[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 165 (Tuesday, December 14, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H8331]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           CELEBRATING PENNSYLVANIA'S 223RD YEAR OF STATEHOOD

  (Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, this past weekend the 
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania celebrated its 223rd year as the second 
State to be admitted to the new United States of America. Its history 
is varied, from the Algonquin and Iroquois natives who met Dutch 
explorers in 1609 to the Quaker named William Penn who founded 
Philadelphia in 1682. That fair city served as the Nation's Capital 
from 1790 to 1800. Both the First and Second Continental Congress met 
in Philadelphia, and General George Washington and his Continental Army 
survived a harsh winter at Valley Forge during the Revolution. In 1787, 
the Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania 
became the second State admitted.
  As we became a Nation, the State grew and produced iron and milled 
grain, plied the steamboat on its rivers, and drilled the first 
commercially successful oil well near Titusville. More recently, we 
have gone from the production of oil and steel to the new boom of the 
Marcellus natural gas play. I congratulate the State on its milestone 
of its 223rd year and celebrate the freedom that allows the 
Commonwealth to pursue prosperity with natural gas development and help 
the Nation with its energy needs.

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