[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Pages 22686-22688]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                              THANKSGIVING

  Mr. BYRD. Mr, President, nearly 4 centuries ago, a courageous little 
group of people left their homeland, boarded a small, flimsy sailboat--
it was not a steamboat; it was a sailboat, a sail ship--and they 
journeyed across a mighty ocean, and settled in an inscrutable 
unfriendly wilderness. They did all of this, took all of these risks.
  Think about the risks that they took. They did not have any cell 
phones. They did not have any radios. They did not have any weather 
predictors. They did not have any newspapers to tell them what might 
lie ahead or what the weather conditions might be 24 hours away. They 
did not have any hospitals nearby. But they had faith. They had the 
guiding light of God's word. Many of them took all these risks so that 
they could go to church, the church of their choice. Think about it. 
How many of us today have difficulty getting up on Sunday morning in 
order to go to church? I do. Ah, how I like to lie in bed on Sunday 
morning. My little dog Billy gets me up many times, or that alarm clock 
does. But I like to go back to bed on Sunday morning. Can't do it on 
Monday, you see. Can't do it on Tuesday. But Saturday and Sunday--ah, 
Sunday.
  How many of us do not like to walk those few blocks or drive those 
few miles to go to church? But here were the Pilgrims, crossing a vast 
ocean--2,500 miles, 3,000 miles--a vast body of water, facing the 
darkest of unknowns. They did not know what would lie in wait for them. 
They knew it would be a long time before they could get back home, and 
perhaps there would not be friendly winds that would bring their sail 
ships back home. They faced the darkest of unknowns just to preserve 
the sacred right to worship as they pleased, or not to worship, to go 
to this church or that church, the church of their choice. Many of them 
came for that reason only.
  Stop and think about it. Doesn't one stand in awe, absolute stark 
awe, as

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one thinks of the courage of those men and women to strike out across 
the stormy deep, in awe of their courage and their devotion to God? One 
cannot help but be awed by that courage that they had to go against 
odds, to face hunger and deprivation and danger, to be away from their 
loved ones there in the British Isles or in the Netherlands or in 
Germany or in France or Italy, or wherever, to leave those friends and 
relatives, those loved ones, perhaps forever, not knowing whether they 
would ever in this world see those loved ones, those friends, those 
acquaintances again.
  The journey was not easy. Turbulent weather, including rough winds 
and strong currents, forced the Pilgrims to anchor at Cape Cod, MA, far 
north of their destination and well outside the boundaries of their 
patent. This meant that, once on land, there would be no legal 
authority or government over them.
  Therefore, before disembarking, the Pilgrim leaders assembled 
together all the adult men who made the journey on the Mayflower in 
order to formulate a government.
  It was a covenant. One might call it a contract. I prefer to call it 
a covenant. Drawing upon their church covenant which vested religious 
authority in the congregation, they established a form of self-
government.


  It seemed simple enough, but little could these men aboard the 
Mayflower that fateful November night in 1620 have realized the mighty 
forces that they were unleashing. By binding themselves into a ``civil 
body politic,'' by giving themselves the power to enact laws for the 
common good, and obligating themselves to obey such laws, the Pilgrims 
were establishing the fundamental, the basic principles of democracy in 
America, namely a belief in self government, the rule of law, and 
government by mutual consent.
  The Pilgrims had also established that the government of their new 
world would be a government under God. The Mayflower Compact made this 
intent perfectly clear as it read, in part:

  In the name of God, amen, we whose names are underwritten . . . 
Having undertaken for the Glory of God . . . Do by these Presents, 
solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one another, 
covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politik, 
for our better Ordering and Preservation. . . .
  There you have it. These were our forebears. The next year, these 
same men and women established the custom of gathering together each 
year to express their gratitude to God for protecting them, for the 
harvests that their labors had brought forth in the new land, and for 
the preservation of their community.
  In the middle of October of 1621, a group of hunters sent out by 
Governor Bradford brought back a great store of wild turkeys. I can 
just see them. They wouldn't go the back streets with this big bundle 
of turkeys they had shot. No, they would go the front street, wouldn't 
they? They would go right down front street so that everybody could see 
the turkeys they had bagged, a great store of wild turkeys. When these 
were added to the collection of lobsters and clams and fish and corn 
and green vegetables and dried fruits that the community had collected, 
the Pilgrims had the makings of a great feast. Hot diggity dog, they 
had it, didn't they. They had something good to eat. Yes, indeed. So 
they invited their neighbors to join them in a day of celebration and 
worship and in a common giving of thanks.
  Two years later, in 1623, the Pilgrims made this day of thanks, 
feasting, and worship a tradition. The spirit of that glorious day, 
which some people recognize as the first official Thanksgiving, was 
captured in a proclamation attributed to Governor Bradford. That 
proclamation read in part--let us read it together:

       Inasmuch as the Great Father has given us this year in an 
     abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, squashes and 
     garden vegetables, and made the forest to abound with game 
     and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as he has . . . 
     spared us from the pestilence and granted us freedom to 
     worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience, 
     now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, 
     with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting 
     house, on ye hill, between the hours of nine and twelve in 
     the daytime on Thursday, November ye 29th, of the year of our 
     Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and the third 
     year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Plymouth Rock, there to 
     listen to ye Pastor and render Thanksgiving to ye all 
     Almighty God for all his blessings.

