as, and I
quote, ``the quality or state of being free, and the power of choice,''
two premises on which this Nation was founded.
The promise of freedom and choice is what thousands of immigrants saw
in a copper statue in the New York Bay. The statue was of a woman
holding a torch in her right hand and a tablet bearing the adoption
date of the Declaration of Independence in her left.
Her pedestal reads, and I quote, ``Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.'' The Statue of Liberty
was and still is a symbol of hope and freedom in America.
Another traditional symbol of United States freedom can be found in
Philadelphia in the form of a cracked bell. The bell was first rung on
July 8, 1776, 4 days after the adoption of the Declaration of
Independence. It tolled to celebrate the first public reading of the
document. The bell bears the motto, and I quote, ``Proclaim liberty
throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.''
The Liberty Bell, first named in an 1839 Abolitionist pamphlet,
remains a symbol of freedom and a reminder that all Americans are
created equal.
When H. Con. Res. 376 is passed, Americans will have another
opportunity to reflect on this Nation's tradition of freedom and
equality. Liberty Day will further enhance the importance and symbolic
meaning of two existing icons of American freedom: the Statue of
Liberty and the Liberty Bell.
On March 16, Americans will celebrate a promise originated by James
Madison and others and documented in the Declaration of Independence
and the United States Constitution. That promise is one of freedom and
choice. And in the words of James Madison, he said simply these: ``The
prescriptions in favor of liberty ought to be leveled against that
quarter where the greatest danger lies, namely, that which possesses
the highest prerogative of power; but this is not found in either the
executive or legislative departments of government, but in the body
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of the people, operating by the majority against the minority.''
Madam Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this
resolution. I congratulate its sponsor.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mrs. MORELLA. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to
the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Tancredo), the sponsor of this
resolution.
Mr. TANCREDO. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Maryland
(Mrs. Morella) for yielding me this time.
Madam Speaker, I could not do better in terms of describing the
importance of this resolution and its historical implications than my
two colleagues from the State of Maryland have done here. Both of them,
I think, have been incredibly articulate in expressing those
sentiments.
I will only add that it is important also to remember that James
Madison, as the fourth President of the United States, was also the
major author of the Virginia Plan, which is a model and the basis for
the United States Constitution that emerged from the Constitutional
Convention in 1787.
I want to also say that this whole issue comes to us today on the
floor as a result of the really tireless efforts of one individual in
my district, a gentleman by the name of Andy McKean, who with other
members of the Lion's Club took this on as a project some time ago and
decided something had to be done in order to increase the level of
knowledge that students, especially students and youngsters, have about
the Constitution, about the Bill of Rights and about really what
liberty means in the United States of America.
As part of that task, they have been instrumental in delivering and
distributing literally hundreds of thousands of copies of the
Constitution. Liberty Day Colorado is the way it is identified here,
but these little pocket Constitutions have gone out to schools all over
Colorado. There are over 1 million active members of the Lion's Club
nationwide, and it is my understanding that this is a project they are
anticipating to take on as an organization.
It is supported right now in State legislatures throughout the
country: Colorado, California, Maine, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North
Carolina, Virginia, New Hampshire, Montana, Mississippi, Indiana,
Idaho, Wyoming. And other States are on the way.
It is nonpartisan, as evidenced by the discussion here today. It is
funded entirely through businesses and individual contributions. The
national recognition will provide a rallying point for this grass-roots
movement; and it is also, I think, a tribute to individuals like Mr.
McKean.
A textbook could not be written about the way in which he has devoted
a good portion of his life to this event and how it has worked its way
through the process and it now appears before us on the floor of the
House and hopefully will eventually become part of our national
recognition of Liberty Day.
So, again, I want to thank the committee; and I want to thank the
Members here who have spoken so eloquently in its support.
Mr. CUMMINGS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Colorado (Mr.
Tancredo) for his words. It is very heartening to know that the Lion's
Club took this on as a project.
I think it is very, very important in our society that we do
everything in our power, Madam Speaker, to lift up our children. I have
often said that they are the living messages we send to a future we may
never see. I want to congratulate him for that.
