[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 130 (Thursday, July 23, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H3701-H3702]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
NOTICE OF INTENTION TO OFFER RESOLUTION RAISING A QUESTION OF THE
PRIVILEGES OF THE HOUSE
Mr. GOHMERT. Madam Speaker, pursuant to clause 2(a)(1) of rule IX, I
rise to give notice of my intention to raise a question of the
privileges of the House.
The form of the resolution is as follows:
Raising a question of the privileges of the House:
Whereas, on July 22, 2020, House Resolution 7573 was brought to the
House floor for a vote with the purpose of eliminating four specific
statues or busts from the United States Capitol, along with all others
that include individuals ``who served as an officer or voluntarily with
the Confederate States of America or the military forces or government
of a State while the State was in rebellion against the United
States,'' yet failed to address the most ever-present historical stigma
of the United States Capitol; that is, the source that so fervently
supported, condoned, and fought for slavery was left untouched, without
whom, the evil of slavery could never have continued as it did, to such
extreme that it is necessary to address it here in order for the U.S.
House of Representatives to avoid degradation of historical fact and
blatant hypocrisy for generations to come.
{time} 1015
Whereas, the Democratic Party Platform of 1840, 1844, 1848, 1852, and
1856 states: ``That Congress has no power under the Constitution to
interfere with or control the domestic institutions of the several
States, and that such States are the sole and proper judges of
everything appertaining to their own affairs, not prohibited by the
Constitution; that all efforts of the abolitionists, or others, made to
induce Congress to interfere with questions of slavery . . . are
calculated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous consequences; and
that all such efforts have an inevitable tendency to diminish the
happiness of the people and endanger the stability and permanency of
[[Page H3702]]
the Union, and ought not to be countenanced by any friend of our
political institutions.''
Again, from the Democratic Party Platform of those years.
Whereas, the Democrat Party Platform of 1856 further declares that
new States to the Union should be admitted ``with or without domestic
slavery, as the State may elect.''
Whereas, the Democratic Party Platform of 1856 also resolves that
``we recognize the right of the people of all the territories . . . to
form a Constitution, with or without domestic slavery.''
Whereas, the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 penalized officials who did
not arrest an alleged runaway slave and made them liable for a fine of
$1,000, which is about $28,000 in present-day value. Law enforcement
officials everywhere were required to arrest people suspected of being
a runaway slave on as little as a claimant's sworn testimony of
ownership. The Democratic Party Platform of 1860 directly, in seeking
to uphold to Fugitive Slave Act, states that ``the enactments of the
State legislatures to defeat the faithful execution of the Fugitive
Slave Law are hostile in character, subversive of the Constitution, and
revolutionary in their effect.''
The Democratic Party Platform again.
Whereas, the 14th Amendment, giving full citizenship to freed slaves,
passed in 1868 with 94 percent Republican support, 0 percent Democratic
support in Congress; the 15th Amendment, giving freed slaves the right
to vote, passed in 1870 with 100 percent Republican support and 0
percent Democratic support in Congress.
Whereas, Democrats systematically suppressed African Americans' right
to vote, and by specific example in the 1902 constitution of the State
of Virginia actually disenfranchised about 90 percent of the Black men
who still voted at the beginning of the 20th century and nearly half of
the White men.
So they suppressed Republican voters as well.
The number of eligible African-American voters were thereby forcibly
reduced from about 147,000 in 1901 to about 10,000 by 1905; that
measure was supported almost exclusively by Virginia Democrats.
Whereas, Virginia's 1902 constitution was engineered by Carter Glass,
the future Democratic U.S. Representative, Senator, and Secretary of
the Treasury under Democrat President Woodrow Wilson, who proclaimed
the goal of the constitutional convention as follows: This Democrat
exclaimed: ``Discrimination! Why, that is precisely what we propose.
That, exactly, is what this Convention was elected for--to discriminate
to the very extremity of permissible action under the limits of the
Federal Constitution, with a view to the elimination of every,'' and I
won't use his word, but African-American ``voter who can be gotten rid
of legally,'' which was said by a Democrat and applauded by his fellow
Democrats.
Whereas, in 1912, Democratic President Woodrow Wilson's
administration began a racial segregation policy for U.S. Government
employees, and by 1914, the Wilson administration's civil service
instituted the requirement that a photograph be submitted with each
employment application.
Whereas, the 1924 Democratic National Convention convened in New York
City at Madison Square Garden; the convention commonly was known as the
``Klan-Bake'' due to the overwhelming influence of the Ku Klux Klan in
the Democratic Party.
Whereas, in 1964, the Democratic Party led a 75-calendar-day
filibuster against the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Whereas, leading the Democrats in their opposition to civil rights
for African Americans was a member of the Democratic Party, Senator
Robert Byrd from West Virginia, who was a known recruiter for the Ku
Klux Klan.
Whereas, Democrats enacted and enforced Jim Crow laws and civil codes
that forced segregation and restricted freedoms of Black Americans in
the United States.
Whereas, on June 18, 2020, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered the
removal from the Capitol portraits of four previous Speakers of the
House who served in the Confederacy, saying this these portraits ``set
back our Nation's work to confront and combat bigotry''; the men
depicted in the portraits were Democrat Robert M.T. Hunter, Democrat
Howell Cobb, Democrat James L. Orr, and Democrat Charles F. Crisp.
Resolved,
One, that the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall remove
any item that names, symbolizes, or mentions any political organization
or party that has ever held a public position that supported slavery or
the Confederacy, from any area within the House wing of the Capitol or
any House office building, and shall donate such item or symbol to the
Library of Congress.
Two, that any political organization or party that has ever held a
public position that supported slavery or the Confederacy shall either
change its name or be barred from participation in the House of
Representatives.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under rule IX, a resolution offered from the
floor by a Member other than the majority leader or the minority leader
as a question of the privileges of the House has immediate precedence
only at a time designated by the Chair within 2 legislative days after
the resolution is properly noticed.
Pending that designation, the form of the resolution noticed by the
gentleman from Texas will appear in the Record at this point.
The Chair will not at this point determine whether the resolution
constitutes a question of privilege. That determination will be made at
the time designated for consideration of the resolution.
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