[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 121 (Wednesday, July 1, 2020)]
[House]
[Page H2994]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 OUR UNALIENABLE RIGHTS OF LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, on Saturday we will celebrate the 
Independence Day of our country. In our Chamber we have photographs of 
Lafayette and George Washington. In the preamble of the Declaration of 
Independence, it reads: ``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 among these are life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness.''
  Unfortunately, those words were not complete because African 
Americans were not considered men, and they were not given the 
unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We 
are still pursuing that. We did it with the George Floyd Justice in 
Policing Act, and we are doing it in other ways with opportunities for 
African Americans.
  And as we said in the founding of our country, that we are becoming a 
more perfect union, and we continue to do that today; to see to it that 
all men and women have certain inalienable rights, life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness.
  Hopefully, we will remember that on Saturday, and remember that the 
reason why we cut ourselves off from King George is because we wanted 
to be a Nation of a rule of laws and not a Nation of a rule of man. 
That was worth people signing the Declaration, putting their lives at 
risk, and founding the United States of America.

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