Madam Speaker, I just want to end with one of my favorite quotes from
Madison, which was stated on June 8, 1789, when he said that all power
is originally vested in and consequently derived from the people; that
government is instituted and ought to be exercised for the benefit of
the people, which consists in the enjoyment of life and liberty, with
the right of acquiring and using property and generally of pursuing and
obtaining happiness and safety; that the people have an indubitable,
unalienable and indefeasible right to reform or change their government
whenever it be found adverse and inadequate to the purposes of the
institution.
Madam Speaker, I would urge all of our colleagues to vote in favor of
this very important resolution.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mrs. MORELLA. Madam Speaker, I very much appreciate the quotation and
the discussion with my colleague from Maryland (Mr. Cummings).
Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to another
colleague, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Bartlett).
Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland. Madam Speaker, I want to thank my friend,
the gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella), for yielding me this time
and I want to thank my other friend, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr.
Cummings), for his quote.
Madam Speaker, it is hard for us to realize what a radical document
the Declaration of Independence was. If we think back, our forefathers
now, they come from all parts of the world; but our forefathers when
this country was founded came from principally the British Isles and
the European continent. If we remember our history, almost every one of
them came from a country where the king or the emperor claimed and,
incredibly from our position, was granted what was known as divine
rights. In other words, what the king or the emperor claimed was that
the rights came from God to him; that he would then give what rights he
wished to his people. Sometimes many; sometimes very few.
Our forefathers made a radical departure from this, because in the
Declaration of Independence they said we hold these truths to be self-
evident that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable rights. That the rights did not come
from God to the king, that the rights came from God to the people, and
it was the wish of our forefathers that they would found a government
which had very limited rights.
{time} 1430
Most of the rights should still reside in the people. So they wrote
the Constitution 11 years later, ratified in 1787. The ink was hardly
dry before they recognized that it might not be clear to everyone how
committed they were to the proposition that the rights fundamentally
belonged to the people, and they would give just what few rights were
necessary to the government.
Four years later, in 1791, the first 10 amendments which we know as
the Bill of Rights were finally ratified by three-fourths of the
States. If we look through those Bill of rights and reflect on what
they said, most of them address the rights of the people.
Then to make sure that no one could misunderstand that they meant
most of these rights to reside with the people, in the Ninth Amendment
they said that, just because we did not mention in the Constitution
that the right belonged to the people, do not disparage the fact that
it does belong to the people.
Then in the Tenth Amendment they came back, and I think this is the
most violated amendment in the Constitution, the most violated part of
the Constitution, they come back and say, in today's English, if you
kind of put this in today's English, our Constitution is old English
and it is legalese so sometimes we have to paraphrase it to understand
clearly what they meant, what they are saying in the Tenth Amendment is
that if we cannot find it in article 1, Section 8, of the Constitution,
the Federal government cannot do it; that they can only do those things
which are found there, and all the things which are not found there,
all the rights not specifically given to the government, belong to the
people or to the States.
So I think it is very appropriate that we designate a Liberty Day.
That is what our forefathers wished so much for us to have. That is
what we are at risk of losing as government becomes ever bigger and
bigger and more and more intrusive.
I wholeheartedly support the resolution.
Mrs. MORELLA. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
I commend the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Tancredo) for introducing
this resolution and working very hard to bring it to the floor today. I
also want to thank the Lions Club for taking on this Liberty Day
project. The
[[Page H9519]]
Lions Club has been noted for its eye banks. They care about vision,
and frankly, Liberty Day has to do with the vision to look ahead in
terms of recognizing the values of the past and the principles upon
which we are guided into the future.
I also want to thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Scarborough),
the chairman of the Subcommittee on Civil Service, the gentleman from
Maryland (Mr. Cummings), a ranking member of the Subcommittee on Civil
Service, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) of the Committee on
Government Reform, as well as the ranking member, the gentleman from
California (Mr. Waxman), because they have helped the consideration of
this resolution.
It is also a pleasure to be able to floor manage this resolution that
we believe in with my colleague, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr.
Cummings). I thank my other colleague from Maryland (Mr. Bartlett) also
for his understanding of the Constitution and his statement.
Madam Speaker, I ask Members' support of this resolution, and I yield
back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Biggert). The question is on the motion
offered by the gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella) that the House
suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution, H. Con. Res.
376.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor
thereof) the rules were suspended and the concurrent resolution was
agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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