  ``Thanksgiving day,'' wrote President John Kennedy, ``has ever since 
been part of the fabric which has united Americans with their past, 
with each other, and with the future of mankind.''
  Thanksgiving has become one of America's oldest and most beloved 
holidays. It is one of our most important holidays. It has become a day 
devoted to turkey, mashed potatoes, and cranberries. I can tell these 
pages to savor that day when they can meet at mom's house and have all 
these goodies. They are not going to Shoney's or some other restaurant. 
They are going to eat with mother or grandmother, with their parents, 
with their brothers, with their families.
  It has become a day devoted to turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberries, 
family togetherness, football games, parades, and the beginning of the 
Christmas holiday season. But it also remains a day that should be 
devoted to God and country because it always has been.
  During the American Revolution, following the important American 
victory over the British at the Battle of Saratoga in October 1777, 
which marked a turning point in the war, the Continental Congress 
approved a resolution proclaiming December 1 as a day of ``Thanksgiving 
and praise.'' You see, our fathers did not forget. Our fathers and 
mothers remembered the great God of heaven. They remembered the God who 
had watched over them through that perilous trek across the deep waters 
and had protected them in their homes and the forests, had provided 
food and sustenance for them. They remembered. They gave thanks to him.
  Following the establishment of the new Government of the United 
States in 1789, President George Washington issued a ``Thanksgiving 
Proclamation'' designating Thursday, November 26, as a ``day of public 
thanks-giving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful 
hearts the many favors of Almighty God.'' This is George Washington. 
This isn't Robert Byrd. This is George Washington, our first President, 
the greatest of all, George Washington. ``By acknowledging with 
grateful hearts,'' he said, ``the many favors of Almighty God, 
especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a 
form of government for their safety and happiness.'' Those were George 
Washington's words. At President Washington's request, Americans 
assembled in churches on the appointed day and thanked God for his 
blessings.
  One thing, if I forget all else, that I will always remember about 
President Eisenhower is this: In his first inaugural address, he, 
Dwight D. Eisenhower, prayed. In his first inaugural address, President 
Eisenhower prayed. I shall never forget that, and I shall never fail to 
honor him for that. Dwight D. Eisenhower prayed a prayer in his first 
inaugural address.
  During the American Civil War, following the bloody battle of 
Gettysburg that marked a turning point in that war, President Abraham 
Lincoln asked the people of the United States to set aside the last 
Thursday of November ``as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our 
beneficent Father.'' This was Lincoln, not Robert Byrd. ``In the midst 
of a civil war of unequal magnitude and severity,'' President Lincoln 
proclaimed the country should take a day to acknowledge--listen to his 
words--the ``gracious gifts of the most high God, who, while dealing 
with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered in mercy.''
  Two towering Presidents, Washington and Lincoln, humbled themselves 
to call upon God's name and to give him thanks.
  This year, as was 1863, has been a year of tragedy and adversity for 
our Nation. We again find ourselves at war. Because of this, on this 
Thanksgiving, as in 1863, there will be too many empty chairs at the 
table. Nevertheless, as in 1863, we should recognize that there is so 
much for which to be thankful.

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  While I recognize that today, as in 1863, we live in a time of 
uncertainty and danger, we should all be thankful that the American 
people have the steadfastness and the determination to move forward.
  While I recognize that many young American men and women will spend 
this holiday in harm's way protecting our country and protecting the 
values we hold dear, we can all be thankful we do have the best, the 
bravest, and the most determined Armed Forces--and always have had--in 
the world, Armed Forces that are now fighting the scourge of terrorism. 
I am thankful we live in a country that can confront a crisis with 
strength and moral certainty, without forcing us to abandon the very 
principles and values that we hold most dear.
  Like President Washington, I am thankful for ``the many favors of 
Almighty God,'' including a government that ensures our ``safety and 
happiness.''
  Like President Lincoln, I am thankful for the ``gracious gifts of the 
most high God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins''--and 
there are many--``hath nevertheless remembered mercy.''
  Finally, I am thankful for those men and women, who, 381 years ago, 
had the courage, the faith, and the devotion to God to challenge the 
most difficult and dangerous of journeys and face the darkest unknown. 
They left friends and homes and warm hearths to launch out upon a 
dangerous, deep journey, led and guided only by the faith they had in a 
higher power and a desire to create a new home where they could go to 
the church of their choice. Thank God for them.
  On this Thanksgiving, let us remember:

     Our fathers in a wondrous age,
       Ere yet the Earth was small,
       Ensured to us an heritage,
       And doubted not at all
       That we, the children of their heart,
       Which then did beat so high,
       In later time should play like part
       For our posterity.
       Then fretful murmur not they gave
       So great a charge to keep,
       Nor dream that awestruck time shall save
       Their labour while we sleep.
       Dear-bought and clear, a thousand year
       Our fathers' title runs.
       Make we likewise their sacrifice,
       Defrauding not our sons.

  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Dayton). The Senator from Delaware is 
recognized.

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