[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12452-12453]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                            INDEPENDENCE DAY

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, the Senate will shortly recess, hopefully, 
for the Independence Day holiday. Many Members will return home to meet 
with their constituents. Some will perform a time-honored ritual and 
take part in bunting-swagged Independence Day parades, sweating and 
waving from the backs of convertibles somewhere in the line-up between 
the pretty festival queens, brightly polished antique cars, flashing 
fire engines, and, hopefully, ahead of the prancing equestrian groups. 
It is an American tradition as familiar and as comforting as the fried 
chicken and the apple pie that everyone will enjoy. Families and 
friends will gather to watch the fireworks light the evening sky.
  This first Independence Day of the new millennium calls to mind an 
earlier year two centuries ago. The year was 1801. Of course, then, as 
now, there had been a hotly contested election. Control of government 
passed from one party to another. It took a vote in the electoral 
college to decide the Presidency, and the House of Representatives put 
Thomas Jefferson into the White House instead of Aaron Burr.
  Passions ran high and many strong words were uttered. Grudges were 
nursed, and we feel those same passions today, and with the recent 
change of party control in the Senate, some angry feelings have been 
fanned anew. It is, perhaps, a good time as we celebrate the 225th 
anniversary of our country's independence as a new nation, a new 
government created under God in as thoughtful and inspired a manner as 
man can devise, to recall these words from President Jefferson's 
inaugural address:

       During the contest of opinion through which we have passed 
     the animation of discussions and of exertions has sometimes 
     worn an aspect which might impose on strangers unused to 
     think freely and to speak and write what they think; but this 
     being now decided by the voice of the Nation, announced 
     according to the rules of the Constitution, all will, of 
     course, arrange themselves under the will of the law, and 
     unite in common efforts for the common good. All too, will 
     bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of 
     the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be 
     rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possesses 
     their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to 
     violate would be oppression. Let us, then, fellow-citizens, 
     unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social 
     intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty 
     and even life itself are but dreary things.

  The language that came from Jefferson's inaugural speech may be 
archaic, but the message rings true through the ages and is 
contemporary still. It reminds us of the great luxury of our liberty--
the freedom to say what we think and the ability to stand up for what 
we believe. It also reminds us of the need, then as now, to remember, 
protect, and preserve our liberty as our greatest common good. For 
that, we must stand together as a people united in, as Jefferson says 
later in his speech, ``. . . The preservation of the general government 
in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at 
home and safety abroad . . . .''
  Americans are fortune's children. We are the lucky citizens of a 
great and novel experiment in government, the golden children of a 225-
year-old alchemy that blended the best of all governmental forms into a 
wholly new metal, a grand representative government that has endured 
the trials of centuries. We enjoy power coupled with restraint; wealth 
with generosity; individual opportunity with concern for the less 
fortunate. Though at times it seems that we are consumed by petty 
squabbles or diverse interests that threaten to fragment us as a 
people, each year on the glorious Fourth of July we are given a chance 
to come together proudly as one American people, to honor, in 
Jefferson's words, ``[T]he wisdom of our sages and the blood of our 
heros . . .'' that have been devoted to the principles embodied in our 
Constitution and our government.
  This next Wednesday evening, as fireworks thunder over the Jefferson 
Memorial in Washington and are mirrored in the reflecting pond around 
it, patriotic strains will fill the air. Similar scenes will play out 
around the country. Whether in Washington or in small towns or medium-
sized cities around the Nation, or in large cities, we may all be proud 
to be Americans first and foremost. Whatever other allegiances we might 
have, to party, church, state, or community, we are Americans first. 
Let us celebrate that and let us not forget it.
  As you light your sparklers and fountains, as you hear the martial 
music of John Phillip Sousa, as you applaud the fireworks displays, as 
you eat the first sweet corn and tomatoes from the garden, look around 
you and feel proud. Be proud that 225 years ago, bold men risked their 
lives and their fortunes and their sacred honor to give us this 
wonderful system of States, this amazing governmental system, this land 
of the free, this home of the brave united as one nation under God and 
under the red, white, and blue flag of the United States of America. 
Feel glad that so many of your fellow citizens are standing at your 
shoulders watching the parade, or sitting nearby with their families 
looking up at the sky ablaze with man-made stars. In these crowds is 
our hope for a long future as a people united still under Old Glory, 
and under the Constitution of the United States.
  Mr. President, Thomas Jefferson spoke of our constitutional 
government as the ``sheet anchor'' of our peace and safety. He chose 
his nautical allusion fittingly. A sheet anchor, according to the 
Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is a noun that first appeared in the 15th 
Century. It is a large, strong anchor formerly carried in the waist of 
a ship and used as a spare in an emergency, but the phrase has also

[[Page 12453]]

come to be used for something that constitutes a main support or 
dependence, especially in times of danger. Truly, then, the 
Constitution is not just the organizing construct of our government, 
but also, as Jefferson saw it, the tool by which our Nation would 
preserve our liberties. It is fitting, then, to close with the words of 
the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who wrote about the republic in 
``The Building of the Ship.''

       Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!
       Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
       Humanity with all its fears,
       With all the hopes of future years,
       Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
       We know what Master laid thy keel,
       What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel,
       Who made each mast, and sail, and rope,
       What anvils rang, what hammers beat,
       In what a forge and what a heat
       Were shaped the anchors of thy hope!
       Fear not each sudden sound and shock,
       'Tis but the wave and not the rock;
       'Tis but the flapping of the sail,
       And not a rent made by the gale!
       In spite of rock and tempest's roar,
       In spite of false lights from the shore,
       Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea!
       Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee,
       Our hearts, our hopes, ours prayers, our tears,
       Our faith triumphant o'er our fears,
       Are all with thee--are all with thee!

  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  (Applause, Senators rising.)
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I certainly join my colleagues in 
expressing our warm appreciation for our senior colleague, our 
President pro tempore, for addressing the Senate in such a stirring 
manner. It lifts the hearts of all of us in this late hour on a Friday 
afternoon, which has, I guess, a degree of uncertainty as to the manner 
in which we are going to proceed.

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