[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 38 (Thursday, March 6, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H1401-H1402]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       DRED SCOTT AND ROE V. WADE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Franks) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, today marks a tragic anniversary 
in American history. It was on this day in 1857 that the Supreme Court 
of the United States handed down the now famous Dred Scott v. Sandford 
ruling, saying that Dred Scott, a black man born into slavery but 
living in a free State, was not a United States citizen and could not 
sue for his freedom in Federal court.
  In a 7-2 ruling handed down by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, a former 
slave owner from Maryland, the court found that the black man was not a 
person under the Constitution; that he was property and not a person; 
and that as such, he was both prohibited from bringing suit against any 
citizen in Federal court and was made subject to the fifth amendment of 
the Constitution which prohibits taking property from its owner without 
``due process.''
  The court said that all blacks, slaves as well as free, were not and 
could never be citizens of the United States, and determined that 
blacks ``had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and 
that the Negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for 
his,'' the white man's, ``benefit.''
  By that one ruling, nearly 4 million slaves living in America were 
deemed by an erudite judiciary as less than human, unworthy to be 
protected; and it took an entire Civil War to reverse the tragedy of 
that decision.
  Dred Scott tasted the freedom that he believed was the birthright of 
every human soul only a short time because tragically, after his 
emancipation in May of 1857, he lived in the freedom that he longed for 
for only 9 months before he passed away.
  Today we remember the horrendous scar upon the soul of our Nation of 
slavery and the Dred Scott decision. And we all stand in retrospect and 
wonder how those people in that day could have been so blind to the 
unalienable truth that all men are created equal.
  And yet today, Mr. Speaker, here in the land of the free and the home 
of the brave, we have allowed almost 50 million of our own unborn 
children to be killed in their mothers' wombs as a result of yet 
another Supreme Court decision that denied their personhood and the 
most basic constitutional right of all, that being the right to live.
  It has now been exactly 12,827 days since the travesty called Roe v. 
Wade was handed down by the Supreme Court. Since then, the very 
foundation of this Nation has been stained by the blood of almost 50 
million of its own children.
  Yet today, even in the full glare of such tragedy, this generation 
clings to a blind, invincible ignorance while history repeats itself 
and our own silent genocide mercilessly annihilates the most helpless 
of all victims yet today, those yet unborn.
  Winston Churchill said Americans always do the right thing after they 
have exhausted every other possibility. Americans are coming to realize 
that the avenues of heartlessness and selfishness are now exhausted. 
Americans are beginning to understand that if we as a society do not 
possess the courage and the will to protect innocent unborn children, 
that in the final analysis we will never find the will or the courage 
to protect any kind of liberty or rights for anyone.
  Mr. Speaker, perhaps it is important for those of us in this Chamber 
to remind ourselves again of why we are really all here. Thomas 
Jefferson said: ``The care of human life and its happiness and not its 
destruction is the chief and only object of good government.''

[[Page H1402]]

  Mr. Speaker, the rise and fall of slavery in America, if it teaches 
us anything, it is that the evil about us eventually and completely 
collapses upon itself. The time is long past for Roe v. Wade, the 
bloodiest court decision in the history of humanity, to take its place 
alongside the Dred Scott decision in the ash heap of history.

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