[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 25855]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                        ``THE LONG PARLIAMENT''

  (Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, sometimes we can get wisdom 
from the ages. I am not a fan of Oliver Cromwell. His semi-genocidal 
attacks on the Irish was certainly one of the low points in history. 
But even he occasionally got something right.
  During the 1650s, there was a Parliament in England which could not 
seem to find a way to leave London. Oliver Cromwell decided they needed 
some encouragement. Some of what he said in his gentle way, waiving a 
sword seems to me to be not entirely inappropriate. So I would, 
therefore, like to read some excerpts from Oliver Cromwell's speech to 
what was called ``The Long Parliament.''

       It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in 
     this place . . .
  ``Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You were 
deputed here to get grievances redressed; are not yourselves become the 
greatest the grievance? Your country therefore calls upon me to cleanse 
the Augean stable by putting a final period to your . . . proceedings 
in this house and which by God's help and the strength he has given me 
I am now come to do. I commend ye therefore upon the peril of your 
lives to depart immediately out of this place. . . Go and get out, make 
haste ye venal slaves be gone. So take away that shining bauble there 
and lock up the doors.

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